The following symbol denotes F/C AETC Faculty.

Speakers

Keynote: The National HIV/AIDS Strategy
William D. McColl, Esq., the Political Director of AIDS United, has worked on HIV/AIDS, alcohol and other drug treatment, and criminal justice reform issues for nearly 15 years.  He was also Political Director of AIDS Action which merged with the National AIDS Fund to form AIDS United.  He has been the Director of National Affairs at Drug Policy Alliance and an Executive Director of NAADAC: The Association for Addiction Professionals.  A former Missile Combat Crew Member in the Air Force, he became a Captain in the Air Force Reserve.  He holds a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law, a master’s in International Relations from Troy State University and bachelor’s in Political Science from the University of Michigan. 

Keynote: Obstacles to Eradication of HIV through Antiretroviral Therapy
Mario Stevenson, PhD received his doctorate from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland in 1984. He performed postdoctoral studies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and was a professor at that institution from 1993-1995. He conducted a research sabbatical at National Institute for Medical Research in London in 1990. In 1995, he joined the Program in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Dr. Stevenson was previously the David Freelander Chair of AIDS Research and Director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is currently Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Stevenson’s research is aimed at uncovering the functions of viral accessory genes, mechanisms of viral persistence and immunopathogenicity, as well as cellular factors influencing virus-host cell interplay.

David Ashkin, MD, FCCP is the current Medical Executive Director at A.G. Holley State Tuberculosis Hospital at Lantana, one of the few remaining sanitarium still in operation, Dr. Ashkin is actively involved in providing care to some of the most difficult cases of tuberculosis in the state, in addition to research on new treatment options for patients with HIV and TB including multidrug resistant cases. Dr. David Ashkin, is also the Medical Director and Co-PI for the Southeastern National Tuberculosis Center.  He is a board certified Pulmonologist and Intensivist, who trained at St. Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital in New York during their outbreak of multidrug resistant tuberculosis and did his pulmonary fellowship at the University of Miami during their outbreak.  He has published extensively on the care and treatment of tuberculosis.  Dr. Ashkin also serves on Florida and national advisory panels for controlling tuberculosis and was instrumental in restructuring the Florida State Statutes to better address TB elimination. Dr. Ashkin is currently on the faculty of the Pulmonary Departments at the University of Miami, University of Florida, University of South Florida, as well as NOVA/Southeastern Medical Institutions.

Jeffrey A. Beal, MD, AAHIVS is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of South Florida’s Center for HIV Education and Research.  He is the Clinical Director for the Florida/Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Center, Medical Director of the Bureau of HIV/AIDS for the Florida Department of Health, and serves as the Project Director for the University of South Florida’s Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center (ETAC) for HRSA’s Hepatitis C Treatment Expansion Initiative Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) grant.
     Dr. Beal received his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and his medical degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.  He completed an internship in Family Practice and Internal Medicine at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa Medical College.  He completed the Internal Medicine Residency program and a fourth-year fellowship in Internal Medicine at the University of Oklahoma and then stayed on the faculty, where he developed and ran a specialized clinic for Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Gay-Related Immune Deficiency.  After 20 years in an academic, clinical research and private practice setting in Oklahoma, he relocated to Florida where he continues working in the field of HIV/AIDS focused in an administrative and educational capacity.  He continues seeing patients in primarily rural health department settings where the need is greatest.
     Dr. Beal has volunteered in Central America for the past 20 years on various medical missions.  At present he serves as Medical Consultant to JustHope, Inc., an organization that provides base community support, including health care services to residents of Chacraseca, Nicaragua. 

Belinda Beauchamp, MD Dr. Belinda Beauchamp is a professor in Pediatrics at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine and certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. Dr. Beauchamps’s experience with HIV infection in children started with her work as co-investigator of the Women-Infant Transmission Study, one of the first clinical trials dealing with the natural history of women with HIV infection and their offspring. Dr. Beauchamp also worked as co-investigator with the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trial Unit (PACTU) and, at present, is part of the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) and the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network (ATN) for HIV/AIDS Interventions. She serves as the Florida/Caribbean AETC Medical Director for Puerto Rico.

