ARC AIDS vigil at the Federal Building in San Francisco, 1988; photographer unknown, Collection of AIDS-Related Photographic Negatives (1999-50), GLBT Historical Society.
This event will take place online. Please scroll down to “How to Participate” for more information. You will need to register through the Veevart link so that we can send you the Zoom link for the event. The event will also be livestreamed, and then archived, on our YouTube page at https://bit.ly/2UyGVbG.
In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, healthcare workers were on the front lines fighting to save the lives of their patients stricken with an unknown, infectious disease. This panel brings together healthcare veterans and younger professionals to talk about providing care for people with HIV/AIDS and the lessons that might be applied with COVID-19.
“Fighting Back” is an intergenerational discussion that brings together community leaders, experts, historians and activists to explore lessons from the past that might be useful in formulating “resistance” efforts today.
SPEAKERS
Terry Beswick (moderator) has served as executive director of the GLBT Historical Society since 2016. At the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, he was a founding member of the local ACT UP and was the first national coordinator of ACT NOW, the national AIDS activist network. He advocated for HIV/AIDS research and treatment with Project Inform, the Human Rights Campaign and the White House Office of HIV/AIDS Policy. After the advent of effective treatments for HIV, Beswick worked as a journalist for the Bay Area Reporter and other LGBTQ community publications. More recently, he spearheaded a successful campaign to save and renovate the Castro Country Club for the queer recovery community and co-founded the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District. He holds an MFA in playwriting from San Francisco State University. Beswick has been named a Community Grand Marshal for the 50th Anniversary San Francisco LGBTQ Pride Parade and Celebration in 2020.
Alison Moed is a New York native who moved to San Francisco in 1979. She was one of the original 12 nurses who in 1983 opened the first AIDS unit in the world, Ward 5B, at San Francisco General Hospital. She became Nurse Manager of the unit and worked there for seven years. She is retired now, sheltering at home in San Francisco and seeking ways she can be of help in the current pandemic.
Michelle Roland was a founding member of ACT UP SF. Since then, she has worked at and done clinic research (in solid organ transplants and PEP) through the HIV program at San Francisco General Hospital for 17 years; directed the state Office of AIDS from 2007-2011; and administered global public health programs and participated in health diplomacy as the Center for Disease Control Country Director in Tanzania and then Botswana over 7 and a half years. A year ago she moved to Jackson CA to be a rural primary care internist to largely elderly patients.
Lance Toma is the CEO of San Francisco Community Health Center (formerly API Wellness), an LGBTQ and people-of-color health organization that believes everyone deserves to be healthy and needs access to the highest quality health care. He has served as co-chair of the San Francisco HIV/AIDS Providers Network for the past seven years. He is the vice president of the board of directors of NMAC (formerly the National Minority AIDS Council). He also serves on the board of CenterLink because he cares deeply about how LGBT community centers across the country advocate and contribute to the vitality of our community.
Guy Vandenberg has worked as an activist, clinician, and director of programs providing services for injection drug users, sex workers, incarcerated persons and homeless people living with HIV since 1985. A former Ward 5B nurse, he has also worked as a consultant for HIV care in prisons and jails across the U.S., and spent ten years providing training and technical assistance with the rollout of antiretroviral treatment in Eastern and Southern Africa, focusing primarily on the diagnosis and treatment of infants and children. Currently, Vandenberg works at UCSF’s HIV clinic at San Francisco General Hospital, Ward 86. BHe provides care coordination, triage and urgent care, conducts a monthly reproductive health clinic for individuals and couples affected by HIV, and facilitates the clinic’s Opiate Prescribing & Pain Management Committee.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
This event will take place online. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the webinar as an attendee.
Attendees will be able to participate as a virtual audience by asking questions, participating in polls and chatting with one another and panelists.
We will also be livestreaming this event on the GLBT Historical Society YouTube channel and linking to the video on social media.
ADMISSION
Free | Suggested donation of $5.00
Register online here: https://bit.ly/3c1FTeb
The event is limited to 500 attendees.
JOIN THE GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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