2018-2020 Fellows

Jazmina works in the Health Law Unit at PLC focusing on its Medical-Legal Partnerships and AIDS Legal Assistance Project. She is in charge of the Unit’s project administration, information collection, data management and coordination of legal services related to health. In addition to providing direct support to clients addressing those social determinants of health, Jazmina interfaces with community-based non-profit organizations, government agencies and other providers of services to those living with HIV/AIDS in order to keep abreast of community needs; contributing to the success of our AIDS Legal Assistance Project, and making the Medical-Legal Partnership model possible.

Alex Iling is a queer LA based sexual health educator. They hold a Bachelor’s degree from California State University, San Bernardino where they studied Public Health Education and Gender and Sexuality Studies. They started their career in HIV education, prevention, and advocacy in Riverside as an intern with TruEvolution, Inc. After graduating and moving to Los Angeles, Alex became part of Tarzana Treatment Center’s PrEP4Life program, where they now educate the community on how PrEP and PEP can be used as forms of HIV prevention. Additionally, they are currently a co-chair for LACPEN (LA County PrEP Educator and Navigator workgroup) and act as a Public Health Liaison for the LA chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project. Their future goal is to return to school to obtain a graduate degree in Public Health Policy. Alex is passionate about social justice focused on queer and trans liberation for people of color, sex work decriminalization, and increasing sex positivity by creating better capacity and access to comprehensive pleasure based sex education.

Alejandro Contreras grew up in sunny Santa Barbara and moved up to the Sacramento area where he earned his BA in Social Work from CSUS. Currently he works at Gender Health Center in Sacramento as its Healthcare Services Director supporting and creating sustainable health services catered to transgender, gender queer, non-binary and non-conforming communities as well as providing learning opportunities for healthcare providers. He is also the site study manger for the TRIUMPH Project, a study that focuses on PrEP access and Trans communities. He is currently working on his Master’s in Social Work from USC with an emphasis in social change and policy. Alejandro has been living with HIV for 10 years and has devoted much of his young life to advocacy, social justice, policy change and visibility for people living with HIV and queer communities. When not being a instrument for social action, he spends his free time playing video games, going to music festivals and cooking extravagant meals.

Loren Renee Jones is a 65 year old African American woman who has lived with the HIV virus for at least 33 years. She resides in Berkeley, Ca. and is the mother of two women, One 43 years old, and one 31 years old. As part of her journey of serving the HIV community of which she is a part, she has served on the Oakland TGA Ryan White Part A Planning Council from 1989-1991, 2011-2017, and 2018-present. Within that body, she held membership on the PLWH/A, Quality, Data, & Services, prevention and Executive committees.She is a founding member and has served on the board of Directors for Positive Women’s Network-usa. Loren is currently a member of the Anchor Study community advisory board as well as the Amfar Cure Research community advisory board. She will be serving as chair of the Center for Prevention Studies community advisory board (UCSF) beginning in July 2018, Loren cooks, eats, and watches T.V. well while working on social justice issues.

My role at Bienestar has shown and demonstrated that my work experience and civic engagement work in HIV Tx and prevention is not only an extension of my personality, but also a reflection of my commitment and passion in social work. As such, my goal is to improve the well-being of vulnerable/disenfranchised populations and communities, advance social and economic justice, but also attempt to eradicate the stigma pressing from societal problems in complex and culturally diverse environments. I strongly believe that I can obtain these goals through the value-driven, scholarly and creative legislation advocacy, research and professional leadership training provided by the CHPRC Fellowship. Respectively, my areas of interest include but are not limited to; institutional analysis, social psychology, inequality and social change, community based participatory research (CBPR), co-occurring disorders, and behavioral health. Thus, in working with the CHPRC Fellowship, it will give me the opportunity to not only further challenge and strengthen my skills/competencies as a research associate, but also legitimize and advance research in areas that are vital in the HIV field.

Lestian McNeal is a community advocate that has spent the last 6 years working on progressive electoral and issues based campaigns. Beginning his electoral campaign career in Miami, FL on the 2012 Obama for America campaign and most recently, serving as the Field Director working to elect Stephanie Murphy and other Democrats to Congress in the Orlando, FL area, Lestian has an extensive record of using grassroots and community based efforts to fight for substantive change. Currently, Lestian serves as a Program Coordinator for Policy and Community Engagement at the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, CA.