Staff
|
Cyndee Clay, Executive DirectorClay is an internationally recognized expert with over 20 years experience in program development, nonprofit management and evaluation for improving the health and safety of injection and non-injection drug users, sex workers, and transgender individuals. She is a graduate of the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive Program at UCLA Business School, convened DC’s first working group on drug user health, and serves as the DC Prevention Planning Group’s community co-chair elect, DC community representative for the Urban Coalition of HIV/AIDS Prevention Services UCHAPS, and the DC Recovery Advisory Council.
|
|
Elizabeth MacIntosh, Director of ProgramsElizabeth MacIntosh has been with HIPS since Valentine’s Day 2003. Elizabeth works closely with the Executive Director in all aspects of program development and organizational goals. She is responsible for HIPS program supervision, evaluation and administration as well as acting as a liaison to foundation and public funders. Elizabeth has developed and implemented numerous interventions including, “Choices” for NJ DOH and “Charm School” for HIPS which provides peer support, health education, goal setting and advocacy geared towards women who use drugs. She has also worked as a consultant for NECAPT (Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies-) and has presented various workshops on peer based strategies regarding public health and issues around the sex work community at national and international conferences. Elizabeth possesses an AA in Liberal Studies from Harcum College, BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a MS in Clinical Psychology from California Coast University. While not doing HIPS stuff, she likes collecting 80’s punk and metal records, watching Celtic F.C. matches, and experimenting with street and mail art.
|
|
Sara Knotts, Director of Finance and OperationsSara joined the organization in 2013 as the Operations Manager. She brings to HIPS over 12 years of experience in Operations and Finance. Sara is responsible for grants management, human resources, and administrative oversight. Sara grew up in Greenville, North Carolina where she attended East Carolina University. She obtained a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Operations Management in 2004 and relocated to the Northern Virginia shortly after graduation. Sara is a member of the American Society for Quality and the National Association for Professional Women. When Sara’s not helping HIPS run like a well-oiled machine, she’s spending time with her partner, Liz, and their very rotund cat, Smush, volunteering for She-DC (a task force put together by the Mayor’s Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives), and researching ways to be a “baller on a budget”.
|
|
Andrew Bell, Health and Supportive Services ManagerAndrew recently joined the staff team at HIPS as the Manager of Health and Supportive Services . It is a new role following that succeeds the Manager for Enhanced Harm Reduction Services after some restructuring. He comes to HIPS having spent six years working in Direct Service and Project Management for the Portland Hotel Society: a Vancouver based organization that has long been a leader in Harm Reduction. His time there included two years at Insite, North America’s only legal Safe Injection Facility, and three years managing a low-barrier homeless shelter that also provided supportive and health services to individuals dealing with active addictions, mental health issues and other challenges. Andrew interned at the Drug Policy Alliance in the fall, of 2014 while also volunteering with HIPS and helping with Bread for the City’s Pre-Employment Program. Andrew went to the University of British Columbia where he studied History and International Relations. He and his wife Anna have a dog named Louisa.
|
|
Sasanka Jinadasa, Capacity Building and Resource ManagerAs the Capacity Building and Community Resource Manager at HIPS, Sasanka manages volunteer coordination, staff development, and coalition building at HIPS and in the DC community. A recent graduate of Harvard University with a BA in Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality (with a focus in African American studies), she has been a justice advocate for those whose identities exist at the margins and intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. Sasanka identifies as a queer Lankan hard femme and has spearheaded projects on sex education, LGBTQ allyship, and diversity and inclusion within activist spaces. When she’s not working, she is probably baking, writing/reading short stories and poetry, or dancing and collaborating with HIPS volunteers to conduct research on the impacts of gentrification on street-based sex work in the District.
|
|
Shakita Chapman, Community Health WorkerShakita joined HIPS in 2013 as a Community Health Worker. She is a certified Treatment Adherence Specialist, HIV and HCV tester and brings 6 years of experience in the HIV care and prevention field. Shakita spends her days helping our clients navigate the healthcare system with the overall goal being to decrease barriers in accessing medical care and support our clients in leading healthy lives. In her role as a HIPS Community Health Worker, Shakita assists HIV positive individuals in linking them to a medical provider, then advocates on their behalf to help them personally achieve a better health outcome. In addition to her community health work, Shakita frequently participates in healthcare events in all eight wards in order to provide HIV and HCV testing and education to all communities of the District. Shakita is well known for her passion for helping others and is a self-proclaimed “Person for the People” because of her love for giving back to the community. Shakita has a strong interest in addiction and recovery is currently taking steps toward becoming an Addiction Counselor. When Shakita is off the clock, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and enjoying life to the fullest!