Hector Bolivar, MD Dr. Hector Bolivar is Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Staff physician and co-investigator at the AIDS Clinical Research Unit, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Research interests focus on viral genomic diversity and host susceptibility to HIV.

Deborah Cestaro-Seifer, MS, RN is an Assistant Professor at the University of the Virgin Islands.  She teaches in both the ASN Nursing Program and the RN to BSN Completion Program on the island of St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. Ms. Cestaro-Seifer’s specialty area is psychiatric nursing.  She also provides instruction to student nurses in the areas of fundamentals, medical surgical nursing, and nursing research.  She is very interested in the topics of stress management, holistic and complementary medicine and the treatment of chronic illness, including HIV/AIDS.  Ms. Cestaro-Seifer is a faculty member of the Florida Caribbean HIV/AIDS Training Center.  Her title is Clinical Nurse Education Coordinator.  In this role, Ms. Cestaro-Seifer assesses the training needs of healthcare professionals in the Territories and plans and provides training in order to support the delivery of evidenced-based care to patients infected with HIV/AIDS.

Amanda Cotter, MD Dr. Amanda Cotter is an Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN) in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami. Dr. Cotter also serves as Director of the Perinatal HIV Service within the OB/GYN Division of Research and Special Projects.

Luis A. Espinoza, MD, AAHIVS Dr. Luis A. Espinoza is Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine with a fellowship in Special Immunology HIV/AIDS. He is the Director of Inpatient Adult HIV Services in the Department of Medicine at the Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami. He has been providing care to HIV infected patients since 1992, and his current interests are HIV and aging, malignancies in HIV, and chronic hepatitis. Since 2006, he has been part of the faculty of the Florida/Caribbean AETC and has been a speaker in several HIV/AIDS related topics in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Sandy J. Estrada, PharmD, BCPS Following graduation from the University of Toledo Pharmacy School in 2001, Dr. Sandy J. Estrada completed a residency in critical care/infectious diseases and a two-year fellowship in infectious diseases, also at the University of Toledo. She is board certified in pharmacotherapy and infectious diseases. In her current position as infectious diseases clinical specialist for Lee Memorial Health System, she is co-chair of the antimicrobial stewardship committee, provides care to patients on the ID consult and HIV services and provides education related to infectious diseases issues to pharmacy and medical staff. In addition, she serves as preceptor for pharmacy students and residents and is involved with several regional and national professional organizations.

Lawrence B. Friedman, MD Dr. Lawrence B. Friedman is Director of the Division of Adolescent Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine since 1997. He is Professor of Pediatrics, maintaining a faculty appointment since 1985. He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics’ Sub-Board on Adolescent Medicine and serves on various HIV-related projects for the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. He has been involved with the care of HIV-infected teenagers and young adults since 1986, one of the longest tenures of any adolescent provider in the nation. He has participated in funded collaborative adolescent HIV research programs continually since 1994.

Carol M. Fulton, MSN, ARNP, CPNP received her BSN from Boston College and her MSN from University of Florida. She has been immersed in HIV care for 10 years as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner for UF CARES, Rainbow Center for Women, Adolescents, Children and Families working extensively with the adolescent patient population. Ms Fulton is also part of the Florida/Caribbean AETC faculty & Courtesy Faculty for University of Florida, College of Nursing. She is actively involved in Perinatal HIV Prevention through direct patient care, education and technical assistance as part of the UF Rainbow Center and the Florida/Caribbean AIDS Education & Training Center (F/C AETC) missions.

Ana Garcia, PhD, LCSW is an adjunct assistant professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases & Immunology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. She is also the Pediatric Coordinator for Ryan White Part D (Miami Family Care Program) and a Field Instructor for both the Florida International University School of Social Work and the Barry University School of Social Work. Garcia earned her PhD from Barry University in 2009, her M.S.W. from Barry College in 1981, and her B.S.W. in 1997 from Florida International University. Garcia has worked with HIV infected children and their families for more than 25 years.

