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Are You the HIV-Positive Leader of Tomorrow?

Are You the HIV-Positive Leader of Tomorrow?

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The National Minority AIDS Council has spun off a new division, the Leadership Pipeline, which hopes to educate, train, and inspire new and existing leaders of color to fight for racial justice in order to end the HIV epidemic.

The recent National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), have spun off a new division, the Leadership Pipeline, and tapped Jacqueline Coleman to lead it.

In a press release, Coleman noted that her role is “is to educate, train, and inspire new and existing leaders of color who will fight for racial justice in order to end the HIV epidemic in America.”

Coleman, who serves as Executive Director of the Southern AIDS Coalition is very familiar with the issues facing communities of color who have been hit the hardest by HIV.

Previously Coleman served NMAC’s Director of Technical Assistance and Training, led hundreds of trainings on leadership development and change management. Now she’ll use those skills to inspire discussions about race, gender, HIV status, sexual orientation, and more in order to develop concrete solutions to break down barriers to ending the epidemic in America. 

The Leadership Pipeline plans to integrate best practices from business management, organizational psychology, and other disciplines to pave a clearer path toward enriched leadership.

The Leadership Pipeline hopes to examine how racism impedes our ability to end the HIV epidemic in communities of color (which is currently disproportionately impacted by HIV in America) and it has recruited Jesse Milan Jr., JD and Earl Fowlkes to help bring gay and bisexual men of color to the leadership table. A gay black man living with HIV, Milan has been project director of the CDC’s Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative, served as chair emeritus of the Black AIDS Institute and co-chair of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention and Treatment. Fowlkes is President of the Center for Black Equity.

Coleman says the Leadership Pipeline will also recruit youth, women, transgender men and women, and—of course--people living with HIV—and then connect those new recruits with people already working in community based organizations, health departments, community health centers, churches, and other organizations on the frontline of the fight against HIV.

While the more experienced leaders they've recruited mentor, coach and advise new arrivals in best practices, the Leadership Pipeline also plans to create innovative social media campaigns, develop new interactive tools, convene community dialogues; and host USCA programs and other special events

“With this innovative initiative,” Coleman says, “We seek to raise the bar, to raise our hope, and to inspire our community. We will forge ahead envisioning an evolving, multi-generational, multi-dimensional response that get us to the finish line.” 

Until the day a cure for HIV is found, Coleman says, “I choose to seize every day as an opportunity to get one step closer to this dream…Until we overcome social and racial injustices—until we achieve health equity – until we relieve the suffering of an HIV/AIDS diagnosis, our work is not done.”

For more information about The National Minority AIDS Council and its Leadership Pipeline visit https://NMAC.org.

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