How to Save Your Own Life: African American Women and AIDS
The Everywoman's Center will host this lecture and discussion with guest speaker Vanessa Imelda Haley Johnson, JD. All are welcome.
According to the Center for Disease Control, African-American women represent 68% of the new HIV diagnoses among women in the United States. African-American women are 23 times as likely to be infected with the AIDS virus as white women and account for 71.8% of new HIV cases among women in 29 US states. AIDS is among the leading causes of death for African-American women and it is the leading cause of death for African-American women aged 25-34.
Vanessa Johnson has worked in the HIV/AIDS community for 10 years. She worked for the Albany Medical Center as their HIV Peer
Advocate, working primarily with women living with HIV/AIDS and joined the efforts of other area AIDS service staff to address the HIV prevention needs of African Americans living in the Capital Region of NYS. These efforts led to the creation of the Capital District African American Coalition on AIDS (CDAACA) in 1999, of which she is now the Deputy Director. She currently serves as Chair for the Board of Directors for the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA). Founded in 1983, The National Association of People with AIDS advocates on behalf of all people living with HIV and AIDS in order to end the pandemic and the human suffering caused by HIV/AIDS. She is a 1990 graduate of Temple University Law School and was diagnosed with HIV in October of 1990. Co-sponsors include the Graduate Women's Network, the Women's Health Project and the Women of Color Leadership Network.