Patricia Gilliam, PhD, MEd, NP, AAHIVS As Clinical Specialist for HealthHIV, Dr. Gilliam provides oversight for all clinical activities and participates in the development and delivery of clinical trainings and technical assistance to recipients of HealthHIV's outreach efforts.
      As a teacher and researcher in the basic sciences of chemistry, human physiology and nursing, she holds a Masters degree in Physiology Education from Georgia State University and a Masters degree in Nursing from Vanderbilt University.  Her PhD in Nursing Science was awarded from the University of South Florida, and her dissertation research focused on the transition of adolescents with HIV disease from pediatric to adult medical care.  Dr. Gilliam has been active in HIV education and training activities with the Florida/Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Center at the University of South Florida and has more than 10 years clinical experience as a Nurse Practitioner in Ryan White funded clinics, providing primary and HIV care. She has been a credentialed HIV Specialist since 2002.

Maribel Gonzalez, MS, ARNP, FNP-C Maribel Gonzalez is an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner at the Hendry County Health Department, LaBelle, FL. Ms. Gonzalez has been providing primary and specialty care to HIV/AIDS patients in a rural setting for the past four years. During this time, she has participated as co-investigator in the first clinical trials at the Hendry County Health Department and leads the Quality Improvement program for the Ryan White Part C clinic. She is a 2003 graduate of Florida Atlantic University.

Heidi Hammond-Epstein, RN, BSN, MPH Ms. Hammond-Epstein is Senior Community Health Nursing Supervisor for the Broward County Health Department, TB Control Program located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and is directly responsible for the treatment to cure of all active tuberculosis cases in Broward County. Ms. Hammond-Epstein also oversees the daily operation of the TB and Refugee Health clinics located in her county. She earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Psychology and a Bachelors of Science degree in Nursing from Florida State. She also earned her Master of Public Health from Florida International University in 2008. She has worked in public health throughout her nursing career, and her passion and dedication has been in the prevention and control of tuberculosis for the past twenty years.
      Ms. Hammond-Epstein also collaborates and works directly with the Bureau of Tuberculosis and Refugee Health and the Southeastern National Tuberculosis Center providing technical assistance, mentoring and educational trainings.  She has presented two tuberculosis-related poster abstracts selected by CDC at the ATS annual conference and remain actively involved in research projects. She is a member of the Florida Association of Public Health Nurses, The Southeastern American Lung Associations TB Coalition, the TB Education and Training Network, the Florida Nurses Association and the Florida Public Health Association.

Jennifer Janelle, MD Dr. Jennifer Janelle is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, Pediatric Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Florida, College of Medicine. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases and has been providing HIV care for more than 10 years. She provides care for HIV-infected patients in Columbia, Sumter and Putnam counties. Dr. Janelle is a faculty member of the Florida/Caribbean AETC and has given lectures on the clinical management of HIV in adults and participates in medical chart reviews throughout the region.

Dushyantha Jayaweera, MD, MRCOG (UK), FACP Dushyantha Jayaweera has been working in HIV for the past 20 years, and he is a Professor in Clinical Medicine at the University of Miami.  Currently, he is the Director for the HIV/HCV co-infection clinic and follows a large cohort of patients in the HIV clinic at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine/Jackson Health System.  He has been a Co-PI in one NSF sponsored and many NIH-sponsored studies in HIV. He has also been the PI of many industry-sponsored HIV studies.  Altogether, Dr. Jayaweera has published more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles in HIV and related topics. He is also the Chairman of one of the Institutional Review Boards for human subject protection at the University of Miami.

