Anne Aslett is the global Chief Executive Officer of the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) which she has served for almost 20 years. As International Development Director to EJAF UK, she managed more than £60m in grants to programmes in Europe, Africa and Asia, before taking over the UK Foundation as its Executive Director in 2008. When the US and UK Foundations merged their operations in 2018, Anne assumed her current role.
Anne joined the Foundation from the commercial sector, where she managed a news information service for the UK leading print and electronic media, following over 5 years in print journalism and documentary film making on health and current affairs issues. She has served on a number of boards including for Comic Relief, the European Funders Group and most recently the HIV Commission.
Zachary Ford is a senior program manager at AIDS United where he oversees the organization’s harm reduction portfolio, including the Syringe Access Fund. In this role, he manages the grant-making initiative and works closely with grantees to deliver tailored technical assistance and capacity building, focusing on topics such as meaningful involvement of people who use drugs, media relations, harm reduction 101, federal and private funding opportunities, and grant writing.
Zachary contributes to research and resource development. He is a lead researcher and author on Chemsex 101: Everything You Wanted to Know (But Didn’t Know Who to Ask), The Right Hit: Developing Effective Media Strategies at Syringe Services Programs and Bringing Safer Consumption Spaces to the United States. In 2018 and 2020, Zachary compiled analytical reports on the challenges and lessons from syringe services programs in the United States using data from Syringe Access Fund grantee final reports. Zachary also contributed to AIDS United’s Meaningful Involvement of People Who Use Drugs fact sheet.
Zachary is a graduate of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. His studies focused on the sociology of human rights movements and the law and policy that propelled and/or resulted from these movements.
Mark Jenkins, a service connected disabled Veteran of the United States Air Force and Founder / Executive Director of the Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition has worked in the field of Harm Reduction and Public Health for the past twenty-three years, delivering innovative prevention/interventions to the most vulnerable members of central Connecticut communities. Mr. Jenkins started in the field as an AIDS Risk Reduction Outreach Worker (ARROW) for the Perception programs in Willimantic. In his subsequent work with Community Renewal Team (CRT) and the Hispanic Health Council he further cultivated progressive strategies for reaching
and delivering services to our most difficult-to-reach populations. Mr. Jenkins’s work in some of the most troubled neighborhoods in the state has given him a unique perspective of the history of drug trends, the dynamics of associated risks, and effective public health responses. Over a decade on the Staff at AIDS Project Hartford as a Drug Treatment Advocate providing HIV/HCV counseling and testing, syringe exchange, and other harm reduction services. Mr. Jenkins developed a service network of providers that continues to benefit both client and staff of the various providers alike. The breadth and depth of his connection with folks on the street and the service community has made Mark a well respected and widely known individual in this field. He has presented nationally and internationally about best practices for working with the drug using community.
Philomena Kebec belongs to the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and is a 2008 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School. She currently serves as a Policy Analyst for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission and the Co-Coordinator of Gwayakobimaadiziwin Bad River Needle Exchange. Gwayakobimaadizin is a community-led tribal harm reduction providing sterile injection equipment, overdose prevention, nutrition and social support to community members who use drugs in the Bad River Reservation and beyond. The program seeks to empower Anishinnabeg who use drugs to improve the public health of our community.
Daniel Jae-Won Lee is a seasoned leader in the fields of philanthropy, human rights, public health and corporate social responsibility. He is the executive director of the Levi Strauss Foundation (LSF), overseeing global grantmaking in 40 countries focused on social justice, HIV/AIDS, worker rights and well-being, employee engagement and disaster relief. He has played a lead role in the design, launch and implementation of the Foundation’s signature initiatives. Since 2010, Pioneers in Justice has invested over five-year spans in groups of nonprofit leaders of color in the San Francisco Bay Area as they seek new approaches, skills and partnerships to reshape the next wave of social justice movements.
The Worker Well-being initiative supports factory-based financial empowerment, health and family well-being and gender equality in partnership with suppliers and local community organizations. Since piloting in 2011, it has impacted more than 200,000 apparel makers in 17 countries, which represents two-thirds of the company’s product volume. In the wake of a disruptive policy environment, LSF has invested $5MM since 2017 in a Strategic Response Fund to protect the civil liberties of highly vulnerable communities in the United States and abroad – including immigrants, refugees, religious minorities and the transgender community.
Jonathan Mermin, MD, MPH, is Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention at CDC. Previously, he was Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at CDC, Director of CDC-Kenya, and Director of CDC-Uganda. He has focused his public health career on science-based, practical programs that increase health equity and decrease incidence and mortality. Dr. Mermin was an internal medicine resident at San Francisco General Hospital, and a preventive medicine resident at CDC and the California Department of Health Services. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford University School of Medicine, and received his MPH from Emory University. He is a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service.
Jesse Milan, Jr., is President and CEO of AIDS United, a national organization focused on policy, grantmaking, and capacity building. AIDS United has granted over $120 million over 30 years, and its Public Policy Council organizations and current grantees number over 300 in 40 states and territories. Mr. Milan is a lawyer whose career includes leading HIV programs and organizations at national, regional and global levels. He has chaired five non-profit boards including the Black AIDS Institute, was AIDS Director for Philadelphia, has chaired federal advisory committees, and serves currently on the Scientific Advisory Board for PEPFAR. He is a graduate of Princeton University and the NYU School of Law. Jesse is living with HIV for over three decades.
Rafael A. Torruella, Ph.D. Dr. Torruella earned his doctorate in social-personality psychology at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2010. His dissertation was titled “¿Allá en Nueva York Todo es Mejor?: A Qualitative Study on the Relocation of Drug Users from Puerto Rico to the United States. Dr. Torruella was a NIDA-funded Behavioral Science Training pre- and post-doctoral fellow from 2007 to 2011 at the National Development Research Institute (NDRI) in New York City.
Dr. Torruella presented his research at several conferences, published articles, participated as an active member of the Graduate Center’s (CUNY) Institutional Review Board, was a fellow at the Interdisciplinary Research Training Institute (IRTI) on Hispanic Drug Abuse, and is part of the board of directors of New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE). Currently he is Executive Director of Intercambios Puerto Rico, a community-based organization that offers harm reduction services and engages in pro-drug-user advocacy in eastern Puerto Rico.