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Kim L. Hunt Kim has a 30-year career that spans the public, private, and nonprofit sectors with a focus on advocacy and nonprofit management. She is currently the executive director of Pride Action Tank (PAT), a social justice lab devoted to improving outcomes for LGBTQ communities through a collaborative process of inquiry, advocacy, and action. PAT is a project of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, where Ms. Hunt also serves as an advocacy advisor. She is a co-host of a monthly LGBTQ storytelling event, political columnist for a quarterly gay men’s fashion magazine, and a member of various boards and advisory councils. Contact Kim at KHunt@aidschicago.org. |
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Nadeen Israel Nadeen has spent the last decade in the health policy and advocacy field in Illinois, working closely with other advocate and activist leaders across the state on issues impacting the Medicaid program, Affordable Care Act, mental health and substance use system, housing, and state budget and tax policy. Nadeen previously served as the Director of Policy & Advocacy at EverThrive Illinois, where she led the organization’s policy development and implementation efforts on issues that focused on maternal, child and adolescent health, including school-based health centers, immunizations, and maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. One of Nadeen’s proudest accomplishments in her state-level advocacy work is collaborating with health policy leaders across the state in a coalition that successfully advocated for legislation to expand the IL Medicaid Program, which granted health care access to an estimated 650,000 Illinoisans experiencing financial hardship. Nadeen holds a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration in Social Policy and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Business Administration. Contact Nadeen at NIsrael@aidschicago.org. |
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Timothy Jackson Timothy’s work at AFC includes developing and managing the organization’s government relations activities specializing in HIV-related state legislative matters regarding appropriations, health care reform and policy issues impacting the social determinates of health and health disparities. He brings extensive experience in HIV advocacy, grassroots organizing, political campaigns and lobbying to the Policy and Advocacy team. Timothy was born and raised in the Deep South and recently served as a staffer to a Member of Congress prior to joining AFC. He also had the privilege to serve as Board President for Thrive Alabama—an AIDS Service Organization and Federally Qualified Health Center providing medical and support services care to the people of north Alabama. His career is centered on a promise made to a late aunt who died from AIDS-related complications that he would spend the rest of his life advocating on behalf of people living with HIV and amplifying their voices. Timothy is a proud Political Science alum of Mississippi State University. Hail State! Contact Timothy at TJackson@aidschicago.org. |
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Jackie Thaney Jackie has over 20 years’ experience working in the nonprofit community as an administrator and event planner. She managed the vendor fair at the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago, and was the volunteer bus coordinator for the 2013 March on Springfield for Marriage Equality. Jackie enjoyed the opportunity to help with the organization and logistics at AFC’s 2015 Advocacy Days and is looking forward to assisting with more AFC Policy and Advocacy events. Contact Jackie at JThaney@aidschicago.org. |
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Omar Martínez González Omar brings to the role almost two decades of experience in the HIV field. He specializes in prevention and linkage to care, social determinants of health, barriers experienced by undocumented and immigrant populations, LGBTQ+ health and wellness, PEP/PrEP access and retention, and the molecular biology of HIV infection and biomedical interventions. He has coordinated programs for the Latinx and LGBTQ+ community in Chicago, IL and Boston, MA, focusing on increasing access to HIV testing and linkage to PEP/PrEP to prevent HIV. As an immigrant, he has experienced first-hand the barriers to accessing quality and culturally-oriented health care and HIV prevention services, and his experience has instilled in him a passion for advocacy and the empowerment of underserved communities. Omar is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology where he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biology. |
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Christian Castro Christian is a human rights activist and community mobilizer. Christian has a long history of training, inspiring, and championing volunteers, students, and community leaders. Most recently, he served as a Research Project Manager at the Institute of Sexual Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) at Northwestern University. In that capacity, he coordinated the RADAR project, a NIH-funded study that is the largest longitudinal cohort of YMSM, young transgender women and nonbinary people ever conducted. Christian currently serves as a steering committee member on the Illinois HIV Action Alliance (IHAA), which successfully mobilized to repeal an outdated and harmful HIV criminalization law that discriminated, prosecuted, and incarcerated people living with HIV (PLWH). |
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Dominique Chew Dominique received her M.P.P. at DePaul University, and her B.A. in English at Goshen College with minors in Gender Studies and Theology. She has extensive experience in training and facilitation, education, and advocacy. Prior to this role, Dominique worked at AFC in a different capacity - with the Ryan White training team, organizing and facilitating trainings for AFC's case management cohort. She is now excited to mobilize the GTZ-IL community across the state to play a role in getting to zero. |
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Aces Lira Aces serves as a project manager focusing on legislative, policy, and administrative advocacy responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Illinois. Working closely with the Getting to Zero IL initiative, he focuses on the efforts to increase access to HIV prevention and treatment services and supports, including implementation of Rapid Start interventions across the state. In this role, Aces is excited to witness community members, throughout the state, take ownership of the Getting to Zero IL initiative, and support major legislative wins in Springfield! As a social worker by training, Aces has direct service experience in education, child welfare, and migrant aid which informs his policy advocacy work. Aces previously worked as the Economic Security Policy Fellow at Heartland Alliance, where he advocated for legislative and administrative intervention regarding the TANF and SNAP program. Aces holds a Master of Arts in Women Studies and Gender Studies and Master’s in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago. |
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Iana Amiscaray Iana Amiscaray assists with the management and implementation of major initiatives and programs. Her primary responsibility is to the Learning Collaborative, an initiative to increase the capacity of federally qualified health centers to provide culturally responsive HIV treatment and prevention services. Iana also assists in the coordination and development of Pride Action Tank programming, such as OUTAging, the Community Restroom Access Project (CRAP), and other working groups. She spent the first few years of her post-undergraduate career as an educator, editor, and fashion stylist, and now holds a Master of Education in Education Policy & Leadership. Iana is deeply committed to social justice, whole-person approaches, healing as a key part of leadership, and transformative education. She strives to incorporate these values in all the spaces she engages in, and especially in progressing AFC's and PAT’s mission to improve the health, safety and progress of the LGBTQ+ community. |
