The San Francisco AIDS Foundation Podcast

SFAF.org Podcast #58 - A Federal HIV/AIDS Update with Ernest Hopkins

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:55:21 PDT

In this episode Ernest Hopkins, the Foundation's Director of Federal Affairs, talks about the Obama administration's progress on the National AIDS Strategy, the recent White House reception with LGBT leaders on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the progress being made toward lifting the US ban on HIV-positive foreign travelers.

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Ernest Hopkins is responsible for implementing the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's federal policy advocacy agenda. He is a well-known HIV/AIDS advocate and was instrumental in the passage of the current Ryan White CARE Act. Mr. Hopkins has led the advocacy efforts of the CAEAR Coalition and the National AIDS Housing Coalition and is a founder of the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition.

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SFAF Podcast #57 - Advocacy Still Works: State Budget Escapes Knife…so far

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:14:05 PDT

HIV/AIDS services in California narrowly escaped draconian cuts in the first budget the governor sent to the State legislature. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation and peer organizations all over the State went to work immediately to fight cuts to prevention, HIV testing, surveillance and treatment for more than 35,000 Californians. In this episode of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation podcast, Peter Taback shares details of the current budget compromise and reminds us that basic advocacy tools are still effective.

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Peter Taback is Vice President for Communications and Marketing at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, responsible for cultivating external audiences to understand and support the Foundation's mission, access the Foundation's array of services, and increase awareness about HIV/AIDS in the Bay Area and globally. Peter previously served as Director of Communications at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, in New York and is a founding member of the Caucus for Evidence-Based Prevention.

SFAF.org Podcast #56 - Governor's Budget Cuts HIV Prevention Funds

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:00:48 PDT

In this episode, a discussion about the revised California state budget with Courtney Mulhern-Pearson, the Foundation's Legislative and Policy Associate. Governor Schwarzenegger's current buget revision cuts all state funding for HIV prevention and education. Find out what effects this may have and what can be done to help restore the funding.

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Courtney Mulhern-Pearson is responsible for monitoring, analysis and advocacy on a range of HIV-related public policy initiatives at the federal, state and local levels of government. Prior to joining the Foundation, Mulhern-Pearson worked for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she led outreach efforts on the Medicare part D drug benefit targeting HIV providers. She received her Masters in Public Health with an emphasis on Health Policy and Management from the University of California, Berkeley.

SFAF.org Podcast #55 - The intersection of biomedical HIV prevention and social justice

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:31:22 PDT

In this episode, we'll hear an edited excerpt from our recent HIVision forum entitled “Is HIV Treatment HIV Prevention?” An audience member asked our panel about possible disparities in access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). We'll hear Dr. Robert Grant's answer explaining the relationship between biomedical HIV prevention and issues of social justice and stigma.

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HIVision is an ongoing forum series bringing research and evidence to bear on timely policy and programmatic issues. As thinking on HIV/AIDS continues to evolve, HIVision provides a safe venue to engage the community on potentially controversial topics. For the full audio recording of this HIVision forum and downloads of the supporting documents, please visit our web site at http://www.sfaf.org/hivision.

SFAF.org Podcast #54 - Dr. Das-Douglas discusses lowering community HIV viral load to help prevent new infections

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:45:31 PDT

In this episode, a discussion with Moupali Das-Douglas, M.D., M.P.H. She is the Director of the Research Unit of the HIV Prevention Section at the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases at UCSF. We'll be talking about her research on community HIV viral load and why just getting people on HIV meds isn't enough. Even in San Francisco, health disparities often related to factors including race, poverty and homelessness contribute to much higher viral load in some communities.

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Dr. Das-Douglas is an internist and infectious diseases/HIV specialist at Ward 86 and at San Francisco General Hospital. Her research interests are best described as the evaluation of public health interventions to prevent HIV acquisition and transmission. She has developed a novel population-based biomarker, community viral load, to measure the success of both HIV prevention and treatment interventions within a particular community. She is currently studying whether differences in community viral load predict disparities in HIV incidence among different neighborhoods in San Francisco. She is applying advanced geospatial analytic methods to better understand the structural factors that affect the geography of HIV transmission.

