HIVMA Names Michelle Cespedes, MD, MS, as Chair of its Board of Directors

The HIV Medicine Association is pleased to announce the election of a vice chair and four new members to its Board of Directors and to name Michelle Cespedes, MD, MS, as its new chair. HIVMA is dedicated to addressing health inequities and ensuring a robust and diverse expert workforce in its mission to end the HIV pandemic.

Dr. Cespedes is a professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, New York, where she also serves as co-director of the Clinical and Translational Research Center at Mount Sinai and co-director of the ID Fellowship Research Curriculum at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She advocates for populations disproportionately affected by HIV, promoting community HIV education and working to make clinical trials more accessible and inclusive. As a researcher, Dr. Cespedes focuses on complications and comorbidities of HIV with an emphasis on prevention in high-risk populations and HIV-related women’s issues. She believes serving as chair of the HIVMA Board to be an exciting opportunity to ensure equitable access to HIV treatment, advance prevention measures and progress in the fight to end the HIV pandemic.

“We cannot end the HIV epidemic without comprehensive and humane policies that address the systemic causes of health inequities and disparities,” said Dr. Cespedes. “We have seen with COVID-19, and more recently with the monkeypox outbreak, that there are communities that are consistently underserved and left behind. It has been and continues to be HIVMA’s charge to advocate for everyone.”

Colleen F. Kelley, MD, MPH, was elected to serve as HIVMA vice chair. Dr. Kelley is an associate professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. She also serves as co-director for prevention sciences at the Emory University Center for AIDS Research and program director at the Emory University Training Program in HIV Translational Research to End the Epidemic. She recognizes the critical importance of political advocacy and the impact it can have on patient care and looks forward to working with HIVMA, its board, members and patients to advance health equity and justice for those affected by HIV.

The four newly elected HIIVMA Board members are:

Kathleen Jacobson, MD, is chief of the California Department of Public Health’s STD Control Branch in Richmond, California, where she serves as chair of the California COVID-19 Testing Task Force. Dr. Jacobson has dedicated her career to improving care for those affected by HIV, training thousands of residents and health care providers to improve access to HIV care and championing expanded testing, treatment and PrEP access in the largest emergency department in the western United States. She considers serving on the HIVMA Board of Directors an unparalleled opportunity to support initiatives focused on ensuring access for those most at risk for or affected by HIV.
Darrell McBride, DO, is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Danville, Pennsylvania, where he also serves as program director of the Ryan White Program at Geisinger Medical Center. With an interest advancing health equity and addressing the social determinants of health, Dr. McBride is enthusiastic that serving on the board will allow him to help reduce infection rates in populations disproportionately affected by HIV.
Elizabeth Sherman, PharmD, is an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Nova Southeastern University College of Pharmacy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She also serves as an HIV clinical pharmacist and infectious disease faculty member in the Memorial Healthcare System Division of Infectious Disease and principal investigator at the Nova Southeastern University local partner site of the Southeast AIDS Education and Training Center in south Florida. In these roles, Dr. Sherman works to bolster the HIV workforce and advance health equity, training pharmacy students, residents and medical infectious disease fellows and providing clinical pharmacy services to uninsured and underinsured patients with HIV. She is honored to serve on the HIVMA Board and continue to fight for the end of the HIV pandemic.
Virginia Triant, MD, MPH, FIDSA, is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, where she serves as an associate physician in the Massachusetts General Hospital Divisions of Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine. Initially drawn to HIV medicine for the opportunity to improve the health and well-being of people living with HIV at both the individual and population level, Dr. Triant has more than a decade of experience as a clinician and researcher with a focus on the intersection of HIV and aging. Dr. Triant is committed to advancing the priorities of HIVMA and looks forward to helping achieve health equity for people living with HIV.

Joining Drs. Cespedes and Kelley on the Executive Committee of the HIVMA Board of Directors will be Chair-Elect Allison Agwu, MD, ScM, FIDSA, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; Immediate Past Chair Marwan Haddad, MD, MPH, Community Health Center Inc., New Haven, Connecticut; and the HIVMA Representative to the IDSA Board Rajesh T. Gandhi, MD, FIDSA, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.

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

Lydia Aoun Barakat, MD, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut;
Philip Bolduc, MD, Family Health Center of Worcester, Worcester, Massachusetts;
Joseph S. Cervia, MD, MBA, FACP, FAAP, FIDSA, FPIDS, AAHIVS, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society Liaison, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Manhasset, New York;
Tyler B. Evans, MD, MPH, MS, DTM&H, FIDSA, University of Southern California, Scotts Valley, California;
John Fangman, MD, Mass General Brigham, Somerville, Massachusetts;
Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, PMHNP-BC, ANP-BC, Duke University School of Nursing, Durham, North Carolina;
Mamta K. Jain, MD, MPH, FIDSA, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas;
Nathaniel Nolan, MD, MPH, Liaison to the IDSA Fellows Subcommittee, Barnes Jewish Hospital, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri;
Anna K. Person, MD, FIDSA, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Brentwood, Tennessee;
Jeri Sumitani, PA-C, MMSc, Grady Health System, Atlanta, Georgia.

About the Infectious Diseases Society of America
IDSA is a leader on issues of importance to ID professionals, including education and training, policy and advocacy, setting guidelines for patient care, and developing resources for clinical practice. It remains at the forefront of global health issues such as COVID-19, antimicrobial resistance and HIV/AIDS. Housed within IDSA is the HIV Medicine Association, which represents medical providers and researchers working on the front lines of HIV. More than 12,000 IDSA and HIVMA members work across the United States and in nearly 100 other countries on six different continents. For more information visit www.idsociety.org. Follow IDSA on Facebook and Twitter.