Conference Co-Chairs

Jonathan Mermin is the Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention at CDC, overseeing a broad range of public health programs, surveillance, research, and policy, and an annual budget of $1.1 billion. From 2009 to 2013, he was Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, leading the agencies domestic HIV prevention activities. He also served as the Director of CDC-Kenya for 3 years and the Director of CDC-Uganda for 7 years.

Mermin worked in the California Department of Health Services, and was an internal medicine resident at San Francisco General Hospital, and a preventive medicine resident at CDC. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford University School of Medicine, and received his MPH from Emory University.

Dr. Eugene McCray is Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) in National Center for HIV/AID, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP). Dr. McCray joined the Division in August 2014 and brings many years of domestic and global experience in HIV and TB prevention and control to his work in DHAP. He was instrumental in CDC’s efforts from the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and in 2000 he helped to stand up and led CDC’s Global AIDS Program. Dr. McCray began his career at CDC in 1983 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer.

Dr. McCray recently was the Chief of the International Research and Programs Branch in DTBE. Prior to this position, Dr. McCray was the Acting Deputy Director in the Coordinating Office for Global Health at CDC from 2004 to 2007 and Director of CDC’s Global AIDS Program from 2000 to 2004. In these positions, Dr. McCray directed and developed epidemiological, programmatic, and research activities, and facilitated collaboration across CDC, with other US government agencies, multilateral and international agencies, and Ministries of Health. He is recognized globally as an expert in HIV/AIDS and TB and has dedicated most of his career to improving the health of underserved communities both in the United States and globally.

Dr. McCray completed his clinical training in internal medicine at North Carolina Memorial Hospital, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1983 and an Infectious Diseases Fellowship in 1992 at University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, Washington. He has authored or co-authored more than 60 scholarly articles and has received numerous awards for his scientific and public health contributions, including the US Public Health Service’s highest honor award, the PHS Distinguished Service Medal, and CDC’s William C. Watson Medal of Excellence award.

Janet C. Cleveland is the Deputy Division Director, Prevention Programs in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA. During her tenure at CDC, Ms. Cleveland has held several leadership positions, including Chief of the Capacity Building Branch in DHAP, where she provided counsel to the Division Director on national programs and policies to develop and sustain community capacity for planning and implementing HIV prevention programs, and providing priority prevention services to affected communities. She also served as Associate Director for Community Planning and Capacity Building in the Office of the Director at DHAP.

At CDC, Ms. Cleveland has served as Senior Program Analyst in the Office of the Director, National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention (NCHSTP), and Deputy Branch Chief for the Training and Education Branch of the National Immunization Program. Prior to these positions, she developed, implemented, and evaluated HIV prevention education programs, materials, and training curricula as a Health Education Specialist in the Divisions of STD and HIV/AIDS Prevention at CDC.

Before joining CDC, Ms. Cleveland worked for several years in the public health sector, focusing on HIV/AIDS and STD prevention. At the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta, Ms. Cleveland developed programs and policies to increase the participation of persons of color and women in AIDS clinical trials and research. She also served in a number of state- and local-level public health positions, including AIDS Project Director at Community Action Against Addiction in Cleveland, Ohio; Health Educator and Disease Intervention Specialist with the Ohio State Department of Health, also in Cleveland; and Public Health Project Manager with the Mississippi Safety Council in Jackson, Mississippi.

Ms. Cleveland received both her Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science in Health Education, with a focus in Community Health, from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has also completed Harvard University’s Women of Color in Public Health Leadership Institute. Ms. Cleveland has served as a co-author on various publications related to HIV prevention.

Amy Lansky serves as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at CDC, detailed to the Office of National Drug Control Policy and Office of National AIDS Policy in Washington, DC. Since 1991, when she started working at CDC, Dr. Lansky’s achievements have included developing and evaluating behavioral interventions, designing and implementing surveillance systems, and conducting epidemiologic research to inform HIV prevention programs and policy development. Dr. Lansky has published on issues such as uptake of HIV prevention guidelines, sampling methods for reaching high-risk populations, HIV testing behaviors, and HIV among persons who inject drugs. Dr. Lansky holds Doctoral and Masters degrees in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a certificate in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology from Emory University.

