HIV and Minorities:
Cultural Competence and the Quality of Care

Goulda Downer, RD, LN, CNS, Principal Investigator
National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center (NMAETC)
Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC

Plenary Session

Introduction of Keynote Speaker

Shannon Hader, MD, Deputy Director
HIV/AIDS Administration, Washington, DC

Keynote Speaker:

“The Impact of HIV/AIDS on the African-American Community and Other Communities of Color”
The Honorable Congresswoman Donna M. Christensen, MD

Impact of Ethnicity: African American, Hispanic, Native Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders

Moderator:

Bisola Ojikutu, MD, MPD  
Infectious Disease Associates
Massachusetts General Hospital
Director, Office of International Programs
Division of AIDS, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Speakers:

“Social Transformation and Trends of Ethnic Populations in HIV”
Mohammad N. Akhter, MD, MPH, Executive Director
National Medical Association (NMA), Washington, DC

“Impact of Ethnicity: African-Americans”
Wilhelmena Lee-Ougo, PhD, Research Scientist
The MayaTech Corporation, Silver Spring, MD

“HIV and Native Communities: the Impact of History and Culture”
Ann Drobnik, MPH, Program Manager
New York City Department Of Health and Mental Hygiene
Office of Viral Hepatitis Coordination, New York, NY

Impact of Linguistics: Languages, Communication Patterns, English (Second Language), Comprehension

Moderator:

D K Gurung, PhD, Health Statistician/Economist
Government of the District of Columbia
Department of Health, Washington, DC

Speakers:

“Increasing Communication Among Non-English Speaking, Minority Patients Regarding Awareness and Availability of Rapid HIV Testing”
Marcie Sara Rubin, MPH, Associate Director, Patient Safety
New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
Metropolitan Hospital Center, New York, NY

“Application of Qualitative Research and Community-Based Participatory Methods to Improve our  Understanding of the Role of Language as a Potential Barrier to HIV/AIDS Care for Latinos living with HIV”
Maria Luisa Zuniga, PhD, Assistant Professor
Division of International Health and Cross-Cultural Medicine
Department of Family and Preventive Medicine
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA

“Does Evolution Have an End”
Christopher H. Bates, MBA, Acting Director
Department of Health and Human Services
Office of HIV/AIDS Policy, Washington, DC

Impact of Gender: MSM, Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Two Spirits

Moderator:

Frank J.  Oldham, Jr., Executive Director
National Association for People with AIDS (NAPWA), Silver Spring, MD

Speakers:

“Gender and its Impact on the HIV Epidemic in Ethnic Minority  Communities”
Tiphani Burrell-Piggott, MA, MPH, Dr.PHc 
Columbia University School of Public Health, New York, NY

“Cultural Competent HIV/AIDS Service Delivery for Minority Men Who have Sex with Men (MSM)”
Leo Rennie, MPA, Senior Policy Consultant
National Association for People with AIDS (NAPWA), Silver Spring, MD

“Examining the Roles of Stigma and Discrimination on the Planning and Delivery of Effective Public Health Services”
Steven Tierney, EdD, Professor and Chair, Community Mental Health
Deputy Executive Director
San Francisco AIDS Foundation, San Francisco, CA

Emerging Issues: Rural Population, Substance Abuse, Mental Health, Foreign Trained Clinicians, Correctional Institutions (newly Incarcerated and newly released)

Moderator:

Derrick T. Prather, MA, Program Manager, (C)
Special Populations Office
Office of the Director
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

Speakers:

“Alcohol, Methamphetamine and HIV:  Risks & Prevention for
 Native American People”
Marla Corwin, LCSW, CAC III, Clinical Education Coordinator
Mountain Plains AIDS Education & Training Center
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO

“Psychosocial Factors Associated with Symptoms of Depression Among African American Men and Women Living with HIV”
Lara DePadilla, MS, Dr.PHc
Behavioral Sciences and Health Education Department
Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University

“Working With Correctional Populations: People Not Prisoners”
David Wyatt Seal, PhD, Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine
Qualitative Methods Core Director, Center for AIDS
Intervention Research (CAIR)
Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

C. Virginia Fields, MSW, President and CEO
National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Inc., New York, NY

Speakers:

David Luckett, Deputy Director
National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center
Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC