SisterLove, Incorporated Honors Activist/Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph and 20 HIV Positive Women from Around the Country at the 6th Annual 2020 Leading Women's Awards
Sheryl Lee Ralph will receive the Pandora Singleton Ally Award for her 20 years of service as a non-positive ally in the movement at SisterLove's sixth annual 2020 Leading Women's Society Awards. The organization will honor 20 women who have lived with HIV for more than 20 years.
On Friday, October 16, 2015, in Atlanta, SisterLove, Incorporated will host the 6th Annual 2020 Leading Women's Society Awards in honor of 20 outstanding women from across the country that have lived with HIV for more than 20 years and have served as vocal advocates in their communities. In addition to the honorees, HIV/AIDS advocate and actress Sheryl Lee Ralph will receive the Pandora Singleton Ally Award for her 20 years of service as a non-positive ally in the movement.
The 2020 Leading Women's Society Awards, is more than just a spectacular night. It is the social component of the SisterLove 2020 Leadership Institute that provides resources, training, education, mentoring and support to increase the leadership capacity of HIV positive women to engage in community representation, prevention and support, policy and advocacy and social change. The 20 honorees participate in the leadership training and the awards program.
"There is no better inspiration for leadership and determination than what we find with our 2020 Leading Women", says Dazon Dixon Diallo, President and CEO of SisterLove, Inc. "With their love and their lives they show us courage, wisdom and grace in the long fight to end HIV. We are proud to recognize their strength and their vision for change."
The 2020 program seeks to engage and train 2,020 women by the year 2020 around the world to tell the story of how women are impacted by and changing the HIV epidemic. A 2020 Leadership Institute convenes all current and previous 2020 awardees to discuss issues related to the growth and structure of the movement, as well as to build leadership skills follows the awards gala.
The 2015 2020 awardees are Cynthia Taylor, Lillibeth Gonzalez, Aracelis Quinones, Karen Loftin, Marian Nogueira, Cynthia Herring-Solomon, Waheedah Shabazz, Franceina Hopkins, Maiava Blackwell, Beverly Franklin Simone, Kimberly Sparrow, Melissa Dennis Baker, Sherri Henigan, Patricia Migliore, Cierra Foxx, Maritza DeJesus, Patricia Semiens, Joyce Belton, Susan Mull, Dethress Ulmer-Lesley. Each of the honorees will be featured on the red carpet coverage at 6:30 pm.
SisterLove, Inc. Board Chair, Kristi Mathews says, "The 2020 Leading Women's Society Awards is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate pioneering women and to also put a face on the HIV epidemic among women. As young girls and women around the world continue to bear the highest burden of this epidemic, it is important that we highlight the experiences and valuable personal insight of these women to leverage their input in strategies to eliminate HIV. This is just one of the many ways in which SisterLove works to address this epidemic in communities around the country."
Maria More of Magic 107.9 and Pezo Johnson of Streetz 94.5 will host the 2020 Leading Women's Awards. Special performers for the evening will include Colored Girls Hustle from Washington, DC and Atlanta's Own Afro-Beat band Mausiki Scales and the Common Ground Collective.
The 2020 Leading Women's Society Awards will be held at the Georgia Aquarium, 225 Bakers Street NW, Atlanta, Georgia. Individual tickets are on sale for $125 each at http://www.2020awards.eventbrite.com. All proceeds benefit SisterLove, Inc. to continue building on the legacy of these women leaders and their roles in ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The 2020 Leading Women's Awards and Institute is sponsored in part by Gilead Sciences.
For more information, please contact Tiffany Omi Pennick at
About SisterLove
SisterLove is the first and largest non-profit in Georgia to focus specifically on the needs of women at risk for, or living with, HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. SisterLove has been on a mission for the last 26 years to eradicate the adverse impact of HIV and AIDS and other reproductive health challenges on all women and their families through education, prevention, support and human rights advocacy in the United States and around the world.