In this issue:

  • Meet Our Shero of the Month
  • Organizing Spotlight: Nevada AdvisoryTask Force on HIV Exposure Modernization
  • Meet Our 2021-2022 PWN Policy Fellows
  • Webinar You Won’t Want to Miss TODAY
  • Time to Party! PWN Is a Teenager
  • PWN Is Hiring

Meet Our Shero of the Month: Sophia Kass

Our June 2021 Shero of the Month is Sophia Kass of San Francisco, originally from Lebanon. Sophia is a PWN Gender Justice trainer and a 2019-2020 PWN Policy Fellow. As a woman of transgender experience, Sophia lived as an outcast in Lebanon; her future was dim and uncertain. Her gender identity was not accepted. People of trans experience were either “converted,” jailed, or killed. PWN Communications and Training Assistant Tiommi Luckett said, “Sophia is one of the kindest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. We met in 2017 at the Building Leaders of Color (BLOC) training of the trainers, and I knew I had met a sister, ally, and accomplice. Her role at the Transgender Law Center nurtured a sisterhood I couldn’t have imagined and didn’t know I needed.”

Sophia described her life in Lebanon as “buying time in what was a closet within a cage, inside a cage, inside a larger cage with no keys and no means of escape.” The first cage was the strict patriarchal structure her family subscribed to. She was expected to be the model “son” to make her father proud so he could make his father proud. Her second cage was her own body. She had to hide her gender identity with family and be somewhat free at night to live her truth in the clubs. In the underground clubs, Sophia hoped to have her womanhood validated through encounters with men, whom she says reminded her constantly “I wasn’t a woman.” The final cage was the Lebanese government. As a person with HIV, the only way to access life-saving medication for the condition was to register with the Ministry of Health’s HIV/AIDS monitoring program. Stigma from a documented HIV diagnosis forced Sophia deeper into secrecy for fear of losing health coverage and employment.

Read more about Sophia here

Organizing Spotlight:

Nevada Advisory Task Force on HIV Exposure Modernization

What do you do when you know the laws target a specific group of people? How do you amplify the concerns of the people who are impacted by those laws? What if you are a part of that group and not being represented at the discussion table? For Connie Shearer, PWN Policy Fellowship graduate, and other women living with HIV in Nevada, you organize to get a seat on the Nevada Task Force for HIV Exposure Modernization. We interviewed Connie to discuss the outcome of their work in modernizing Nevada’s HIV laws and the process of getting it done.

Q. Can you briefly describe the process you went through to get your bill to modernize HIV criminalization laws to the floor? e.g., how did you join the task force? How did you find bill sponsors? How did the language get drafted?

A. There was an open application process where people living with HIV were prioritized to have seats. However, when I attended their first meeting, no woman living with HIV was appointed, so SERO Project and the Center for HIV Law and Policy (CHLP) helped me draft a letter demanding that women be appointed after we had requested many times that meetings be suspended until women were appointed and they were not.

Q. What best practices can you share when working within a task force? Any lessons learned?

A. Collaboration is the key to success. Communication is a six-lane highway, not a two-lane street. When we use science, we win. Speak up more often about the issues people say we shouldn’t be discussing.

Read the full interview here

Meet Our 2021-2022 Policy Fellows

We are proud to announce the 2021-2022 class (year 5) of PWN-USA Policy Fellows! This program, now in its fifth year, will build the policy leadership bench for women and people of trans experience directly impacted by the epidemic and historically underrepresented in the federal health policy advocacy arena. The program kicked off on April 09, 2021, with an orientation webinar preluding a year-long curriculum where they will develop skills in policy analysis, research, coalition, and relationship building as emerging leaders in the field.

  • Lizzie Bellamy-Richardson (South Carolina)
  • Martha Cameron (Virginia)
  • Myra Franks (Alabama)
  • Erin Fulton (Nebraska)
  • Angela Hunt (Florida)
  • Leslie Williams (Texas)
  • Wonder Woman
    Learn more about the policy fellows here

Webinar You Won’t Want to Miss

Getting Our Voices Heard – Understanding Meetings

TODAY at 7pm ET/ 6pm CT/ 5pm MT/ 4 pm PT

You got your seat at the table–or maybe you’re creating your own table. Now what? In this webinar, we will share the skills successful leaders need in order to plan, structure, and facilitate meetings. Register today to learn the ins and outs of dynamic meeting facilitation whether in person or virtual. Do you have something to say?

We will discuss:

  • Preparation and recruitment;
  • The relevance of group agreements;
  • Preparing and executing an agenda;
  • How to keep people coming back to meetings, and
  • Social justice tool to stop facilitating meetings in ways that reinforce patriarchy and white supremacy structures.
    Register here

Time to Party! PWN Is a Teenager

Positive Women’s Network – USA is turning 13 this summer and we are bringing the heat!