|
|
Ms. Kenny Mayo, Drop-in Center CoordinatorMs. Kenny has worked at HIPS for five years and has been dedicated to maintaining a positive and safe environment in the Drop In Center. Ms. Kenny conducts HIV tests, manages the showers, community lunches, clothing closet, and receptionist area. When Ms. Kenny isn't at HIPS, she likes to watch old black and white movies, shop, and travel.
|
|
Earline Budd, Treatment Adherence SpecialistEarline Budd is a long time DC resident and transgender woman who has worked tirelessly over the last 20 years to advocate for the rights and inclusion of transgender people and other members of the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LBGTQ) community. She is one of the founding members and former Executive Director of Transgender Health Empowerment, Inc. (T.H.E.) and was the District of Columbia’s first transgender women appointed to the Office of Human Rights. Earline currently works as a Treatment Adherence Specialist at HIPS and represents HIPS and the trans community on the Mayor’s Commission on HIV/AIDS and on the DC Ryan White Planning Council. Earline has two years of college in Business Administration and attended the Brookwein Business Institute of Washington, D.C. Earline comes to HIPS everyday with a grocery bag of home cooked snacks and goodies and keeps everyone who walks through our doors well fed regardless if they are on her caseload. She describes her everyday hobby as just wanting to just “to help her community, even if it’s just by getting them something to eat just for today, and being there to work on the next step tomorrow.”
|
|
Randy Kier, Community Health WorkerRandy is a Community Health Worker with HIPS and has been with the organization since 2014. Randy’s work involves assisting clients with linkage to medical care, performing HIV and HCV testing, facilitating treatment adherence, participating in mentorship opportunities, and providing counseling sessions. He is currently studying Social Work with a concentration in public health at the University of District Columbia. In addition to his studies, Randy serves as the Vice President for the Student Government Association at UDC. Randy is a member of the LGBT community and has always possessed a passion to combat HIV/AIDS and to educate his community with intent to change it for the better. Randy strongly believes that working together we can bring an end to HIV/AIDS.
|
|
David Moody, Community Health WorkerDavid is a recent addition to our Community Health Worker team. A former client and member of the community, David came aboard to advocate for others in the LGBTQ community in medical, transitional, recuperative and/or foundation settings, ultimately working to begin or continue on the path toward achieving holistically positive and productive goals. Having garnered intimate experience in various methods and means of assistance procurement, he has a penchant for interacting effectively with the community, including the direction of his peers toward requisite resources and counseling of those in need. He is finishing his Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science at the University of the District of Columbia. His strongest desire is to abate the harmful experiences of his contemporaries that are at risk, in order to strengthen and uplift the community at large.
|
|
David Sternberg, Community Health WorkerAs a bilingual Community Health Worker, David focuses on improving health outcomes for highly marginalized transgender women who have been newly diagnosed with HIV. He also serves as the phlebotomist for the GRAVITY Project, an onsite Hepatitis C clinic that represents a partnership between HIPS, the University of Maryland Institute of Human Virology, and the DC Partnership for HIV/AIDS Programs. David comes to HIPS having spent the last ten years in direct service as a Medical Assistant and Phlebotomist in Radiation Oncology, Family Planning, Sexual Health, and both Surgical and Medical Abortion services. During a five year tenure at Planned Parenthood Northern California, he contributed to the launch of Trans Health Services and low-barrier hormone therapy as well as trans-friendly patient care training. As a member of research teams at Florida Atlantic University, Northwestern University, Georgetown University, and UC San Francisco, David continues to focus on health disparities experienced by immigrant latina women, stress of immigration, HIV risk among female commercial sex workers, and community-based mental health interventions. He graduated with a BA in Sociology from California State University East Bay with a concentration in Neo-Imperialism. David and his husband dream of buying DC General from the city and turning it into a full service free hospital and shelter specializing in enhanced quality of life.
|
|
Angel Brown, PrEP SpecialistAngel began her journey with HIPS in 2007, from client to peer educator- turned staff, she has grew in her harm reductionist role to the community. She has facilitated and co facilitated groups and programs such as Beauty School, Stages of Change, and Diversion. Angel is also known for her role in developing and running the SNS and PrEP programs at HIPS- dedicating her effort in prevention of the continuous spread of HIV in our communities.