SFAF.org Podcast #53 - BETA editor Reilly O'Neal on curbing the spread of HIV through treatment

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:41:52 PDT

In this episode, a discussion with Reilly O'Neal, editor of BETA, the Foundation's Bulletin of Experimental Treatments for AIDS. Recent studies offer evidence and raise questions about the role of antiretroviral medications in curbing the spread of HIV. Questions such as "Are HIV-positive people who take antiretroviral drugs less likely to transmit the virus?" Find out what's being done to answer these questions and the relationship between HIV treatment and HIV prevention.

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You can join the discussion on these issues at our HIVision forum in San Francisco on Wednesday, April 29th entitled "Is HIV Treatment HIV Prevention?" For more information or to RSVP for this event, visit the HIVision page on sfaf.org.

Prior to joining the Foundation, O'Neal was the managing editor of Studies in Comparative International Development, a quarterly journal exploring political, social, and economic issues—including drug patenting laws—in developing countries. She holds a master's degree in biomedical anthropology.

SFAF.org Podcast #52 - HIV meds for HIV prevention? Dr. Bob Grant discusses global PrEP studies.

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:28:58 PDT

In this episode, Dr. Bob Grant, Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF and an investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, discusses the PrEP Initiative study. These trials are trying to determine whether HIV medications given to HIV negative people at higher risk of infection will help reduce the amount new infections.

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Dr. Grant will be a speaker at our HIVision forum in San Francisco on Wednesday, April 29th entitled "Is HIV Treatment HIV Prevention?" For more information or to RSVP for this event, visit http://www.sfaf.org/hivision.

Dr. Bob Grant has 26 years of experience with AIDS research and clinical care. He is currently the protocol chair for the PREP Initiative study, a global clinical trial of PrEP among men and MTF transsexual people who also receive standard prevention care. The study is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health with co-funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The study is enrolling in the United States, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa, and Thailand.

SFAF.org Podcast #51 - Dr. Marsha Martin explains why we need universal HIV testing

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:42:59 PDT

In this episode, Dr. Marsha Martin, the Director of Get Screened Oakland, discusses why everyone should get an HIV test. Nationally, one in four people who are HIV positive do not know it. One of the strategic goals of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation is to have every San Francisco resident between 13 to 64 know their current HIV status by 2015.

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Dr. Marsha Martin was the architect of the first city-wide testing program in Washington DC. She was also the special assistant on HIV/AIDS policy to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Donna Shalala under President Clinton. Before joining HHS, Martin was the coordinator for homeless veterans' initiatives at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the executive director of the Federal Interagency Council on the Homeless at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Martin earned her BA in psychology and Masters of Social Work from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, and her Doctorate in Social Work from Columbia University, New York, New York.

SFAF.org Podcast #50 - Transgender MSM at greater risk for HIV

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:31:59 PST

In this episode, a discussion with Dr. Jae Sevelius, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. Dr. Sevelius recently completed a study on transgender men who have sex with men which sheds light on high-risk behaviors in a community that is difficult to reach. We'll talk about why we may see a rise in HIV prevalence among these men in the near future and what can be done to prevent it. For additional information, read the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s HIV Evidence Report on factors that contribute to disproportionate HIV prevalence in the transgender population.

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Dr. Sevelius is the Principal Investigator of an NIH/NIMH-funded project to develop a culturally specific HIV prevention intervention for transgender women and the Co-Principal Investigator of the Transitions Project, which provides capacity building assistance and technical assistance to community based organizations to promote knowledgeable, sensitive, and effective HIV/AIDS prevention for transgender communities of color and transgenders living with HIV. She is also Co-Principal Investigator of the Center of Excellence for Transgender HIV Prevention, a statewide effort to provide leadership, capacity building, professional training, policy advocacy, research development, and resources to increase access to culturally competent HIV prevention services for transgender people in California.

SFAF.org Podcast #49 - Changing CA phlebotomy laws to increase HIV testing

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:53:55 PST

In this episode, Courtney Mulhearn-Pearson, the Foundation's Policy and Legislative Associate, explains about how California's current phlebotomy laws may be hampering efforts to increase HIV testing in the state and what the Foundation is doing to help to change this. In 1999, California required anyone doing finger-prick blood testing to obtain a limited phlebotomy certificate.

