3 New Board Members Join the Black AIDS Institute

 Peter Brownlie, one of three new Black AIDS Institute board members

The Black AIDS Institute is honored to announce the addition of three new people to its board of directors. These members come from diverse backgrounds and are dedicated to helping the Institute address health disparities, eliminate stigma and end the HIV/AIDS epidemic among African Americans.

Peter Brownlie

Peter Brownlie is no stranger to advocacy. He spent many years working at Planned Parenthood as a director of the Fort Worth, Texas, affiliate and as president and CEO of the Kansas and mid-Missouri affiliate. He first met Phill Wilson in the 1980s, when his brother, Chris Brownlie, and Wilson were partners, long before Wilson founded the Black AIDS Institute. Chris and Wilson were diagnosed with HIV around the same time. Chris subsequently died from his illness, but Wilson and Brownlie stayed connected. "Phill asked me a few times if I would consider coming to work for the Institute or becoming involved in some way with BAI. After I retired, I took some time to think about what I wanted to do and decided this would be a great time to do it."

Brownlie looks forward to using his experience working for reproductive justice to advocate for the Institute. "This is a really crucial time to respond to HIV and AIDS, particularly in the Black community. The research with pre-exposure prophylaxis and other kinds of medical advances provide a kind of hope that we haven't had in the past. The incidence rate among Black people is high, so we have more work to do. I look forward to working with the Black AIDS Institute. It's one of the most important organizations in the world."

Kym Johnson

Kym Johnson was unknowingly married to a man who was HIV positive; however, he hid his HIV-positive status for many years. Only when he became sick in 2010 did she learn of his HIV infection—and her own. She was riddled with questions: How long had he known his status? Why hasn't he told her about it? Why couldn't they talk about it? "If my husband would have shared his status prior to becoming so sick, we could have addressed this together," she stated in a video for the Greater Than AIDS campaign.

Today Johnson, 35, is addressing HIV on a more global scale. "The way that whole thing affected my marriage and our family really kinda fired me up. I thought, 'I really don't want this to remain an issue, and I don't want to remain silent about this thing that has happened to me,'" she said. "I feel that maybe if I had heard this story or read this story or if someone was more outspoken about their story, I could have avoided it." As one of the newly appointed members of the Institute's board of directors, Johnson looks forward to addressing the many different sides of advocacy. "I recently went with Phill to Charlotte and he addressed problems in the health-care system," she said. "That was new for me because that was not usually an area that I work in. Normally I go to the testing sites and talk to different demographics of women. So being on the board is going to take me into a different realm, because HIV isn't just one element."

Jussie Smollett

California native Jussie Smollett was born to a family of actors, but in real life he uses his voice to advocate for important causes. Smollett, 31, plays the musically inclined yet troubled Jamal Lyon on the hit Fox television show Empire. His character challenges stereotypes about Black homosexuality as he fights for his father's acceptance.

Smollett also challenges the status quo offscreen. He began volunteering with the Black AIDS Institute at age 15. In an interview with the Black AIDS Weekly, Smollett said that the fight against HIV must continue and young people should stay vigilant. "I think there is a certain level of complacency that we have as a generation as far as HIV/AIDS goes," he said. "It almost feels like it's the last generation's issue, but it's so not. It's right here. We've got to keep fighting, we've got to keep talking about it. We've got to keep protecting ourselves and protecting each other." Jussie has participated in a 30-second public service announcement about HIV testing produced by the Institute. He has also contributed to panel discussions regarding stigma and HIV and made a guest appearance at the Institute's booth during the CIAA Basketball Tournament in Charlotte, N.C., in February.

Candace Y.A. Montague is an award-winning freelance health writer and health reporter for Capital Community News in Washington, D.C.