AAHU Fellow Jaasiel Chapman: Trust the Process and Finish the Course

Jaasiel Chapman of BTAN Cincinnati

One in a series about recent graduates of the African American HIV University (AAHU).

After a number of friends passed away from AIDS, Jaasiel Chapman—a gospel-music artist who had a contract with Sony Music—decided to switch careers to HIV advocacy.

AAHU Fellow Jeffery Edwards-Knight: We Need the Biomedical Background and Knowledge AAHU Provides

AAHU Fellow Jeffery Edwards

One in a series about recent graduates of the African American HIV University (AAHU).

From 1984 until 2006, Jeffery Edwards-Knight worked as an engineer for Duke Power (now Duke Energy) in North Carolina, but during those two decades with the company, he says, "I felt like I was not making a difference." So in 2005, in his early 40s, he decided to return to school to study something he enjoyed. "I went back to get my degree in criminal justice at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I wanted to work with inmates after they came out of jail and help them with HIV services," he says. Working with people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) was important to Edwards-Knight because he'd been living with HIV since the late 1980s.

AAHU Fellow Krystle Kirkland-Mobley: 'Trust the Process!'

AAHU Fellow Krystle Kirkland Mobley

One in a series about recent graduates of the African American HIV University (AAHU). Kirkland-Mobley was this year's salutatorian.

What made you get involved in HIV/AIDS?

I started volunteering and doing a lot of community service in college and through my sorority. My first actual position was with Switchboard of Miami, a community-based organization where we educated college freshmen on HIV/AIDS, STDs and substance abuse.

AAHU Fellow Quintin Stroud: We Need More Trained Leaders in Black Communities

AAHU Fellow Quentin Stroud

One in a series about recent graduates of the African American HIV University (AAHU).

Thirty years ago, Quintin Stroud was fearful. He had just been diagnosed with HIV and was afraid to seek medical treatment because everyone he knew who had taken the antiretroviral medication azidothymidine (AZT) had ended up dead. He didn't trust the medication at all. It wasn't until years later, with the encouragement of his friends, that he finally went to see a doctor.

AAHU Fellow Yolanda Price: I Will Always Be an Advocate for Women

Yolanda Price, a graduate of the African American HIV University

One in a series about recent graduates of the African American HIV University (AAHU).

Yolanda Price, 51, has never had a job in the HIV/AIDS field. Never held any type of position at a non-profit or a public or private sector organization fighting against the disease.