Ernesto J. Lamadrid, MD, AAHIVS is the Director of HIV/AIDS of Alachua County Health Department. He is the lead physician for the DOH Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinic for the Florida Department of Corrections, and he is the former Medical Director of the Bureau of HIV for the Florida Department of Health. He worked for the Florida Department of Corrections for twelve years serving in several positions including Regional medical executive Director of Central Florida.
     He has fifteen years of experience in HIV medicine. He is faculty for the Florida/Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Center and has spoken at local, state and national conferences on various topics of management of HIV infection.

Ann Landes, PhD is the Health Behavior Coordinator (HBC) at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida. She earned her doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology at Georgia State University and received her clinical training at the Audie L. Murphy VA in San Antonio, Texas.   As the HBC, she provides leadership in the planning, development, and implementation of various health promotion/disease prevention programs throughout the hospital and five surrounding community-based outpatient clinics. This role also requires active engagement in health behavior coaching, interdisciplinary team building, staff development activities, and program evaluation. Furthermore, Dr. Landes maintains a diverse clinical caseload, providing couples and group interventions for veterans and their spouses, for issues such as behavioral health promotion, post-deployment reintegration, and posttraumatic stress. Her clinical, research, and training interests include primary care behavioral health, positive psychology, couples and family resilience, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Robert M. Lawrence, MD Dr. Robert M. Lawrence is Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in Pediatric Immunology and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Lawrence is a specialist with 20 years of experience in Pediatric HIV, including participation with the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trial Group. He provides direct clinical HIV care for infants, children, adolescents and young adults in Gainesville, Florida and the surrounding counties as well as at satellite clinics in Tallahassee, Panama City and Pensacola.  He participates in editing the Pediatric Antiretroviral Pocket Card, HIV clinical program evaluations and educational programs, concerning primarily pediatric HIV medical care, Adolescent HIV medical care and preventing HIV Perinatal transmission.

Jorge Lujan-Zilbermann, MD, MS is an Associate Professor with the Division of Infectious Diseases, University of South Florida College of Medicine. He is a co-principal investigator for the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Group (IMPAACT) and the Adolescent Trials Network (ATN) site at the University of South Florida College of Medicine Pediatric and Adolescent HIV program.

Saniyyah Mahmoudi, MSN, ARNP
University of Florida Center for HIV/AIDS Research,
Education & Service (UFCARES)
Director of Education
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner

Iván Meléndez-Rivera, MD, FAAFP, AAHIVS has dedicated his personal effort and professional expertise to serve the HIV/AIDS patient community since 1990.  As a clinical consultant, Meléndez-Rivera has conducted numerous research studies related to various aspects of this health condition, sharing his particular vision of integrated healthcare to all his patients, students and peers.  Also, Meléndez-Rivera has advised many academic, governmental and clinical organizations that promote better education efforts, clinical research, adequate funding and better healthcare services for HIV/AIDS patients in his native country, Puerto Rico, as well as in the United States.  Among his many professional duties, Meléndez-Rivera is Professor at the Family Practice Department of the Ponce School of Medicine and also at the University of Puerto Rico – Medical Sciences Campus.  He also performs as Senior Clinical Research and Chief Medical Officer at Centro Ararat Inc., a non-profit multidisciplinary organization in service of the HIV/AIDS community based in Ponce, Puerto Rico.  He is currently acting as co-chair of the Puerto Rico HIV Medical Treating Professionals Association and Board Member of the American Academy of HIV Medicine. His publications have emphasis on HIV metabolic complications.

Joanne J. Orrick, PharmD, AAHIVE Dr. Joanne J. Orrick is Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville. She has more than 10 years of clinical experience in HIV and Infectious Diseases pharmacotherapy. She is the Training Coordinator for the Florida/Caribbean AETC subsite at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She is also an active participant in medical chart reviews around the region and conducts chart reviews specifically evaluating antiretroviral therapy and drug-drug interactions. She is co-editor of the HIV CareLink newsletter and several pocket treatment cards (ARV Therapy in Adults & Adolescents, Post-Exposure Prophylaxis, Opportunistic Infections, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in HIV) published by the Florida/Caribbean AETC.

