AIDSWatch 2026 Agenda

The conference will be held at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel, 2800 Potomac Ave, Arlington, VA 22202. The schedule is subject to change.

Monday, March 16

2:30 PM – 6:00 PM — Registration Check-In
Grand Ballroom Foyer, 2nd Floor

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM — Institute Session #1

Friends of the Global Fight

Studio B

Studio D

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM — Institute Session #2

Purpose and Power

Studio B

Description: During this time of growing authoritarianism, communities across the countries have engaged in mass nonviolent resistance to protect the rights and lives of our communities and neighbors. In this session, you will learn the basics of authoritarianism and how people have resisted and fought back against it.

Studio D

Location: Amy Onorato

This PhotoVoice project that showcases portraits of women of color living with HIV will serve as both a storytelling and advocacy training platform that aligns directly with AIDSWatch 2026’s emphasis on amplifying community voices to influence HIV policy and End the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. This workshop will be designed as a dynamic, multi-component experience that combines storytelling, art, and dialogue. It will feature a photographic exhibit accompanied by audio and video recordings in which women of color living with HIV share their personal stories—reflecting on resilience, stigma, discrimination, and their hopes for an HIV cure. It will also include a moderated discussion panel bringing together women living with HIV, researchers, and advocates. This structure encourages meaningful exchange between community members and professionals, fostering mutual understanding, reducing stigma, and translating lived experience into insights that can inform both research and advocacy efforts aimed at ending the HIV epidemic.

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM — Institute Session #3

HIV & Aging

Studio D

Studio B

New Advocate Connect & Training is a foundational institute designed to prepare first-time and emerging advocates for a successful and empowering conference experience. Participants will learn what to expect throughout the conference, gain an introduction to effective advocacy on Capitol Hill, and build the skills needed to engage confidently with congressional offices. The institute will guide advocates through crafting and refining their personal stories so they are clear, meaningful, and powerful when shared with congressional staffers. Attendees will also receive important guidance on staying safe while advocating and traveling. Throughout the institute, new advocates will have the opportunity to connect with and learn alongside fellow advocates from across the country, building community and shared purpose as they step into advocacy together.

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM — AIDSWatch Welcome/Reception
Grand Ballroom

Tuesday, March 17

~7:30 AM — Breakfast
Grand Ballroom

~8:30 AM – 11:50 AM — General Session & Plenary
Grand Ballroom

12:10 PM – 1:05 PM  — Lunch & State Advocates Connect
Grand Ballroom

1:15 PM – 2:15 PM — Workshops Session #1

Un Pueblo Resiliente: Overcoming Immigrant HIV Service Access Barriers Under Trump 2.0

Studio B – Spanish Translation Available

Impacted Communities Track

Speakers: Omar Martinez Gonzalez, AIDS Foundation Chicago; Judith Montenegro, Latino Commission on AIDS; Alfredo Flores, CALOR-AIDS Health Care Foundation; Christopher J. Cuevas, AIDS United

Description: The immigrant community is facing unprecedented attacks from the Trump administration. From executive orders and legislation aimed at eliminating access to health care and other support services, eliminating access to information in languages other than English, to inhumane immigration raids in sensitive locations such as clinics and hospitals, immigrants are facing unprecedented barriers to access to care—including immigrants living with and vulnerable to HIV. This imperils our work to end the HIV epidemic in our lifetime and will create generational harm to the Latine and immigrant community. This session will discuss current and emerging policy threats facing the immigrant Latine community under the second Trump administration. Panelists will highlight strategies that are being implemented at the local level by service organizations and advocates across the U.S. to protect access to vital HIV treatment and prevention services for immigrant communities. This session will also demonstrate avenues for coalition and campaign building to ensure that immigrant voices, particularly of those living with and vulnerable to HIV, are centered.

Studio E

Movement Building and Organizational Development

Speakers: Venita Ray, AIDS United; Clifford Castleberry, AIDS United; Vienna Mbagaya, MPH, AIDS United

Description: This workshop will explore the critical role of coalition-based work in defending progress and demanding justice amid increasing political and funding threats to HIV programs across the U.S. The session will emphasize how intersectional coalitions can amplify advocacy, share resources, and strengthen movements. Participants will examine effective coalitions, the benefits and challenges of collaboration, and the strategies required to sustain partnerships in a shifting socio-political climate.

Through interactive group exercises, attendees will practice coalition-building using real-world scenarios that mirror funding cuts, competing priorities, and the realities of coordinating across diverse organizations. The session will center the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV (MIPA) and community-led organizations as essential to driving equitable policy change. Participants will also receive practical resources, including links to key readings, coalition planning checklists, and a Language Justice Toolkit to support multilingual collaboration and inclusive communication within coalitions. Participants will leave equipped with practical tools to build stronger, more inclusive networks that challenge structural inequities and advance collective advocacy toward ending the HIV epidemic in the U.S.

Studio D

Syndemics and Comorbidities Track

Speaker: Kamaria Laffrey, SERO Project

Description: Forced HIV testing during re-entry is quickly and strongly resurfacing, and it’s not about public health. It’s about control, surveillance, and punishment, showing up at a moment when public health systems are being dismantled, and communities are being pushed further into harm. We can’t afford to look away.

This interactive workshop positions participants into a guided mock re-entry experience that exposes how coercive HIV testing policies operate in real time; who they target, what they take, and why they persist. Together, we’ll name what’s at stake for Black, Latinx, trans, and low-income communities, connect incarceration to the rollback of human rights, and build real strategies to push back. Participants will practice reframing HIV testing as a right, not a mandate, and develop people-centered talking points, preparing participants to use AIDS United’s policy briefs for Hill meetings.

Join us if you’re ready to move beyond compliance, disrupt harmful narratives, and fight for an HIV response rooted in dignity, autonomy, and liberation.

Studio C

Legislative and Legal Advocacy Track

Speaker: Jordan Braxton, Vivent Health

Description: Narrative advocacy drives policy change by transforming data into compelling personal stories that create empathy, shift public perception, and influence decision-makers. By centering lived experiences, this approach challenges existing power structures and accelerates action on issues like HIV funding, health, and HIV justice. It acts as a bridge between abstract evidence and human impact. Narratives move beyond just presenting facts which often lead to greater support for policy solutions.

Sharing stories is a critical way to advocate for important issues and influence change. When it comes to advocating for HIV funding and justice, storytelling is a powerful tool. People most impacted by HIV have historically been marginalized and underrepresented in decisions that impact their lives. By sharing personal narratives, people living with HIV and their allies can bring lived experiences into spaces where policies are debated, budgets are allocated, and programs are designed. Stories can move people to action.

Studio F

Legislative and Legal Advocacy Track

Speakers: Steven Vargas, Texas Strike Force; Avery McDougle, Correct Strategies

Description: As political and social attacks threaten decades of progress in HIV prevention, care, and treatment, advocacy must shift from reactive messaging to disciplined, leadership-driven strategy. This workshop brings together messaging strategy and PLHIV-led legislative advocacy to demonstrate how movements defend hard-won gains and secure policy wins under pressure.

Participants will be introduced to a practical messaging framework that emphasizes clarity, values, and advocacy readiness, and will examine how PLHIV leadership transforms disciplined narrative into action. Using the Texas Strike Force as a real-world example, the session highlights how community-led organizing, message discipline, and direct engagement with lawmakers have produced tangible outcomes, including preserved ADAP eligibility, expanded access to treatment, and new state investments.

Rather than focusing on theory, this workshop emphasizes application. Attendees will explore how messaging choices shape trust, influence policymakers, and prepare advocates for high-stakes conversations on Capitol Hill. Through guided discussion and reflection, participants will leave with tools they can apply immediately in their own advocacy work.

When progress is under attack, advocacy cannot afford scattered messaging or symbolic leadership. Strategy and PLHIV leadership must work together. This session equips advocates with a clear framework and real-world proof to defend gains, influence policymakers, and advance justice through intentional communication and policy-focused action.

2:25 PM – 3:25 PM — Workshops Session #2

Beyond Borders: Creative Resistance and the Politics of Transnational Health Equity

Studio E

Impacted Communities Track

Speakers: Christopher J. Cuevas, AIDS United; José Rosa, AIDS United

Description: Join the Conexiones Positivas Fund for a hands-on screen printing session that transforms creative resistance into strategic advocacy.

