In this issue:

  • Shero of the Month: Octavia Y. Lewis, MPA
  • PWN Hits Big Screens Across the World
  • Catch PWN-USA at the Biomedical HIV Summit!
  • Want to Serve on the Board of Directors of the Fiercest Network of Women Living with HIV Around?
  • Complete Our Member Survey and Be Entered to Win $100.
  • Vote for PWN for POZ Best Video Series!

Shero of the Month: Octavia Y. Lewis, MPA

Our PWN Shero of the Month for November is Octavia Y. Lewis. She sits on PWN’s Board of Directors and is an activist, advocate, mother, and scholar. She is currently a Community Ambassador with AmidaCare.

As a transgender woman of color living with HIV, she understands the intersectionality, nuances, and complexities of her identities and how they correlate with the world around her. While employed at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, she led all transgender programming and services, providing the youth with transferable skills they need to navigate systems, while helping them find their voices to advocate for themselves.

Octavia’s proudest achievement is living beyond the national life expectancy of 35 years old for women of trans experience. “Surpassing the statistic has fueled my drive and passion to continue to fight not only for equality but equity for my community of trans and gender non-conforming individuals,” she explained.

Read more here

Nominate your shero for PWN Shero of the Month here!


PWN Hits Big Screens Across the World in

Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2018: Alternate Endings, Activist Risings

PWN-USA is thrilled to be one of six fierce activist organizations and collectives invited to produce a short film for Visual AIDS’ Day With(out) Art 2018: Alternate Endings, Activist Risings. Our film will be screened on and around World AIDS Day December 1, alongside the short films produced by the SERO Project, VOCAL NY, ACT UP NY, the Tacoma Action Collective, and the SPOT, at events in approximately 100 venues across the world!

Join us on Facebook at 10:30am EST TODAY, Nov. 28, to see the trailer! (It will still be available as a video at that link after 10:30am!) The full film will be available on our website and social media after December 15.

Screening events, some with panel discussions and presentations, will be happening in New York City, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Fort Worth, Jackson, Los Angeles, Memphis, Seattle, St. Louis, Tacoma, and Washington, D.C.–as well as in dozens of other cities around the U.S.

Learn more or find a screening near you here!

Catch PWN-USA at the Biomedical HIV Summit in L.A.!

PWN-USA members and staff will be at the Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit next week in beautiful Los Angeles, California, representing U.S. women living with HIV. We hope you will join us for some of these discussions and presentations.

Whether you are at the summit or at home, you can follow us on Twitter to get in on the conversation by using the hashtags #pwnspeaks and #biomed.

Here is where you will find us at the summit!

  • Opening Plenary: #MeToo Movement and the Intersection with Trauma-Informed HIV Prevention. Dec. 3, 8:30 am-10:00 am. Diamond Ballroom 4
  • Advancing Racial Justice in the HIV Response: Unlearning Racism 101. Dec. 3, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm. Diamond Ballroom 1
  • Trans Justice Is Gender Justice: Here’s Why. Dec. 3, 2:45 pm – 4:15 pm. Diamond Ballroom 2
  • PrEP-ception: PrEP and Reproductive Health. Dec. 3, 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm. Platinum H
  • Women of Color & Community Mobilization. Dec. 4, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm. Platinum J
Get more info here

Want to Serve on the Board of Directors of the Fiercest Network of Women Living with HIV Around?

Exciting news! Positive Women’s Network – USA is recruiting new members for our Board of Directors. The deadline to apply is Dec. 10.

We are proud that our Board consists entirely of women, including women of trans experience, openly living with HIV, who represent the communities most impacted by the U.S. epidemic.

We welcome any self-identified women living with HIV in the U.S. to self-nominate for a seat on the board. As part of our commitment to racial and gender justice, we especially seek board members who:  

  • represent communities most impacted by the epidemic and least represented in policy spheres: people of trans experience; Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and multiracial women; folks ages 30 and under; and based in the U.S. South; and

  • bring relevant life, organizational development and strategy development experience, including but not limited to: experience in parenting; electoral organizing and base building; campaign planning and policy work; fundraising, financial management, human resources, and serving on boards.

Learn more and apply here before Dec. 10!

Complete Our Member Survey and Enter to Win $100

Our members are our strength! In order to better understand your needs, priorities, accomplishments, and hopes, we are asking all of our members to complete our 2018 Member Survey. In exchange, you can enter our raffle for a $100 gift card.

The survey should take less than half an hour to complete, is completely confidential and will not ask you for your name, contact information, or any other identifying information.

Upon completing the survey, you will be given a link to fill out your name and contact info on a form to be entered in a raffle for a $100 gift card. This form is not linked to your individual response to the survey.

The survey will close at 11:59pm PST on Wednesday, December 5.
Fill out the member survey now!

Last Chance to Vote for PWNCares for POZ Best Video Series!

We are honored that our interactive multimedia series, #PWNCares, has been nominated for Best Video Series in the POZ Awards!

We are proud of these resources created by and for women living with HIV to reach recently diagnosed and/or isolated women, addressing some of the toughest challenges they face and offering an opportunity to be in community.

Be sure to vote by the World AIDS Day deadline: Saturday, December 1, 2018.

Vote now!