Join us for our virtual beach BBQ bash on Friday, July 16 at 4 pm ET/3 pm CT/2 pm MT/1 pm PT. There will be a live DJ, dancing, prizes, and above all, a celebration!

We have a lot to celebrate:

  • 13 years of sisterhood.

  • 13 years of building power.

  • 13 years of fierce leadership.

  • 13 years of organizing & mobilizing.

  • 13 years of leading with love!

If you’re ready to party, click the pink button to RSVP!

RSVP here!

PWN Is Hiring

Operations Manager

About this role

The Operations Manager (OM) is the central administrative hub for PWN’s people (staff, board, and members), money (income, expenses, assets, and liabilities), and technology (systems and devices). The position holds a balance of big-picture and detail-level projects and responsibilities.

The OM oversees daily operations, supports project management and program reporting, manages infrastructure, operations, and technology for our national and remote offices, and creates and implements organizational policies and procedures. Reporting to a Senior Director, the Operations Manager is a member of the leadership team; as such, they provide guidance and input on the overall activities of the organization, while overseeing operational functions. Occasional travel may be required when traveling restrictions due to COVID-19 end.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the items listed below.

  1. Finance (40%): account for income and expenses through organized record-keeping.
  2. Operations (40%): provide staff and member-leaders with the material supplies, digital tools, and information management needed to implement programs smoothly and efficiently.
  3. Organizational Development (10%)
  4. Administrative and Logistical Support (10%)

Successful candidates will possess all of the following qualities and skills:

  • Systems thinking: We are looking for someone who really loves innovating and implementing systems, protocols, and processes. Applicants should demonstrate the ability to view a whole system with its parts and to develop processes that increase efficiency and impact.
  • Project Management: Applicants should have experience developing and tracking action plans, timelines for projects, deliverables, and reporting on data.
  • Highly organized: Applicants should thrive on attention to detail, and enjoy organizing and tracking materials, setting and managing priorities, tracking details of administrative work, project management, and event planning.
  • Self-directed: Applicants should love problem-solving; demonstrate initiative and accountability; be comfortable managing projects and volunteers as well as working independently.
  • Adaptable: Applicants should be comfortable working with constituencies with a broad range of professional experience and literacy levels; adaptive to shifting and evolving organizational priorities.
  • Communicative: Applicants should have excellent verbal and written communication skills and be skilled in interpersonal relations.
  • Tech-savvy: Applicants should be proficient in utilizing common office software, Google suite, online project tracking tools, be competent with basic social media, and comfortable navigating websites to manage vendor accounts and vendor communications.
  • Collaborative: Applicants should demonstrate that they are a great team player and listener with strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to work with staff and consultants remotely.
See the full job description here.

Organizing Director

About the Position

Reporting to a Co-Executive Director, the Organizing Director (OD) is a member of the senior staff, and as such, contributes to visioning and planning for the overall organization, represents the organization in key partnerships and coalition spaces, while contributing to a positive organizational culture, and a sustainable and healthy work environment. The Organizing Director creates, manages, and evaluates the effectiveness of the organizing program and strategy for PWN members and base, to ensure that it is aligned with PWN’s strategic priorities and goals. Central to the Organizing Director’s work is the development and implementation of mechanisms to ensure accountability to our national membership: women and transgender people living with HIV. The Organizing Director serves as a liaison between the community (members at large; chapters; state leads; and base of allies) and PWN’s policy, training, and communications departments. The Director’s specific areas of responsibility include the following:

  1. ORGANIZING STRATEGY Align our organizing strategy with other organizational goals, including policy priorities, leadership development, electoral strategy, base-building; racial, gender, and geographic equity goals.
    1. Manage systems to ensure that members are aware of and inform the development of our organizational strategy and direction
    2. Develop, execute and evaluate planned digital and field organizing campaigns for issue-based, integrated voter engagement, federal and state advocacy efforts.
    3. Develop, execute and evaluate rapid response organizing campaigns.
  2. PROJECT MANAGEMENT Develop, oversee, and monitor the organizing department work plan, including setting and tracking progress on goals and benchmarks.
    1. Create and implement systems to ensure alignment, quality, and impact of work from PWN membership, chapters, and state leads
    2. Manage grant deliverables related to the organizing department;
    3. Participate in fund development activities for the organizing program;
    4. Ensure that chapters, state leads, and members at large are supported to plan and lead advocacy campaigns and awareness activities aligned with PWN-USA policy and culture change priorities;
    5. Maintain and update tools and resources to support organizing activities;
  3. SUPERVISION: Supervise and delegate responsibilities to organizing staff, volunteers and consultants. Manage National Field Organizer and other staff.
  4. OTHER DUTIES AS ASSIGNED.
Read the full job description here