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Dr. Kwiek is currently an Associate Professor of Microbiology and the Vice Chair for Undergraduate studies in the OSU Department of Microbiology.

His research program uses the tools of molecular virology, evolutionary biology, and molecular pharmacology to understand HIV-1 replication and pathogenesis. Current research seeks to identify and develop a broad spectrum antiviral drug; seeks to better understand how HIV causes adverse birth outcomes. He currently co-teach three undergraduate courses, one called The History of HIV, a study abroad course called HIV in Context: Tanzania, and a new class called introduction to microbiology research. 

 

Dr. Kwiek's talk will cover fundamentals of HIV replication and AIDS.

 

 

Thomas F. McDow, PhD, is an associate professor of history at Ohio State University who specializes in the history of Africa and the Indian Ocean.

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Professor McDow’s current research is on the history of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania, with a focus on African scientists and society. This project—and his presentation today—grows out of his innovative teaching. In cooperation with Prof. Jesse Kwiek, a virologist, Prof. McDow developed and teaches two popular courses on HIV that are cross-listed between the history and microbiology departments. The first is a large lecture course, HIV: From Microbiology to Macrohistory, offered each spring, and the second is a month-long study abroad course in East Africa called HIV in Context: Tanzania. 

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In his talk, Professor McDow will be discussing HIV in a broader, global context, looking at HIV/AIDS statistics in a perspective beyond the United States.

 

Dr. Matthew Wilmot (pronouns: he/him/his) is a MATEC (Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center) community health educator at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. He provides seminars on topics that include mental health, LGBTQ identity, HIV and COVID-19 to communities across Columbus. His doctoral studies on the topic of institutional racism and mental health has afforded him the opportunity to recommend policies and services that address the treatment of people from marginalized populations in the healthcare and education sector. Outside of work, Dr. Wilmot plays the piano for his church, loves to read, and practices mixology and Swahili.

 

HIV/AIDS Activism in Ohio has a short but rich history that is intertwined with the history of the epidemic in America. In this presentation (titled “History of Ohio HIV/AIDS Activism”), Dr. Matthew Wilmot will take the audience back in time to the early days of the epidemic and the sacrifices that many within the LGBTQ and allied communities made to uphold the dignity and respect of those dying from AIDS. This will be followed up by the scientific breakthroughs in HIV treatment during the 90s and the lobbying efforts to make the life-saving medications accessible to all. Finally, Dr. Wilmot will transport the audience to the present day of HIV/AIDS activism and what we can learn from the past in order to envision and enact the future we need.

 

 

 

 

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David W Andrist, MS is the Outreach Education Coordinator for the OSU AIDS Clinical Trials Unit (ACTU) and the Program Manager for the AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC) in the Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease Unit at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

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David Andrist will be presenting on HIV Research in the Infectious Diseases Clinic at OSU. The AIDS Clinical Trial Unit at OSU is dedicated to improving HIV treatment methods through new therapies and by managing drug resistance, as well as preventing and treating co-infections. Their research is aimed at increasing knowledge of treatment as prevention of HIV/AIDS. In his presentation, David Andrist will elaborate on these research topics!

 

 

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Nicholas Funderburg is a tenured associate professor in the division of Medical Laboratory Science, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.  Nick received his PhD in Molecular and Microbiology from Case Western Reserve University in 2007.  The Funderburg lab focuses on understanding the complex mechanisms that contribute to increased monocyte/macrophage activation and vascular inflammation in persons living with HIV in order to generate treatment strategies aimed at reducing comorbid events in individuals receiving antiretroviral therapy. 

 

Dr. Funderburg's talk will be on Current HIV related research, including prevention, cure strategies, and strategies to reduce comorbidities in antiretroviral therapy treated  people living with HIV.

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Jane Russell is an RN and has worked in HIV care, research and education at OSU medical center since early in the epidemic.  She is honored to be part of the 2021 virtual event and AIDS Quilt display.

 

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Dwayne Steward, MPA, is an award-winning writer, speaker and activist. He is currently the Director of Prevention at Equitas Health, Ohio’s largest health center focused on the healthcare needs of LGBTQ communities, where he leads the agency’s HIV/STI prevention, harm reduction and LGBTQ population health programming. He is the former Director of Community Affairs at Fenway Health in Boston, the founder/owner of Make It Better Consulting, and has been published in various local and national publications on topics surrounding the intersections of racial justice, sexual health, gender identity and sexual orientation. Dwayne received his Bachelors of Science in Journalism from Ohio University and his Masters of Public Administration from Franklin University.

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Dwayne's talk will focus on the services that Equitas Health provides for people with and at-risk for HIV, including testing, treatment, and support groups. He will also describe the founding of Equitas as the Columbus AIDS Task Force in 1984, and how the organization has evolved since.

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Susan L Koletar, MD is Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the College of Medicine at OSU. She has been involved in the care of patients with HIV for more than 30 years. As the Principal Investigator for OSU’s AIDS Clinical Trials Units, she has overseen numerous clinical studies that have impacted the treatment and prevention of HIV.

 

Dr. Koletar will talk about her experiences as a clinician and clinical researcher that spans more than three decades of the AIDS epidemic, from a time when it was a life-threatening disease to its current status as a treatable condition. She will focus on social determinants of health and stigma as important factors.