This workshop directly addresses how the confluence of structural inequities, systemic neglect, and invisibility of Latine communities in the nation’s HIV response fuels the HIV health gap and related issues, including challenges to racial justice and achieving health equity.

We will begin by analyzing the transnational history of HIV advocacy, drawing inspiration from compelling protest visuals that span the resource-demanding ACT UP era in the U.S. and the structural resistance movements across Latin America. We’ll examine shared policy struggles and divergent tactics for achieving resource equity and advancing racial justice.

Through this focused activity, participants will use their learning to articulate the necessary structural policy solutions needed to overcome this “”cascading disaster”” of health inequities. This approach empowers the Latine community, particularly queer, transgender, and gender non-conforming leaders, to build capacity to drive that structural change.

Studio C

Impacted Communities Track

Speakers: Danielle M. Campbell, PIBA; John Meade, PIBA/AVAC; Riko Boone, TAG; Kendall Martinez-Wright, TAG

Description: Recent shifts in funding and deprioritization of diversity, equity and just access, jeopardize the tremendous gains achieved in HIV research while undermining the uptake of oral and long-acting HIV prevention options for Black communities. The first-ever National Black HIV Prevention Research Agenda is a framework developed by PrEP in Black America and strategy partners to ensure that Black communities are not only participants in research, but co-creators and leaders of it. “You Won’t Disappear Us!” is both a declaration and a call to action to disrupt systems that erase Black voices and experiences from scientific advancement; and to invest in sustainable, community-driven research infrastructures. Panelists will share how the National Black Research Agenda centers lived experience, historical context, and intersectionality as tools for transformative change. Through strategy, advocacy, storytelling, and application of the “Right to Science” principle to the context of HIV prevention research led by and focused on Black people, this session highlights actionable steps toward an equitable research ecosystem that uplifts Black researchers, practitioners, and communities. Participants will leave with tangible strategies for advocacy, messaging, and mobilization to protect and expand HIV prevention research funding and leadership opportunities for Black scholars and communities. 

Studio D

Movement Building and Organizational Development Track

Speakers: Jax Kelly, JD, MPH, MBA; Aging and HIV Institute

Description: Using California as a case study, this workshop shows how “We Exist. We Age. We Deserve to Be Named.” serves as a practical framework for advancing HIV visibility in aging systems. The Aging and HIV Institute (A&H) helped shift the state’s 2025–2029 Plan on Aging from a draft that omitted HIV and LGBTQ+ elders to a revised version that now names both. A&H also elevated HIV considerations in early Proposition 1 behavioral-health planning by ensuring long-term survivors and LGBTQ+ older adults were represented in stakeholder discussions and public comment.

Grounded in A&H’s principle of Visibility with Purpose, the workshop guides advocates to connect lived experience to federal policy opportunities. Participants will gain message-framing tools, concise storytelling strategies, and replicable approaches for influencing aging, behavioral-health, and workforce systems at the national level. The session prepares attendees for Advocacy Day by offering actionable entry points related to the HIV & Aging Act, Older Americans Act reauthorization, inclusive data collection, and provider-training standards.

The goal is simple: move from recognition to responsibility. By naming people aging with HIV—and insisting they appear in the structures that serve them—advocates of all ages help secure equity that lasts.

Studio B

Syndemics and Comorbidities Track

Speakers: Kenya Moussa, Co-Chair PWN-PA; Tana Pradia, Co-Chair PWN-TX; Grace O, Rutha, PWN-USA

Description: Harm reduction and building local community power through safety networks are essential pillars of HIV advocacy because they center survival, dignity, and self-determination within oppressive systems. Harm reduction recognizes that people living with and affected by HIV often navigate criminalization, poverty, stigma, and systemic neglect—conditions that demand compassion and practical support rather than punishment or shame. At the same time, building community power ensures that those most impacted have the tools, voice, and collective strength to challenge the policies and institutions that perpetuate harm. PWN Texas and PWN Pennsylvania chapters have used these strategies to move HIV advocacy beyond charity or crisis response toward justice, sustainability, and liberation.

In this workshop, participants will learn replicable models for building local power with directly impacted communities using successful harm reduction and reproductive justice campaigns in Philadelphia and Houston as an example. We will discuss how to build safety and community power when working with communities targeted by criminalization and state violence, such as people living with HIV and people with substance use disorder. We will provide participants with tools and strategies to implement these grassroots organizing and policy advocacy models in their own communities.