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SFAF Podcast #48 - Dr. Robert Fullilove on the state of US Black HIV/AIDS prevention

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:10:31 PST

In this episode, a discussion with Dr. Robert Fullilove, the Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs and Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University. February 7, 2009 will mark the ninth National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Dr. Fullilove talks about the progress being made in HIV prevention for African Americans and where programs are still falling short.

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Robert E. Fullilove, EdD currently co-directs the Community Research Group at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University along with his wife, Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD. They are also co-directors of a degree program in Urbanism and the Built Environment in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health.

SFAF.org Podcast #47 – Dr. Kathleen Clanon on making the most of medical visits

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:19:04 PST

In this episode, Dr. Kathleen Clanon will be discussing the best ways for people with HIV and their health care providers to make the most of their time together. Dr. Clanon is an internist specializing in the care of people with HIV and she practices at Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland, where she is also the Medical Director of HIV Services.

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Dr. Clanon co-wrote an article for the upcoming Winter 2009 issue of BETA, the Foundation's Bulletin of Experimental Treatments for AIDS, entitled "Making the Most Out of Your Medical Visits." In addition to taking care of patients and directing HIV programs, Dr. Clanon works as a teacher and is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCSF and director of the East Bay AIDS Education and Training Center.

If you'd like to be notified when new issues of BETA become available, sign up for the BETA email list in the San Francisco AIDS Foundation Action Center at action.sfaf.org. To read the current issue of BETA online or browse the archive of past issues, visit sfaf.org/beta. For a free subscription to the print edition, call 415-487-8060 or email your request to beta@sfaf.org.

SFAF.org Podcast #46 - Mark Cloutier on Obama and a National AIDS Strategy

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:11:03 PST

In this episode, a discussion with Mark Cloutier, the Foundation's Chief Executive Officer. We'll take a look ahead and find out what effects the incoming Obama administration may have on the fight against HIV/AIDS here in the United States in 2009.

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In addition to more than 20 years of public policy and legislative affairs work in the health arena in San Francisco, Sacramento and Washington, D.C., Mark Cloutier has extensive training and experience as a bioethicist. He has consulted with a wide array of health care organizations in the public and private sectors to address ethical issues in service delivery systems, pricing structures, benefits coverage and application of medical technology.

SFAF.org Podcast #45 - Milk's legacy: Gay activism and HIV/AIDS

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:38:06 PST

Harvey Milk stands proudly over the gay community as a spiritual leader and now, literally, in a poster from the new film "Milk" rising four stories above Castro Street. In this episode, we talk about the activism Harvey Milk and others cultivated with Kevin Roe, Associate Director of Magnet, the Foundation's gay men's community health center in the Castro. A hub for the gay rights movement in the 1970s and community mobilization for the fight against HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, the Castro has again been the center of demonstrations against the passage of Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in California.

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Kevin Roe is an HIV+ native of the Bay Area, he has worked in San Francisco and its Gay Community for over 25 years on issues including community safety, anti-gay violence, HIV prevention and treatment, and HIV prevention community planning. He has a Masters in Public Health and has presented nationally on gay men's health and Magnet's programs and services.

SFAF.org Podcast #44 - Dr. Judith Auerbach on the Obama administration and HIV/AIDS

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:49:07 PST

In this episode of our bi-weekly podcast, Dr. Judith Auerbach, the Foundation's Deputy Executive Director for Science and Public Policy, discusses how the Obama administration's HIV/AIDS plan will impact the fight against HIV/AIDS. President-elect Obama campaigned on a promise of implementing a National AIDS Strategy and Dr. Auerbach explains the effect this could have on HIV science and policy.

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Dr. Judith Auerbach is responsible for developing, leading, and managing the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's local, state, national and international policy agenda. Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Auerbach served as Vice President, Public Policy and Program Development at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

SFAF.org Podcast #43 - Sexual identity clouded by abuse and trauma

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:00:52 PDT

In this episode, we'll hear an excerpt from our recent HIVision forum entitled Abuse and Trauma: Lessons for HIV prevention and care. Moderator Michael Siever asked the panel how gender and sexuality interact with trauma, abuse and HIV. This epsisode includes commentary from three of the panelists, Cheryl Gore-Felton, Ann Brennan and John Williams.