Savita Pahwa, MD Dr. Savita Pahwa is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Pediatrics, and Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.  She is Director of patients with HIV disease in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA). She also directs one of four US immunology specialty laboratories of the IMPAACT (International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials) group sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, and she is an investigator in the clinical IMPAACT unit and the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) unit at UM. Dr. Pahwa has served as Chief of Allergy/Immunology and Director of the Pediatric HIV Program at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY, with appointments as Professor of Pediatrics at Cornell University Medical College, and Professor of Pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and the UM Developmental Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). She has been involved in HIV/AIDS treatment and research from the beginning of the epidemic and was one of the first to describe the spectrum of clinical and immunological defects in pediatric Program (SNRP).

Carlos E. Rodriguez-Diaz, PhD, MPH, CHES is a Research Fellow in the University of Puerto Rico – School of Public Health’s Division of Global Health Research at the Center for Evaluation and Sociomedical Research. Rodríguez-Díaz, a health educator by training and passion, is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) and a Certified Correctional Health Professional (CCHP) by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC). Carlos received his master’s degree in public health education from the University of Puerto Rico – School of Public Health and a Ph.D. in public health majoring in community health promotion and education at Walden University – College of Health Sciences. He is also an alumnus of the Summer Enrichment Program from the University of Michigan – School of Public Health. His current research interests include sexual health promotion, correctional health care, HIV and other STI prevention and care, and LGBT health issues.

Gwendolyn B. Scott, MD Dr. Gwendolyn Scott is Director and Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami.

Rafick Sékaly, PhD has been, for the past year, the Co-Director and scientific Director of the VGTI –Florida, and for the past 20 years, he has been a full professor at Université de Montréal. He is the Scientific Director of the National Immune-Monitoring Laboratory (University of Montreal) and the Unit 743 of Inserm (Institut national de la Santé et de la recherche médicale). Dr. Sékaly is also Associate Scientific Director (Basic Sciences and Strategy) at CHUM. He received several honors and awards, including a Doctorat Honoris Causa from Lyon University (France), the Cinader Award from the Canadian Society for Immunology (2007), and he became a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2006.  Recently he received  the Avant garde award from NIDA for his work on the HIV reservoir. Dr Sekaly has held the Canada Research Chair in Human Immunology for the past six years.  Over the past 20 years, he has generated more than $160 million in grant. Dr Sékaly obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Université of Lausanne in 1984 and went on to perform a postdoctoral fellowship, from 1984 to 1987, on immunogenetics and molecular biology of major histocompatibility complex molecules.
     As Founder and Scientific Director of the CANVAC Network of Centre of Excellence, as well as Scientific Director of Inserm Unit on Human Immunology and now in his new position at the VGTI.  Dr Sékaly has strived to improve the quality of life of Canadians by using novel technologies and a multidisciplinary approach in order to develop vaccines for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases like AIDS, hepatitis C and cancer. He is chairing more than 10 clinical trials aimed at reconstituting the immune response in HIV and HCV infected patients as well as patients with cancer.

George K. Siberry, MD, MPH Dr. George K. Siberry is Medical Officer at the Pediatric Adolescent Maternal AIDS (PAMA) Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. He is also the primary physician for children and youth with HIV infection at his weekly clinic in the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Department of Pediatrics. He earned his medical degree from the JHU School of Medicine and his MPH in International Health from the JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Siberry completed his residency training in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric infectious disease at the JHU School of Medicine before joining the faculty in 2003 as Director of the Harriet Lane Clinic and then the NIH in 2008.

Charurut Somboonwit, MD Dr. Somboonwit is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of South Florida and serves as Communicable Disease Director and Clinical Research Director for the Hillsborough Health Department. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. She also serves on the faculty of the Florida AIDS Education and Teaching Center, and she is a co-director of the Scholarly Concentration in Research for Medical Students. She is a member of the Gold Humanism Society and a lifetime member of Leadership Florida. Dr. Somboonwit was elected to faculty membership of the Alpha Omega Alpha society and recently was named among the Best Doctors in America.
     After completing her fellowship in infectious diseases in 2003, she joined the Polk County Health Department. While she remained active in teaching as a clinical faculty, she was responsible for HIV care in a large rural HIV clinic in central Florida.

