Serving an Expanding Community: How a free HIV Clinic Transformed into a full Community Health Center

Starting with a discussion of the history and development of the Whitman-Walker Health center in Washington, D.C., this talk will explore how a free HIV clinic, founded in the 1980s in response to the AIDS epidemic, transformed over the course of several decades into a full Community Health Center. More generally, the talk will address the relationship between HIV/AIDS activism, along the lines of Queer Nation and ACT UP, and the creation of community health programs to serve, first, sexual minorities, and later, a wider cross-section of underserved urban populations. The speaker will draw both from his professional experience as Director of the Medical Adherence Unit, Community Health Division, Gay Men's Health and Wellness Clinic, at the Whitman-Walker Health center, and his personal experience as a HIV+ openly gay man who has worked in HIV prevention and treatment for over 20 years.