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HIVision is an ongoing forum series bringing research and evidence to bear on timely policy and programmatic issues. As thinking on HIV/AIDS continues to evolve, HIVision provides a safe venue to engage the community on potentially controversial topics. Visit the HIVision forum archive at http://www.sfaf.org/hivision.

SFAF.org Podcast #42 - Dr. Cheryl Gore-Felton discusses trauma and HIV: an unhealthy intersection

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:38:44 PDT

In this episode, we'll be talking with Dr. Cheryl Gore-Felton about abuse and trauma and how they affect the health of people living with HIV and AIDS. Dr. Gore-Felton is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center, and the director of clinical intervention research with the Center on Stress and Health at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She will be a panelist at our upcoming HIVision forum entitled "Abuse and Trauma: Lessons for HIV Prevention and Care." To RSVP for this free forum in San Francisco, please call 415-487-3073 or email hivision@sfaf.org.

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Cheryl Gore-Felton, Ph.D., received her doctoral degree in counseling and health psychology from Stanford University. She is a licensed psychologist whose research interests have been shaped in behavioral medicine working with patients suffering from chronic, life-threatening illnesses and trauma experiences. An NIH-funded researcher who generally focuses on the biopsychosocial sequelae of trauma, her HIV-related research examines the intersection of trauma and HIV with special emphasis on the development and evaluation of secondary prevention interventions. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, chapters, abstracts, and treatment manuals.

SFAF.org Podcast #41 - Gay men, abuse and trauma: Dr. Michael Siever on breaking the links to HIV and drug abuse

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:45:48 PDT

In this episode, Dr. Michael Siever, the Foundation's Director of Behavioral Health Sciences and the founder of the Stonewall Project, discusses the effects of abuse and trauma among gay men. Studies have shown that links exist between abuse and trauma and a greater potential for drug abuse and increased HIV risk behaviors.

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Dr. Michael Siever is a licensed psychologist with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. He has a long history of community activism as a gay man living with HIV and as an advocate for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities with the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

SFAF.org Podcast #40 - HIV and the election: a legislative update with Ernest Hopkins

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:03:55 PDT

In this episode, Ernest Hopkins, the Foundation's Director of Federal Affairs, gives an update on the progress of current HIV-related legislation in Washington. With the elections less than two months away, Ernest gives an outline of the key HIV policy differences between the Republican and Democratic party platforms and an update on the progress of the federal needle exchange bill.

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Ernest Hopkins is responsible for implementing the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's federal policy advocacy agenda. He is a well-known HIV/AIDS advocate and was instrumental in the passage of the current Ryan White CARE Act. Mr. Hopkins has also led the advocacy efforts of the CAEAR Coalition and the National AIDS Housing Coalition. Ernest is a founder and current Vice Chair of the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition.

SFAF.org Podcast #39 - Magnet finds acute HIV infection with RNA testing

eireland@sfaf.org (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:58:44 PDT

In this episode, Tim Ryan, a registered nurse and the clinical services manager at Magnet, the Foundation's gay men's sexual health clinic, talks about what Magnet's doing differently to encourage sexual health in San Francisco's gay male community and why RNA testing for HIV may reduce HIV infection rates with early diagnosis of acute HIV infection. Recent studies suggest that acute HIV infection may be responsible for up to 50% of new HIV infections in San Francisco.

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Tim Ryan, MSN, RN is the Clinical Services Manager at Magnet. He has been in the nursing profession for the last 27 years, and his background includes 10 years working in critical care in a Level I Trauma Center in Indiana, two years in infectious disease STI/HIV, and working as the director of nursing at Indiana’s first HIV-long term care facility. Ryan is very proud of the team at Magnet, who refer to him as “Nurse Tim.” Magnet’s highly dedicated staff and volunteers are expected to provide services to over 7,500 San Francisco Bay Area individuals this year.