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The National Association of People
With AIDS (NAPWA) salutes the
appointment of NAPWA Executive Vice President Stephen Bailous as Chairman of
the Washington, D.C. Eligible Metropolitan Area (EMA) Ryan White Planning
Council. Bailous was sworn in as Chairman Tuesday evening, May 8. As Chairman, Bailous
will lead the Planning Council in its work of
planning for comprehensive delivery of HIV/AIDS services and allocation
of resources across the EMA.
Bailous brings deep experience and
an extensive record of successful service to his new responsibilities with the Planning Council.
He entered the field of HIV/AIDS services in 1998, caring for his ill partner
and friends, before moving on to HIV community mobilization and service as
Horizons Community Center's Director of Operations. He moved to New York in
2003 to work for the Mayor's Office of AIDS Policy, and was then promoted to
serve as Director of PLWHA Initiatives for the New York City Department of
Health. In that capacity, Bailous coordinated consumer involvement in both the
Prevention Planning Group and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Planning Council. He
serves on the board of SMART, a community-based organization in NYC, and is a
member of National Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition (NGMAC).
Bailous joined NAPWA in 2006 as Vice
President for Community Relations, charged with providing training and
leadership development services for consumers and implementing Community
Mobilization projects. Bailous also worked with NAPWA's Capacity Building Programs
targeting HIV-positive persons and their partners and led NAPWA's highly
successful D.C. Consumer Advocacy project for PLWHA needing support to enter
and stay in care and Bayard Rustin Project promoting HIV awareness, testing,
and linkage to care among young, gay black men. Promoted to Executive Vice
President in January, 2012, he is now responsible for all areas of NAPWA's
operations.
"I'm excited to pursue this new
opportunity," Bailous stated, "because we're at such a crossroads in
health care in this country. This year's National HIV Testing Day, coming June
27, will be the most important Testing Day in years, because we know now that
treatment-as-prevention works - we can end the epidemic by extending testing
and treatment to all who need them. So this is a moment of historic
opportunity, knowing for the first time that we really can make AIDS a thing of
the past, and knowing that full implementation of the Affordable Care Act in
2014 will go a long way toward providing the resources to get the job done.
"It's also a time of
challenge," Bailous continued. " The Affordable Care Act will change
the structure of health care in America, and we have to be prepared for what
this will mean for delivery of HIV services. This is a challenging and exciting
time to be leading the Planning Council."
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
