Dartmouth College, May 21, 2024
Our panel of doctors, clinical social workers, and policy activists -- all served -- or serve -- as advocates in the prevention, treatment, and de-stigmatization of HIV/AIDS throughout the last 40+ years. They discuss what made them shift from the treatment/disease-focused side of the conversation to be at the frontlines of creating change in the fight against HIV.
Panelists:
Dr. Daniel Lucey D'77, MED'81/'82 worked as a physician in the field of HIV/AIDS for 20 years from June 1982 until June 2002. He graduated from medical school at Dartmouth then started internship at UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital in 1982. It was one year before we discovered the HIV virus, but decades after it discovered us. It was also one year before the first "AIDS Ward" was opened, on Ward 5B at SF General. Later HIV work led to Harvard, NIH, and a 900-bed inner city hospital in DC.
Dawn Averitt began working in the HIV/AIDS arena in 1993, after being diagnosed with HIV in 1988. In addition to being the mother of 3 daughters, she has founded two non-profit organizations, WISE (Women’s Information Service and Exchange) in 1995 and The Well Project in 2002, to improve the lives of women living with HIV and AIDS. As a social justice advocate for people living with HIV and AIDS, Dawn also launched a think tank in 2003 now called the Women’s Research Initiative on HIV/AIDS (WRI) which drives “more, better, faster” research in women.
Jeffrey Fennelly ‘86, Columbia University School of Social Work ’02 is a clinical social worker who serves over-age, under-credited youth in New York City’s transfer high schools. He discovered the AIDS activist group ACTUP!/NY during a trip to DC, spurring a full-time commitment to activism. Fennelly and a group of ACTUP! colleagues founded OutWeek magazine; in addition, he co-directed the production department of the Wall Street Journal alongside an OutWeek colleague. He is the Respect-for-All Liaison at Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School and the founder of the Youth Education Life Line, which established condom-distribution in NYC Public Schools.
Dr Jim O'Brien MED '81. His internship and residency in Internal Medicine between 1981-84 coincided with the emergence of the HIV epidemic in New York City. Following residency training he trained in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute, and then in Hematologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he remained as an Attending Physician in the Division of Hematologic Oncology and a Member of the Program in Molecular Pharmacology and Developmental Therapeutics. Since 2000 he has held senior executive positions in various Biotech and Pharmaceutical companies specializing in the first-in-human development of novel biotherapeutics for treatment of cancer.
Moderator: Dawn Carey, D '86, MED '14