HIVMA names Anna K. Person, MD, FIDSA, chair of the Board

The HIV Medicine Association is pleased to announce the election of Anna K. Person, MD, FIDSA, as the new chair of its Board of Directors. HIVMA is a community of health care professionals who advance a comprehensive and humane response to the HIV pandemic, informed by science and social justice. The Association elected a new vice chair and HIVMA representative to the IDSA Board and named four new directors.

Dr. Person is a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and director of education and faculty development in the division. In addition to mentoring fellows and leading career development workshops, Dr. Person supports faculty in becoming more effective educators and emphasizes to learners the critical connections between health policy, social determinants of health, and health outcomes — highlighting how advocacy can improve the lives of people with HIV. Her professional interests include care of transgender people with HIV, HIV clinical outcomes in Latin America, and health equity and advocacy. 

“I feel every day that what I do — caring for underserved populations and focusing on educating the next generation of leaders in the field — matters immensely,” said Dr. Person. “It’s my hope that my experiences as a clinician, advocate and leader will add to the life-changing work that is done by HIVMA. I am committed as chair to working with my fellow Board members to increase access to health care services and coverage for people vulnerable to and with HIV, and to sustain and build a robust, diverse and culturally competent HIV workforce. With the current unprecedented threats to HIV funding and infrastructure, this is more important than ever.”

Alice C. Thornton, MD, FIDSA, was elected to serve as vice chair. She is a professor of medicine with tenure and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, and faculty on the UK Division of Infectious Diseases. She also is project director for the Kentucky AIDS Education and Training Center; program director of Ryan White Services for Parts B and C at the Bluegrass Care Clinic, UK HealthCare; and co-director of the HIV fellowship at UK HealthCare. Dr. Thornton is a member of the Ryan White Medical Providers Coalition and the IDSA Advocacy Captains Subcommittee. She will continue advancing efforts to improve access to fair and inclusive, high-quality HIV care and advocating for the providers and patients most impacted by HIV.

Michelle S. Cespedes, MD, MS, will serve as the HIVMA representative to the IDSA Board. She is a tenured professor of medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; interim system chief of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai Health System; unit medical director, HIV Service, at Mount Sinai Health System; and co-director of the Clinical and Translational Research Center at Mount Sinai. She has been a member of the IDSA/HIVMA Strategic Planning Committee, the HIVMA Clinical Fellowship Committee and the HIVMA Board of Directors. As the principal investigator of the clinical research site co-located with Sinai’s Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Cespedes recognizes the value of ensuring that members from vulnerable communities have a seat at the table, from contributing to clinical research priorities to best practices for implementation.
 
The four newly elected HIVMA Board members are:

• Andrea Ciaranello, MD, MPH, FIDSA, is a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital. She serves as the director of the MGH Perinatal Infectious Disease Program; associate director of the Medical Practice Evaluation Center at MGH; and co-chair of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Perinatal HIV Guidelines Panel. In addition, she is a member of the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research and former director and current senior advisor for the CFAR Pathway Opportunities Scientific Working Group. Dr. Ciaranello will bring an expanded focus on advancing maternal-child health to HIVMA and is deeply committed to improving equitable access to high-quality HIV prevention and care beyond the perinatal context. 
  
  
• Sheila Montalvo, PharmD, is an HIV clinical pharmacist and research coordinator at Memorial Healthcare System-Division of Infectious Disease’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS clinic and a clinical coordinator pharmacist at Memorial Healthcare System-Memorial Specialty Pharmacy in South Florida. She co-authored “Policy Recommendations to Support Equitable Access to Long-Acting Injectables for HIV Prevention and Treatment,” published in Clinical Infectious Diseases this year, and is a member of the faculty for Memorial Healthcare System’s ID Medical Fellowship Program. As a director, she will bring forward the voices of patients and providers, advocate for equitable access and help shape solutions that are both practical and patient-centered.
  
  
• Sudha Nagalingam, MD, FACP, FIDSA, is medical director at El Rio Special Immunology Associates and focuses on antimicrobial stewardship at El Rio Health. She also is a clinical instructor at the El Rio Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Residency Program, the University of Arizona ID Fellowship, the A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona and the Tucson Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency Program. She is on the Oversight Committee for Arizona’s Integrated HIV/HCV/STD Plan. As a physician working in southwestern Arizona and a border town, she will be a voice for clinicians working in rural communities who do not have the advantage of practicing in large academic and resource-rich settings.  
  
  
• Julia C. Rosebush, DO, FAAP, is an associate professor of pediatrics at University of Chicago Medicine; assistant dean for admissions at University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine; and medical director of the Care2Prevent Pediatric/Adolescent HIV Program at University of Chicago Medicine. She has been elected a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric and Adolescent HIV and the DHHS Panel for Treatment of HIV in Pregnancy and Prevention of Perinatal Transmission. Dr. Rosebush’s clinical and academic work has focused on the prevention and treatment of HIV in urban youth populations with an emphasis on community interventions to sustain care engagement. As a director, she will amplify the voices of youth communities with HIV, seeking to identify the unique identities that they possess, advocate on their behalf and aid in crafting interventions that speak to them.

Joining Dr. Person, Dr. Thornton and Dr. Cespedes on the Executive Committee of the HIVMA Board of Directors will be Immediate Past Chair Colleen Kelley, MD, MPH, FIDSA, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, and Chair-elect Philip Bolduc, MD, Family Health Center of Worcester, Worcester, Massachusetts. 

The following members will continue their service on the HIVMA Board:

• Nicholas Allen, DNP, Washington Department of Corrections
• Joseph Cherabie, MD, MSc, Washington University in St. Louis
• Ellen Eaton, MD, FIDSA, University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Nada Fadul, MD, FIDSA, University of Nebraska Medical Center
• Carlos D. Malvestutto, MD, MPH, FIDSA, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
• Nwora Lance Okeke, MD, MPH, Duke University
• Hussein Safa, MD, Albert Einstein Medical Center
• Hansel Emory Tookes III, MD, MPH, Miami Miller School of Medicine

About HIVMA
The HIV Medicine Association is a community of more than 6,000 health care professionals who advance a comprehensive and humane response to the HIV pandemic, informed by science and social justice. HIVMA works to increase access to health care services and coverage for people with HIV and populations heavily impacted by HIV and to foster a robust, diverse and culturally competent HIV workforce. HIVMA is part of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Visit hivma.org to learn more.