Join the SAC team for programs and sessions throughout the conference! View where we’ll be throughout USCHA!

Join Southern Vibes on Friday Morning, September 13, and visit us in the Exhibit Hall at Booth 416!

Meet the Southern AIDS Coalition team and learn more about HIV in the South.

While at our booth, experience “Sounds of the South” a sonically immersive experience of the South. After the experience, we welcome you to share what the South means to you and be entered to win a prize!

Wednesday, September 11

Blk In the South Summit

Summit Time: 8:30 AM–5:00 PM

10:15–11:15 Plenary: Threats and Opportunities: Combating HIV in the U.S. South, Moderated by Dafina Ward, JD, Executive Director

PANELISTS
A. Cornelius Baker, Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health 

Clover L. Barnes, DC Department of Health

Tori Cooper, Human Rights Campaign Foundation 

S. Mandissa Moore O'Neal, Center for HIV Law and Policy 

Alex Santiago, Destination Tomorrow 

Rev. Cherisse Scott,  SisterReach

Reggie Smith, The Reggie and Donna Smith Foundation

A. Toni Young, Community Education Group 

The Black community in the South is encountering various challenges, such as voting rights restrictions, poverty, harmful legislation, HIV funding cuts, and HIV criminalization. At the same time, they are embracing new opportunities with long-acting injectables. Listen to passionate panelists actively addressing these challenges and seizing available opportunities.

Thursday, September 12

Opening Plenary: The South Has Something to Say!

11:30 AM–1:30 PM
Celestin Ballroom, Level 3

The South is extremely diverse, and the community is vast.  Yet in that diversity, there is a uniqueness across communities and shared experience across backgrounds and communities.  The opening plenary explores our diversity and shared experiences through the lens of Southern joy, pride, and history.  Furthermore, the plenary explores the way our communities look now and where our focus needs to be toward treating and ending HIV/AIDS while also navigating critical issues such as voting and elections, Medicaid expansion, stigma, and racial discrimination.  As a nation, we tend to segment and build silos, but the opening plenary offers an opportunity to talk about the South as a beautiful mix of all kinds of folks all trying to do this work together.  The Opening Plenary includes Dafina Ward, Executive Director & USCHA 2024 Advisory Committee Chair.

Project Disrupt Workshop

1:45–3:45 PM
Bolton 6, Level 2

Advocacy is love; a beautiful anger channeled to create a world we deserve. ViiV has a deep and longstanding commitment to ensuring that HIV is a public health priority in the South. Project Disrupt: Makers of the Movement is an immersive experience where you will not only hear from makers of these movements, where you will not only hear from makers of these movements but will be invited to embark on a personal journey from awareness, empathy, and ultimately to action and accountability. Led by Ken Williams (KenLikeBarbie), Dr. Michael Everett, and Britt Barton, Project Disrupt seeks to challenge, inspire, and re-ignite the movement maker in us all.

Featuring:

• Rev. Michael Everett, EdD, Intimacy in Color
• Ken Williams, Ken Like Barbie, and Project: Jubilation Communications Specialist and Senior Trainer, Red Sofa Designs
• Britt Barton, BBarton, Inc., Communications Specialist, and Senior Trainer, Red Sofa Designs
• Randevyn Pierre, U.S. External Affairs, Community Liaisons, ViiV Healthcare North America
• Dafina Ward, JD, Southern AIDS Coalition
• Charles Stephens, The Counter Narrative Project
• Rev. Don Abram, Pride in the Pews

Centering Voices of Color: A Southern Storytelling Workshop

4–6 PM
Bolden 5, Level 2

Stories are powerful tools of change that can be used to break barriers and shift cultures if they are authentic, engaging, and backed by truth. Often, the impactful stories that should be uplifted aren't, because of stigma based on implicit racial bias and often, regional dynamics. In this workshop, we aim to address the barriers and historical trauma that have led folks in the South to lose agency over their bodies, healthcare, and access to resources. In this workshop, we will center people of color living in the South and facilitate strategies on how to share their truth (what it means to live, work, and love), by using data and science to increase agency. The workshop will equip attendees with the tools and knowledge to enhance their abilities to engage with lawmakers with a combination of personal narratives, science-backed analysis, and statistical data.

Featuring:

• Nay Coleman, Executive Assistant

• Brady Maiden, Community Science Program Manager

• Will Ramirez, Director of Public Policy & Advocacy

Friday, September 13

Southern Vibes

8–11 AM
Imperial 5D, Level 4

Join SAC for a morning of casual conversation, networking, activities, updates, and good vibes.

