In honor of the 25th anniversary of AIDS Education Month, the College’s Institute for Community Engagement and Civic Leadership partnered with Philadelphia FIGHT to host a presentation about preventing and combating HIV on June 21. Dr. Helen Koenig and Dr. Luis Montaner, two leading HIV prevention and cure study experts, discussed pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and its effectiveness in preventing the transmission of HIV, if used properly. More than 80 invited guests, including representatives from Philadelphia FIGHT, Philadelphia Health Center One; health care students from District 1199C and YouthBuild Philadelphia; and College faculty, administrators and Nursing program students were in attendance. This event was part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and its ongoing implications for the city of Philadelphia and its residents. The Institute for Community Engagement and Civic Leadership also displayed a portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, first displayed in 1987, throughout the month of June, in an effort to memorialize the victims of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and raise awareness of the disease’s devastating effects on people and communities.
Pictured: Dr. David Thomas, associate vice president for Strategic Initiatives and dean, Division of Access and Community Engagement (second from left) joins Dr. Lena Gould, Founder of the Diversity and Nursing Anesthesia Mentoring Program, and two of her nurse anesthetist mentees in front of a portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.