Suzanne Stevens, MSW is a health services and facilities consultant with the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of HIV/AIDS.  She has a Masters in Social Work from Florida State University and worked ten years as the Director of Client Services for an AIDS Service Organization overseeing case management and direct client services.  She currently provides statewide technical assistance as it relates to HIV case management, eligibility, Medicaid and Medicare, contract implementation and developing policies and procedures.  On the weekends, Ms. Stevens also works as a social worker for an inpatient Hospice House in Tallahassee, Florida.

Mariann Suarez, PhD, ABPP, FAACBP is Head of Child Psychology and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the University of South Florida College of Medicine. A pediatric psychologist, she is Board Certified in Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology, a Fellow of the American Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology, and a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. Dr. Suarez is co-author of  Motivational Interviewing with Adolescents and Young Persons.

Debra Taylor, RN, MPA, ASQ-CQIA Ms. Taylor is a Nursing Consultant with the Bureau of HIV/AIDS of the Florida Department of Health and has more than 21 years of knowledge and experience working in a local county health department as a nurse, supervisor and clinic manager. She has been working in Tallahassee for more than four years as a nursing consultant.
      She currently develops and implements medical policies, procedures and provides HIV care and treatment guidance to the 67 County Health Departments as a registered nursing consultant. Provides technical assistance and education to medical staff, lead agencies, CHDs, and HIV/AIDS Program Coordinators; participates in site visits for evaluation of HIV/AIDS medical care delivery at the CHDs; works closely with the DOH Aids Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).  Ms. Taylor is Certified by American Society for Quality as Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence.

Michael Thompson, PharmD, BCNSP Dr. Michael Thompson is Assistant Dean for Clinical Affairs and Professor of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), Tallahassee. He has worked contractually with the Florida AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) through the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of HIV/AIDS to provide clinical services for that department through various county health department clinics. Dr. Thompson has developed a Medication Therapeutic Management Service for ADAP patients in Leon County, FL.

John Toney, MD, FACP, FIDSA is the Medical Director of the Florida Infectious Diseases Institute at the USF College of Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine, and the Director of Clinical Infectious Disease Research at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital. His research focuses on clinical STD/HIV therapeutics, investigational anti-infectives, and investigational vaccines. He is a Principal Investigator with the Shingles Prevention Study (VA Cooperative Study CSP#403) herpes zoster vaccine, the largest study ever to investigate this disease and the largest VA vaccine study ever performed (38,546 subjects overall enrolled). This data assisted Merck in receiving FDA approval for the vaccine (Zostavax) in 2006. He is PI with the SPS CSP#403c Long-Term Persistence Substudy, investigating the 10-year overall durability of patients originally vaccinated in the original VA CSP#403 trial. His research is supported by grants from the VA and pharmaceutical company contracts.  He also is the founding and current Medical Director of the Southeast Region STD/HIV Prevention Training Center, one of the CDC National Network of STD/HIV Prevention Training Centers.

Glenn Treisman, MD Dr. Glenn Jordan Treisman is the Director of the AIDS Psychiatry Program and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  Dr. Treisman is internationally known for his engaging presentations, his scholarly defense of psychiatry, and his vigorous commitment to the betterment of patient care for underserved populations.  As part of a lifelong commitment to education, Dr. Treisman directed the residency program in Psychiatry for nine years, and delivers lectures at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in courses on Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Pharmacology Clinical Skills, and the Physician in Society course, as well as lecture in the School of Public Heath. He is best known for his groundbreaking work in the field of HIV, where he has been described as “the father of AIDS psychiatry.”  He is involved in the care of psychiatrically ill HIV infected patients and has been since early in the epidemic, and has described and raised awareness of the role of mental illness as a driving force in the HIV epidemic as well as a barrier to effective care.  He is the author of The Psychiatry of AIDS, the first comprehensive textbook on the subject, as well as numerous articles on the issues of mental health in the HIV clinic.  He was recognized for this work by the American College of Physicians with the presentation of the William C. Menninger Memorial Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Science of Mental Health in 2006.  Starting with his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and his background in geriatric psychiatry, Dr. Treisman has worked at the interface between medicine and psychiatry, and has become a noted clinical expert on depression, addiction, personality disorders, chronic pain, and the interaction between psychiatric disorders and medical illness. His lectures on psychiatry and medical ethics have earned him international invitations and eponymous lectures including the prestigious Mapother lecture in London and Findling Lecture at the Mayo Clinic.