Studio F

Legislative and Legal Advocacy Track

Speakers: Liz Kaplan, CHLPI; Rachel Klein, The AIDS Institute; Leslie McGorman, AIDS United

Salon 1/2

Legislative and Legal Advocacy Track

Speaker: Josh Dubensky, SAGE; Lauren Banks, National HIV/AIDS Housing Coalition; Malcolm Reid, Unity Arc Advocacy

Description: Despite the importance of ensuring access to long-term and stable housing for those living with HIV/AIDS, shifting political views have resulted in increased resistance to housing support on the federal level. This workshop will focus on the current political landscape when it comes to housing support for the HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ+ aging communities, explore strategies for advocating for housing services across the age spectrum, and discuss how to push back against cuts in funding and overall support for HIV/AIDS housing support.

Salon 4

Impacted Communities Track

Speaker: DeOnyae-Dior Valentina

Description: Trans Futures: Storybanking Medicaid, HIV Care, and Trans Justice Under Attack centers the lived experiences of trans youth and young adults navigating the compounding harms of HIV stigma, Medicaid disenrollment, clinic closures, and attacks on gender-affirming care. Grounded in the Trans Futures National Storybank & Advocacy Toolkit, a national practicum project developed through AIDS United’s Transgender Leadership Initiative, this workshop demonstrates how community narratives can be transformed into powerful policy tools.

Participants will explore how recent policy shifts are disrupting access to HIV prevention and treatment for trans communities, particularly Black, Brown, and low-income trans youth. Through real-world case examples and facilitated discussion, the session examines ethical storybanking, narrative-based advocacy, and strategies for translating lived experience into legislative impact.

The workshop equips attendees with concrete messaging frameworks and policy-aligned storytelling tools to strengthen congressional advocacy during AIDSWatch. By centering trans people living with and impacted by HIV as leaders and evidence holders, this session advances movement-building approaches that defend progress, demand justice, and ensure HIV policy reform is informed by those most affected.

Salon 5/6  – Workshop will be conducted in Spanish

Impacted Communities Track

Speaker: Gabriel San Emeterio, LMSW

Description: Vivir con el VIH es mucho más complejo que tomar medicamentos. Para acabar con la epidemia, es necesario que las personas que viven con el VIH (PVVIH) no solo accedan al tratamiento, sino que cuenten con las condiciones que permiten sostener la supresión viral. En el contexto actual de recortes presupuestarios, desigualdades crecientes y desconfianza en la salud pública, es urgente fortalecer un movimiento político y comunitario basado en principios de justicia de discapacidad como la interdependencia, el acceso colectivo y el liderazgo de les más afectades.

Las PVVIH enfrentan tasas elevadas de dolor crónico, fatiga y discapacidad, que aumentan el estigma. Estas comorbilidades generan aislamiento y reducen la calidad de vida. Abordar estas realidades es fundamental para poner fin a la epidemia, porque ningún esfuerzo de prevención o tratamiento tendrá éxito si las necesidades de salud más amplias siguen sin ser reconocidas.

Este taller presentará marcos de justicia de discapacidad, estrategias y herramientas comunitarias que afirman la experiencia de vida de las PVVIH con el fin de fortalecer la ayuda mutua para cuidarse a sí mismes, acceder a cuidados, manejar comorbilidades y eliminar la vergüenza por vivir y envejecer con VIH y muy posiblemente con discapacidades.

3:35 PM – 4:35 PM — Workshops Session #3

Building Black Futures: Inclusive Leadership Models for HIV Prevention

Studio E

Impacted Communities Track

Speakers: Carli Gray, AIDS United; Gabriel Glissmeyer, AIDS United; Peyton Fullilove; Bridget Washington

Description: Community-led innovation is central to effective HIV prevention. This workshop examines how the Melanated Movement programs and the Transgender Leadership Initiative advances PrEP access, HIV literacy, and systems accountability through culturally grounded messaging, with peer leadership at the center. Presenters demonstrate how community-developed narratives are integrated into clinics, public health campaigns, and policy efforts. This work positions leadership development and communications infrastructure as core public health investments.