 

 

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Timothy R. Bussey, Ph.D. (they/them) is the Associate Director for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where they support LGBTQ+ inclusivity initiatives across campus and beyond. In July 2020, Timothy also founded the Ace and Aro Alliance of Central Ohio, which is the state’s first and only organization that explicitly focuses upon the needs of the asexual and aromantic community. Additionally, they also serve as the Vice President for the Board of Directors of the Newark Ohio Pride Coalition, which is best known for hosting a small town pride festival for roughly 1,500 attendees annually. Previously, they served both as the Acting Operational Director of the Newark Ohio Pride Coalition and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Kenyon College. Their research interests include queer military history, LGBTQ+ educational support, and LGBTQ+ politics and policy. Their most recent work has been published by BUST Magazine, The Conversation, The Associated Press, and The Gay & Lesbian Review among others.

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Dr. Bussey's talk is titled: From Pop Culture to Healthcare: The Legacies of ACT UP!

 

 

 

 

 

Amy Lauren Fairchild is the Dean of OSU's College of Public health and is a historian who works at the intersection of history, public health ethics, and public health policy and politics. Her work helped establish public health ethics—which is concerned with the well-being of populations—as fundamentally distinct from either bioethics or human rights.

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Teresa C. Long, M.D., M.P.H.is a clinical associate professor and Special Advisor for Community Engagement and Partnerships with the Ohio State University College of Public Health. She retired as Columbus Health Commissioner at the end of 2017. She  actively serves on multiple community health boards and has become a frontline volunteer with Equitas Health and Moms2Be, related to the Opiate Epidemic and Infant Mortality, respectively.

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Alex Grieco (he/him) is an assistant professor at Ohio State’s College of Medicine. Dr. Grieco attended UB Jacobs School of Medicine and did his Diagnostic Radiology residency at Penn State. He now works in the Department of Biomedical Education and Anatomy, where he serves as Career Counselor and faculty member as well as a member of the Biomedical Science Honors Major. He started the course LGBTQ+ Health, a combined undergraduate and senior medical student advanced competency experience held during the spring semester of each year.

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Dr. Grieco's talk is about how images in art, media, and of course, in medicine impact everyone differently.  Some of the best understanding of this can come through reflecting on what it was like before group chats, likes, 280-character limits, and DMs.  This is a short set of reflections and thoughts about the impact of the images of the AIDS Quilt, movies about AIDS and those suffering from it, from someone who looks at, thinks about, and teachers others about images for their role in medicine – and who loves Q and A.

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Panel Hosts

• José Rodriguez

• Dr. Michael Para

• Dr. Howard Fradkin

• Dr. Teresa Long

• Dwayne Steward

• Don Laufersweiler

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This diverse group of panel hosts will be discussing the importance of providing medical care for people with HIV/AIDS, providing psychological support for people with HIV/AIDS, as well as support for their loved ones, working on panels for the AIDS Quilt and organizing exhibitions and showcases of the quilt and the importance of the role of lesbians and drag queens in HIV/AIDS activism and in support of the community​

Alison Norris is an Associate Professor with joint appointments in Ohio State University's College of Public Health and College of Medicine. Dr. Norris earned an MD and a PhD from the Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is the co-Principal Investigator of the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN), an interdisciplinary research program that studies the impacts of reproductive health-related policies and laws on the health and well-being of Ohioans. Dr. Norris also leads a longitudinal epidemiologic cohort study investigating sexual and reproductive health decision making among rural Malawian women and men. Focusing on sensitive or stigmatized subjects, Dr. Norris employs multidisciplinary methods to investigate access to contraception and abortion, prevention of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and knowledge and stigma about sexual and reproductive health topics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Norris was a co-investigator on the Ohio COVID-19 Assessment of Prevalence study, and serves as the faculty co-lead of Ohio State’s Case Investigation and Contact Tracing Team.

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For her PhD research in 2004, Dr. Norris studied risk for sexually transmitted infections amongst people living and working on a large sugar plantation in northern Tanzania. In her talk, she will share what she learned about how some people thought about HIV testing and the importance of having a way to talk about worrying and stigmatizing conditions.

 

 

 

 

Mason Hickman (he/they) is a queer and trans activist in Columbus who currently serves as the Digital Organizer with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio. He also serves on the boards of Women Have Options-Ohio, the statewide abortion fund that connects those needing an abortion to financial assistance so they can afford their reproductive choice. He holds a degree in Political Science with a minor in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies from The Ohio State University. Mason is passionate about bridging the gap between the reproductive rights movement and the fight for trans liberation, as well as securing reproductive justice for all LGBTQ+ people.

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Mason will facilitate a brief conversation on Planned Parenthood's services around HIV/STD testing and treatment, as well as a quick glance at how Ohio has criminalized those living with HIV and what we can do to fight back.

Graig Cote has been HIV-positive since 1986, at a time where HIV/AIDS was fatal and uncertainty, fear, and stigma dominated our understanding. While he initially struggled being open about his diagnosis, he is now an incredible speaker and vocal advocate for those with HIV, speaking at schools and universities across the Midwest. He has lectured at HIV/AIDS and history classes at OSU, and has won multiple public speaking awards. Currently, Graig serves on the board of the Ohio AIDS Coalition and works with the Ohio Health Modernization Movement, an organization committed to ending Ohio’s outdated HIV criminalization laws that stigmatize HIV-positive individuals and threaten public health. 

 

In this session, Graig will share his personal story with HIV/AIDS, touching on physical health problems as well as the shame, guilt, and fear he experienced following his diagnosis. As effective HIV treatment did not come out until 1996, Graig lost a multitude of friends to the disease, and will discuss coming to terms with grief and loss. Finally, he will talk about how HIV-positive community resisted and continues to fight against stigma and misinformation. 

He is an inspiring and powerful speaker, and we are humbled to have him here.