Featuring:

• Southern AIDS Coalition Team

HIV 2025 & Beyond: Implications of the 2024 State & Federal Elections for Ending the HIV Epidemic

2:00–4:00 PM
Strand 10, Level 2

The workshop is a panel discussion that will delve into the potential implications of the upcoming 2024 state and federal elections on the future of HIV prevention and treatment priorities in the U.S. Recognizing the significance of diverse stakeholder engagement, this workshop aims to ensure that a broad range of voices and experiences within the advocacy community, particularly in the South, are involved in shaping policies and initiatives that address the complex challenges associated with HIV and AIDS, as we look toward this upcoming election cycle.

Featuring:

• Tori Cooper, Human Rights Campaign
• Will Ramirez, Southern AIDS Coalition, Director of Public Policy & Advocacy
• Leisha McKinley-Beach, Black Public Health Academy
• Carl Baloney, AIDS United
• Allen Morris, National LGBTQ Taskforce

Southern HIV Prevention Services: Bridging Gaps through Community Pharmacies

4:15–6:15 PM
Foster 2, Level 2

With 70,000+ locations nationwide, community pharmacies present an untapped resource for expanding access to HIV prevention services in the US South. This interactive workshop explores the role community pharmacies can play in addressing critical gaps in HIV prevention services in regions experiencing racial inequities. This session navigates strategies to broaden pharmacists' scope of practice and establish sustainable reimbursement models offering a broader range of HIV prevention and linkage to care services, including screening, PrEP, and PEP. Case studies from key Southern states spotlight collaborative efforts. These stories demonstrate how diverse stakeholders, including individuals with lived experiences, can collaborate to transform policies and enhance access to HIV prevention services. Participants will share insights and experiences to foster a dynamic exchange of ideas. The workshop will equip attendees with practical tools and knowledge to navigate policy strategies effectively, promoting a more accessible and equitable landscape for HIV prevention services in their communities.

Featuring:

• Natalie Crawford, Emory University
• Noelle Esquire, Elton John AIDS Foundation
• Will Ramirez, Southern AIDS Coalition, Director of Public Policy & Advocacy
• Sara Zeigler, Courage Forward Strategies

Community-driven Approaches to Improve Relationships Amongst Organizations Across Southern Cities

4:15–6:15 PM
Imperial 11, Level 4

This workshop will review six community conversations, all based in Southern cities, that NAACHO and Southern AIDS Coalition convened to explore emerging themes critical to their ability to reach EHE goals and the facilitators, barriers, and community engagement needs of each district. The rich dynamics of collaborations, including triumphs and critical missteps in understanding the complexity of client engagement. Within this workshop, community folks will learn how to work in tandem with each other while refocusing their efforts on the community's greater good.

Featuring:

• David Wyley Long, Southern AIDS Coalition, Special Initiatives Associate
• Darnell Barrington, NAACHO

Sunday, September 15

Gilead COMPASS Initiative® – Collective Action for Collective Impact

2:00–4:00 PM
Strand 12, Level 2

Strategies from the South's Civil Rights Movement laid the groundwork for ongoing efforts to protect the rights of the most marginalized. By leveraging the stories and experiences of grassroots organizations efforts in advocacy, education and training, direct action, infrastructure development, and coalition building are combined to end the disproportionate impact of HIV in the Southern region. The COMPASS Coordinating Center model continues this legacy of regional transformation, by using this approach in organizational capacity building, stigma reduction and culturally appropriate care; faith-based advocacy; mental health and well-being, and leadership development among HIV advocates in the Southern United States.

Featuring:

• Kia Colbert, Emory University
• Dr. Shonda Jones, Wake Forest University
• Dafina Ward, Southern AIDS Coalition
• Dr. Samira Ali, University of Houston

Sunday, September 15

Closing Plenary:The South Calls, Nosotres Respondemos El Sur Llama, We Respond

11:30 AM–1:30 PM
Celestin Ballroom, Level 3

The Southern United States sets the foundation for reaching the End HIV Epidemic 2030 goals. Uplifting and supporting Hispanic/Latine populations in the South is essential. As the South has become a new destination for many migrants, it’s also home to Hispanic/Latine Southerners with an expansive history in the region. This blend of new and established communities enriches the Southern cultural landscape but also presents unique challenges and opportunities in addressing HIV. Immigration detention, access to health care, and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation exacerbate the barriers for people living with and impacted by HIV.

Join us to learn how addressing the needs of the Hispanic/Latine communities will ensure being steps closer to ending the epidemic. Experience the culture of New Orleans with a Garifuna performance, an Afro-Latine Indigenous community that has lived in New Orleans for over 86 years, and a notable southern drag performance as we embrace diversity, unity, action, and love and leave with a renewed sense of how to serve the underserved communities in the South. The Closing Plenary includes Will Ramirez, Director of Public Policy & Advocacy.