Ann Usitalo, PhD Dr. Usitalo is Assistant Professor of Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Her specialty is psychology and her clinical special interests are clinical psychology, UF Center for HIV/AIDS Research, and Education and Service. Dr. Usitalo's research special interests include stigman in healthcare, adjustment and adherence in chronic illness, and risk behaviors and mental health issues in HIV.

Todd S. Wills, MD Dr. Todd S. Wills is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine at the University Of South Florida College Of Medicine and is Director of Fellowship Training for the division.  He is actively involved in educating healthcare providers as Assistant Director of the Florida STD/HIV Prevention and Training Center, faculty member for the Florida Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Center and as Training Chief for the USF Center for Health, HIV/AIDS Research and Training (CHART) – India.  He is a core member of the newly created University of South Florida Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center (ETAC) for HRSA’s Hepatitis C Treatment Expansion Initiative.
     Dr. Wills received a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry form Rollins College in Winter Park Florida and his MD form the University of South Florida.  He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and specialty training in Infectious Diseases at USF. Dr. Wills is medical director for the monthly free hepatitis C treatment clinic at the Judeo-Christian Clinic in Tampa.

Valerie Wojna, MD is Professor of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. During her career she has been involved in patient care, teaching, and recently in clinical research. In 2001, Dr. Wojna began her career in research to study HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) in women to determine the role of sex hormones and oxidative stress on HAND. Since 2006, she has been the principal investigator of the Hispanic/Latino Longitudinal NeuroAIDS cohort women cohort for the evaluation of HAND as part of the NeuroAIDS Specialized Neuroscience Research Program (SNRP). Dr. Wojna receives funding from NIH for her studies and participates in NeuroAIDS related clinical trials.

Carmen D. Zorrilla, MD is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UPR School of Medicine. She is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Academy of HIV Medicine. She established the first longitudinal clinic for Women Living with HIV in Puerto Rico in 1987. She was the Co-PI for the PR site of the Women and Infants Transmission Study (WITS), PI for the Longitudinal Women’s HIV Clinic, (sponsored by the Research Centers for Minority Institutions- RCMI), for the PACTG protocol 386, and for several other clinical trials. She was also the PI for the Empowerment intervention study for women living with HIV as well as for women with a diagnosis of breast cancer. One accomplishment for which she feels proud is the almost zero transmission rate of HIV infection among the more than 400 infants born to pregnant women living with HIV during the past 10 years. She is the PI of the UPR Clinical Trials Unit (UPR-CTU), a merge of three clinical trials units including the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Unit (IMPAACT), the Adult Clinical Trials Unit (ACTG) and the HIV Vaccine Trials Unit (HVTN). Dr. Zorrilla has received many distinctions, such as:  listed in the 30 people to watch by POZ Magazine; the AMSA Raising Our Voices: Women Leaders in Medicine Award and a distinction from the PR HIV Treaters association. In 2009, she received the Padre Rufo Award given by the Iberoamerican Academy of Arts and Science for meritorious role in research and the Felisa Rincon de Gautier Medal given by the Felisa Rincon Foundation for her leadership and public service in the area of health. In April 2010 she was selected as Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) alumni. She also participated at a White House sponsored panel on the implementation of the HIV/AIDS strategic plan among Hispanic/Latino populations.