UA’s Project FAITHH Conference Features Several HIV/AIDS Activists

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Five nationally known HIV/AIDS activists are featured speakers at The University of Alabama’s Project FAITHH conference in Montgomery.

The Ministers Dissemination Conference, which is sponsored by UA’s College of Community Health Sciences’ Project FAITHH, or Faith-based Anti-stigma Initiative Towards Healing HIV/AIDS, will be held 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, at Maggie Street Baptist Church in Montgomery.

The speakers include Pernessa Seele, Rev. Edwin Sanders, Rev. Keron Sadler, Amy Nunn and Hydeia Broadbent.

Project FAITHH is a four-year study developed to examine the role that African-American congregations can play in reducing HIV/AIDS-related stigma in rural Alabama. It was funded in 2012 by a $530,368 grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Minority AIDS Research Initiative.

Dr. Pamela Foster, deputy director of the UA Institute for Rural Health Research and an assistant professor in the College of Community Health Sciences’ department of community and rural medicine, serves as principal investigator. Dr. Susan Gaskins, a professor in the University’s Capstone College of Nursing, serves as senior investigator on the project.

The purpose of the four-year study is to conduct and evaluate an HIV/AIDS anti-stigma related intervention among 12 African-American congregations in rural Alabama. The project was developed because of the disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS for African Americans living in rural Alabama.

While only representing 25 percent of the state’s population, African Americans represent 70 percent of these newly diagnosed cases. More than 4,000 of these same cases are accounted for in Alabama’s rural communities, while one in six people in the state still live with HIV unknowingly.

Featured speaker Hydeia Broadbent was abandoned at birth at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. She was not diagnosed as HIV-positive with advancement to AIDS until age 3.

She debuted as an HIV/AIDS activist and public speaker at 6-years-old on MTV. By 12, Broadbent appeared on many national television programs, including “Oprah,” “20/20,” “Good Morning America,” and “A Conversation with Magic Johnson” on Nickelodeon.

She has been featured in prominent publications, such as The New York Times, People, Teen People, Essence, Ebony and Sister 2 Sister.

Other speakers include:

• Pernessa Seele, an American immunologist and interfaith public health activist. Seele is the CEO and founder of Balm in Gilead Inc., a religious-based organization that provides support to people with AIDS and their families, as well as working for prevention of HIV and AIDS.

• Rev. Edwin Sanders, the senior servant and founder of the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville. Sanders holds life membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and is a member of the Interdenominational Ministers’ Fellowship.

• Rev. Keron Sadler, director of Faith Based Initiatives, NAACP. She serves as the national manager of health programs for the NAACP headquarters. She is responsible for maintaining and strengthening the NAACP’s commitment to HIV/AIDS as a high priority and high-profile issue.

• Dr. Amy Nunn, director of Mississippi Faith in Action Coalition. Nunn is an associate professor of behavioral and social sciences at the Brown University School of Public Health. Nunn is best known for her innovative community partnerships to address disparities, including engaging clergy and community leaders in HIV testing, treatment and social marketing campaigns.

Faith-based leaders and congregational members from all denominations are welcome to attend the conference.

To register for this event, contact Brittney Washington-Ball at 205/348-4234 or bswashington@ua.edu. For more information about Project FAITHH, visit https://projectfaithh.ua.edu. On-site registration will also be available.