Studio C

Movement Building and Organizational Development Track

Speaker: J. Christopher Johnson

Description: Sustaining HIV advocacy requires intentional mentorship that transfers knowledge, principles, and strategic leadership across generations. This workshop highlights the essential role of seasoned, experienced, and veteran advocates in guiding emerging leaders, emphasizing the respect, trust, and accountability necessary for this handoff. Participants will explore practical strategies for designing mentorship programs that honor the expertise of veteran advocates, instill organizational values, and prepare youth to confidently carry forward advocacy initiatives. Through interactive exercises, case studies, and action planning, attendees will develop frameworks to create sustainable leadership pipelines, ensuring the continuity, resilience, and long-term impact of HIV advocacy.

Studio D

Impacted Communities Track

Speaker: Aaron Tax, SAGE

Description: As the HIV community ages, defending progress and demanding justice for older people with HIV is urgent. This moderated panel discussion will spotlight policy advocacy that centers the leadership, resilience, and lived expertise of people aging with HIV. Panelists will examine threats emerging from federal policy shifts and highlight how state and local advancements—such as inclusive long-term care and home- and community-based services protections—can model future national progress. These efforts show that while federal momentum may be stalled, community power and proactive organizing continue to build the foundation for equitable federal action when political conditions shift. A second panelist will uplift the experiences of older cisgender and transgender women, as well as gender-diverse people living with HIV, highlighting challenges such as erasure, isolation, stigma, housing instability, and limited access to gender-affirming, age-inclusive care. Their reflections will reinforce “Nothing About Us Without Us” and offer concrete strategies for meaningful engagement with policymakers. Finally, the discussion will explore how MIPA applies to aging advocates, emphasizing how lived experience drives equitable programs, stronger communities, and responsive policy. Participants will leave with actionable tools to defend progress, demand justice, and advance inclusive aging policy in their states and nationally.

Studio B

Legislative and Legal Advocacy Track

Speakers: Ronnie L. Taylor, FreeState Justice; Jada Hick, CHLP; Phillip Westry, FreeState Justice

Description: This workshop examines how Maryland achieved the full repeal of HIV criminalization laws and what it offers as a replicable model for states across the country. Participants will walk through the policy landscape that existed prior to repeal, the harms caused by outdated criminal statutes, and the advocacy strategies that moved lawmakers from incremental reform to full repeal.

The session will highlight the role of coalition building, community leadership, and lived experience in shaping legislative outcomes. It will also cover the importance of centering racial equity, transgender justice, and public health best practices, including the impact of modern HIV treatment, PrEP, and U equals U on policy arguments.

Attendees will leave with concrete tools including messaging frameworks, legislative strategy considerations, and lessons learned that can be adapted to their own state or local advocacy efforts. This workshop is designed for advocates, policymakers, legal professionals, and public health leaders seeking to advance HIV justice and end punitive approaches rooted in stigma rather than science.

Studio F

Impacted Communities Track

Speakers: Melodie KG, New Moon Network; Justice Rivera, Reframe Health & Justice Consulting; DeMarco Lord, Advocates of the South

Description: The Sex Worker Health and Harm Reduction Cohort (SWHHRC) brought together advocates and service providers from sex worker–led organizations across the United States and its territories to strengthen community leadership in HIV prevention and harm reduction. Through a six-month, collaborative process, supported by the New Moon Network and ViiV Healthcare and facilitated by Reframe Health and Justice, the cohort developed recommendations for public health programs to advance equitable, sex worker–led HIV prevention strategies. These recommendations aim to expand resources for Sex Worker Service Organizations (SWSOs), promote peer leadership, and foster meaningful partnerships that enhance services for everyone involved in the sex trade. In this workshop, the facilitators will guide participants through a deep dive into the specified recommendations and the “why” behind them. The facilitators will offer tangible ways that organizations and coalitions can implement these recommendations and advocate for policy changes that reflect them.