|
|
Maurice Abbey-Bey, Syringe Exchange SpecialistMaurice is a Washington DC native who came to HIPS in 2013 as Secondary Exchanger who provided syringe access and support to his community. Maurice has watched HIPS grow in the community and has seen his own role grow within it as well. In and out of prison, jail, chaotic drug use and substance abuse treatment since the age of 13, Maurice says that those years were when he realized he has to “reach the lowest depths before reaching the highest heights”. Today Maurice serves as HIPS’ full time Syringe Exchange Specialist, supervising HIPS mobile syringe exchange program, the linchpin of HIPS street based services. He greatly enjoys working hands and using his easy and welcoming manner and drawing on his deep network of relationships to make Washington, DC a healthier and safer place to live. While not at HIPS, you can find Maurice at the dog park with his two Maltese puppies, Lily and Bear!
|
|
Anthony Almazan, Systems Coordinator, Global Health Corps FellowAs the Systems Coordinator at HIPS, Anthony leads monitoring and evaluation efforts and develops tools to streamline its service delivery. He also serves as a case manager. Anthony recently graduated from Harvard University with a BA in chemistry and a minor in global health. He wrote his thesis on his development of a computational method to investigate why some individuals are able to suppress HIV replication. He has also worked in western Uganda, where he led the monitoring and evaluation of a malaria prevention campaign. When he’s not at HIPS, Anthony enjoys running, sleeping, and serenading his Global Health Corps co-fellow, Faith.
|
|
Faith Mulungi, Case Management Specialist, Global Health Corps FellowFaith leads case management services at HIPS. Born and raised in Kampala, Uganda, Faith Mulungi attended Makerere University for her bachelor’s degree where she majored in psychology and minored in international relations. She has volunteered for Deloitte & Touche Uganda and Youth Social Work Association, where she acquired skills in community work. She later volunteered at Uganda AIDS Commission as a programmes assistant. She then earned a master’s degree in clinical psychology at Makerere University while practicing at Butabika National Referral Hospital. Her passion for mental health led her to work with refugees, war and torture victims at Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO Uganda), where she worked as a clinical psychologist from 2015 to 2016. When she is not working, Faith is adventuring in new places, painting, doing beadwork, or dancing to Afrobeats with her co-fellow, Anthony.
|
|
Corey Walsh, Mobile Services Program Associate,
|
|
Zoe Grimaldi, Outreach and Case Management Associate,
|
|
Hailey Flynn, Legal FellowHailey Flynn is the Legal and Advocacy Fellow at HIPS (funded by the Ford Foundation) through the Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program at Georgetown Law. Hailey received her Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law in 2016, where she was a Crowley Scholar for International Law & Justice and a Stein Scholar for Public Interest. During law school, Hailey participated in human rights documentation trips in Haiti, Thailand, and Myanmar; developed and delivered training on human rights violations against sex workers in Uganda and Mauritius; and was President of Fordham’s chapter of Law Students for Reproductive Justice chapter and a Notes & Articles Editor for the Fordham International Law Journal where she published her Note, A Postal Code Lottery: Unequal Access to Abortion Services in the United States and Northern Ireland. She also interned at the Open Society Foundations, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the Global Justice Center. Prior to law school, Hailey was a 2012-2013 Princeton in Asia Fellow with AIP Foundation and was a Program Assistant in the Public Health Program at the Open Society Foundations from 2008-2012. Hailey received her B.S. in Foreign Science at Georgetown University in 2008.
|
|
Takea Mosely, SNS SpecialistTakea is the Social Networking Strategy (SNS) Specialist and has been with the organization since 2014 as a peer educator. Takea’s work involves using a social network based recruitment strategy for rapid HIV testing. She identifies, trains, and coaches recruiters, in addition to recording data and meeting program goals. Takea has a Bachelor's Degree in Mass Communications with a minor in Speech from Jackson State University. As a born and raised Washingtonian, Takea has deep ties to the community and an empathetic, professional and culturally competent way of interacting with clients.
|
|
Elaine Jackson, HIV TesterElaine started at HIPS as the Front Desk Receptionist in September 2015. Elaine's work consists of signing clients in, answering the telephone, catering to the clients needs, and she's make sure clients leave with a smile on their faces with a satisfied heart. Elaine now works as an HIV tester at HIPS, helping clients know their status and identify ways to stay safe.
|
|
Shayla Schlossenberg, Transition CoordinatorShayla began at HIPS in 2015 as a Prevention Services intern and has recently returned to serve as Transition Coordinator, to assist in onboarding new fellows to HIPS. Prior to this she worked at St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, a local syringe exchange in New York City. She is currently studying Political Studies and Biology and New York University’s Shanghai campus (上海纽约大学). Her more-ambitious agendas include prison abolition, sex work decriminalization, and single-handedly destroying the DC Streetcar. Outside of work, Shayla spends her time volunteering with Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition and studying Chinese.
|
