In honor of World AIDS Day, join us for a look back at the AIDS crisis and the continuing battle against the disease. Dig deeper into the response to the AIDS epidemic in the Jewish community – and the changes over the 1980s and 90s. Hear from healthcare workers, activists, volunteers, and more for a meaningful evening of recollection and resilience. With LGBTQ psychiatrist, Jeffrey S. Akman, MD, physician assistant, Barbara Lewis and long-time member and lay service leader at Bet Mishpachah, Larry Neff. Moderated by Heather Alt, BSN, RN, CPH, ACRN Deputy Director of Nursing Whitman-Walker Health. Includes access to LGBTJews in the Federal City. Come early to see the exhibit!
In partnership with Bet Mishpachah, Whitman Walker Health, and Uri L'Tzedek.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Jeffrey S. Akman, MD has had a forty-year career in academic medicine and psychiatry as an out LGBTQ psychiatrist. Following his tenure as the Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at George Washington University, he now serves as Professor and Chair of the GW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health and the Chief of the Psychiatry Services in the GWU Hospital and Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center in SE DC.
In the early 1980s, Dr. Akman began treating patients with HIV while working with multiple local organizations to build a community response to HIV in the DMV. He served on the DC Mayor’s Commission on HIV/AIDS, on the first American Psychiatric Association Commission on HIV/AIDS and co-led the APA’s AIDS Education Project Steering Committee where he helped create the field of HIV psychiatry.
Dr. Akman served on President Barak Obama’s Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and as President of the National Lesbian and Gay Health Association, President of the Washington Psychiatric Society and Chairman of the Whitman Walker Health Board of Directors. He has been multiply recognized for his efforts in medical education, HIV psychiatry, LGBTQ health, community service and for his contributions to George Washington University.
An alumnus of Duke University and the George Washington University MD and psychiatry residency programs, Dr. Akman lives with his husband, Steven Scott Mazzola, in Washington, DC.
Heather Alt (she/her), RN, BSN, CPH, ACRN, is the Deputy Director of Nursing at Whitman-Walker Health. Whitman-Walker is known for providing affirming care to the LGBTQ and HIV communities in DC for decades. Heather has worked at Whitman-Walker for the past 17 years and her career has focused on gender affirming care, harm reduction, and food equity. Heather helped champion the first Rapid Start program in the DC area to connect patients diagnosed with HIV immediately to medication, and this model has guided other health centers across the country in setting up their own stigma-reducing programs. Heather is a woodworker and enjoys building people custom furniture.
Barbara Lewis has had a 45-year career as a Physician Assistant. She graduated with a BA in education from the George Washington University, then attended the PA program at Howard University where she then worked for 12 years in the Emergency Department at the Howard University Hospital. When the AIDS epidemic became evident in 1981, she had been volunteering at Whitman Walker Health in Lesbian Health and then started doing HIV care as well. In 1989, she started working at the George Washington Aids Clinical Trials Unit , an ACTG site under the auspicious of Dr Fauci. She continued there helping to get the new medications approved and available for the next 10 years. In 2000 she started working full time at Whitman Walker Health where she remained for the next 21 years, working in Primary Care, Women’s health, transgender care and HIV. She retired in 2021 and is now living in Rehoboth Beach Delaware.
Larry Neff is a 2nd generation native Washingtonian. He grew up in Silver Spring and has lived in Dupont Circle for 41 years. He has been an active member of Bet Mishpachah for even longer, leading Shabbat and holiday services and serving on the Liturgy Committee, which has published 3 innovative prayer books in hardcover. After 30 years of government service, he retired as Deputy CFO of the US Dept. of Transportation. He has served on the Capital Jewish Museum board for 5 years.
Our new Voices series uses storytelling to create opportunities for diverse Greater Washington area residents to examine and share their experiences.
Image credit: Photograph of David Shankman's patch of the AIDS Quilt displayed on the National Mall, October 1989. Gift of Steven Shankman, Capital Jewish Museum Collection.