Salon 1/2

Legislative and Legal Advocacy Track

Speaker: Martha S. Cameron, ICW; Carl Baloney, AIDS United, Maximillian Boykin, Save HIV Funding Campaign; Shannon Kellman, UNAIDS

Description: The current administration has initiated a new era which has deeply challenged long standing principles of humanitarian aid and “nothing about us without us.” Lack of understanding of key components of success for HIV programs — community engagement, data driven prioritization, evidence-based interventions delivered without stigma and support for trusted community-led partners — led to the abrupt dismantling of US funded programs abroad. This also threatens domestic efforts through broad ideological attacks on all aspects of the HIV response, from basic research through services addressing the needs of LGBTQ+ Americans.

Despite facing similar obstacles and threats, US and global advocates rarely coordinate to support funding and policy asks. Open dialogue is needed to sensitize advocates across both sides of the domestic and global HIV spaces to the unique histories and contexts of their work, especially on the Hill. Better understanding of the frameworks and arguments used in these spaces could inform joint talking points that would strengthen and amplify all advocacy efforts.

This workshop will bring together key leaders in US and global HIV government relations to help strategically engage Congress and the Administration and develop narratives that mutually support US leadership to end the HIV epidemic at home and abroad.

Salon 4

Impacted Communities Track

Speakers: James Arthur, East Tennessee State University (ETSU); Richard Mutua Kilonzo, ETSU; Weston Sircy, ETSU

Description: This workshop explores how peer and community-led HIV prevention strategies are transforming access, engagement, and equity in rural America, with a focus on Appalachia. Drawing on findings from a systematic review of 15 peer-reviewed studies (2014–2025), we highlight effective models like peer navigation, social network recruitment, mobile outreach, and community mobilization that have increased HIV testing, PrEP uptake, and care linkage among rural and underserved populations. The session will showcase evidence from programs led by and for marginalized communities such as GBQMSM, TGNB individuals, people who use drugs, and youth in regions historically excluded from mainstream HIV efforts. Participants will learn about practical, replicable interventions that address social and structural barriers through trusted community relationships. We will also share policy implications, focusing on how localized, peer-anchored solutions can be supported through legislation, funding, and advocacy. The workshop will include interactive dialogue, visual data summaries, and a participatory policy-action mapping exercise to prepare participants for AIDSWatch Advocacy Day.

Salon 5/6 – Workshop will be conducted in Spanish

Impacted Communities Track

Speakers: Leslie Nallely Lira Ortiz; Mileth Canelas 

Description: Este taller es una iniciativa creada por mujeres y para mujeres, liderada por dos mujeres migrantes, madres y promotoras de salud que integran experiencia científica y vivencias personales relacionadas con el VIH. Surge del deseo de transformar la manera en que entendemos el cuidado, no solo como una responsabilidad, sino como una fuente de poder, amor propio y liderazgo comunitario.

A través de dinámicas participativas, diálogo empático y herramientas basadas en evidencia, el taller promueve la salud mental, el autocuidado y la educación sexual desde un enfoque integral, inclusivo y culturalmente sensible. El espacio invita a reflexionar sobre cómo los contextos culturales, religiosos y migratorios influyen en la sexualidad, la maternidad y la relación con el VIH, al tiempo que se comparten recursos sobre derechos, programas de apoyo y políticas de salud que fortalecen la autonomía de las mujeres.

La propuesta es educativa, inspiradora y comunitaria, y conecta el aprendizaje con la empatía, las historias de vida y el poder colectivo. Esta iniciativa contribuye a los objetivos de Ending the HIV Epidemic mediante la educación, la sensibilización y la reducción del estigma, fortaleciendo la respuesta comunitaria en torno al diagnóstico, la prevención y el tratamiento. Creemos que cuando una mujer se informa y se cuida, impacta positivamente en la salud y el bienestar de toda su comunidad.

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM — AIDSWatch Congressional Reception
Rayburn Foyer, Rayburn House Office Building

A bus will be available at 5:30PM to bring guest to the reception and will leave the reception at 8:30PM to return guests to the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel.

Wednesday, March 18

7:30 AM – 8 AM — Bus from RACV to Capitol Hill 

8:00 AM – 8:45 AM — AIDSWatch Rally 
Capital Lawn, Area TBD

9 AM – 5 PM — Congressional meetings 
Individual schedules will vary 

For any issues with Hill meetings Wednesday, please contact Soapbox directly at (202) 362-5910.

To view the agenda in Spanish, click here. / Para ver la agenda en español, haga clic en el enlace.