David Purcell is the Deputy Director for Behavioral and Social Science of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He oversees four branches that focus on behavioral research, communications, program evaluation, and statistics and cost modeling. From 2007 to 2012, he was chief of the Prevention Research Branch in DHAP where he was responsible for overseeing the development of both the ECHPP (2010) and the CAPUS (2012) funding announcements.

Prior to starting work as a behavioral scientist at CDC in 1996, Dr. Purcell was a practicing attorney in Atlanta. He was on the founding boards of two community-based organizations, Positive Impact, designed to provide free mental health services to low income persons infected with and affected by HIV, and YouthPride, an organization to support the needs of LGBT youth in Atlanta.

Dr. Purcell is the author of over 100 scientific publications. He received a B.A. in psychology and economics from Vanderbilt University, a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Emory University.

Dr. Carl W. Dieffenbach is the Director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Dieffenbach has oversight of a global HIV/AIDS research portfolio of over one billion dollars and a staff of over 150 federal employees. Dr. Dieffenbach is responsible for planning, implementing, managing, and evaluating programs in 1) fundamental basic laboratory research, 2) discovery and development of therapies and treatment strategies for HIV infection and its co-infections and/or complications through basic research and clinical trials, and 3) discovery and development of vaccines, topical microbicides, and other prevention strategies through basic research and clinical trials. Dr. Dieffenbach received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Maryland in 1976 and his Ph.D. in biophysics from The Johns Hopkins University in 1983.

Laura W. Cheever, MD, ScM is the Associate Administrator of the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). She provides leadership and technical expertise in the administration of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program which serves over half a million people with HIV domestically and in HRSA’s global HIV/AIDS program. Prior to holding this position, she was the chief of the HIV Education Branch in the HIV/AIDS Bureau, serving as the national director of the AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC) program.

Dr. Cheever is board certified in infectious diseases and continues to see patients. Her primary goals are increasing access to and retention in HIV care, improving patient outcomes, and the integration of HIV prevention, Hepatitis C treatment, and substance abuse treatment into HIV primary care. She has trained at Johns Hopkins University, the University of California, San Francisco, and Brown University.

Maria Courogen, MPH, is the Director of the Office of Infectious Disease at the Washington State Department of Health. In this capacity, she oversees the Department’s work related to HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis. Ms. Courogen received her Master’s of Public Health at Boston University in 1993 with an emphasis in Social and Behavioral Science. She started her work in public health as an AIDS surveillance epidemiologist at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. After moving to Washington State in 1996, she acted as the Senior Epidemiologist/Manager of the Infectious Disease and Reproductive Health Assessment Unit before becoming Director of the Office and AIDS Director for Washington State in 2010. Ms. Courogen is also the Chair of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors.

Dr. Leandro Mena is an Infectious Disease trained physician and experienced researcher in the field of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, with special interest in role that social determinants of health play in perpetuating these epidemics in sexual and gender minority populations. Dr. Mena serves as medical director of the Crossroads Clinic (publicly funded STD/HIV clinic), and Open Arms Healthcare Center (LGBT clinic) in Jackson. MS.

Dr. Mena is an Associate Professor of Medicine, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and directs the Center for HIV/AIDS Research, Education & Policy at the Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for Elimination of Health Disparities. He earned his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and his MPH from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Thomas Davis is a creator of thepozlife.com, a website dedicated to educating the public about HIV and encouraging those living with the virus. After being diagnosed with HIV in 2013, he wanted to use his story to inspire others. Davis has been involved with AIDS Project Los Angeles' new testing initiative, R3VNG (Reshaping 3 Letters through the Voices of the Now Generation). The group has created a web series called "Truth be Told," in which they discuss HIV, prevention, and several other issues in the gay black community. Davis is also an NMAC Scholar and a youth ambassador for The Human Rights Campaign and National Youth HIV AIDS Awareness Day. Thomas received his BFA from AMDA College and Conservatory of the Arts.