A. Toni Young

A. Toni Young brings more than 18 years of experience in community mobilization, fiscal and personnel management and in creating effective collaborative partnerships in meeting the diverse needs of marginalized communities. In 1993, Ms. Young founded Community Education Group (CEG) and has served as the Executive Director since its inception. Originally founded as NWAP, it sought to organize individual women and organizations at the grassroots level, build a national movement, empower women, advocate and build coalitions on the issues associated with HIV and women. She has a long history of advocating for the coordination of services for women with HIV/AIDS and working with African American communities around HIV and other health issues. Ms. Young has worked in local, regional, and national settings.

Ms. Young has substantial experience in HIV program development, management, and evaluation, public and private sector funding development, HIV education and prevention campaigns, cultural competence, group and meeting facilitation, and needs assessments. As the Founder and Executive Director of CEG, she is responsible for the daily operation and management of the Washington, DC site; inclusive of all program development, fundraising, and staffing.

With a long history of advocating for coordination of services for women with HIV/AIDS and working with African American communities around HIV and other health issues, Ms. Young has created a path toward eliminating health disparities in communities of color. She Co-chaired the Women and HIV/AIDS Coalition of the National Organizations Responding to AIDS (NORA); Successfully planned and executed three regional forums concerning Women and HIV/AIDS as it relates to women's health for the National Women's Health Network (NWHN); Developed an application and program model to support a cross cultural study of women with Phambili Women's Organization (PWO), Cape Town, South Africa to compare the success of outreach methods to women in both countries

Some if Ms. Young's accomplishments include:

• Developed and presented HIV/AIDS congressional testimony for White House working group;
• Drafted governance documents for San Francisco HIV Prevention Planning Group, UCHAPS, and other agencies;
• Worked with lead staff of the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) to develop 1996 Ryan White application to states;
• Worked as a member of White House policy group to develop policy paper on HIV and Youth;
• Served on various Federal Panels and Committees including CDC Sterile Needle Committee, CDC meeting on Woman to Woman transmission, Ryan White Title I & II Review Committees;
• Successfully planned and executed three regional forums concerning Women and HIV/AIDS as it relates to women's health for the National Women's Health Network (NWHN);
• Assisted in planning of the first AIDS vigil in Washington, D.C.;
• Developed mass media campaign regarding STDs, Substance Abuse, and Pregnancy targeting adolescent girls and supporting collateral materials including Spirits, the bi-monthly newsletter of NWAP;
• Managed the National Women's Health Network (NWHN) Information Clearinghouse including the recruitment and retention of staff interns;
• Reviewed 1999 applications for Office of Minority Health;
• Wrote proposals, developed program plans, and coordinated conferences and meetings for issues around reproductive health, technical assistance, and grassroots organizing;
• Developed an application and program model to support a cross cultural study of women with Phambili Women's Organization (PWO), Cape Town, South Africa to compare the success of outreach methods to women in both countries;
• Delegate 2000 Democratic national Convention; and
• Consultant to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Regional Director-Region IX on HIV/AIDS.

Additionally, Toni served as the Co-Chair of the HIV Prevention Planning Group in San Francisco from 1998-2000. She has served as the Chair of the District of Columbia HIV Prevention Planning Council for the past three years and is on the steering committee for UCHAPS (Urban Coalition for HIV/AIDS Prevention Services).

In the four years she possessed her former role as community co-chair of the San Francisco HIV Prevention Planning Council, she facilitated a group of 27 community and government representatives who were responsible for the allocation of more than $8 million in federal and state resources. Toni worked in partnership with the local health department to plan and implement HIV prevention service delivery in San Francisco, as well as developed local and national HIV prevention policies. She assisted in the development of the Urban Coalition of HIV/AIDS Prevention Services (UCHAPS), a coalition of the six directly funded jurisdictions through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Additionally, Toni conducted coalition development, drafted correspondence, state and Federal budget issues, and policy recommendations. Since relocating back to Washington, D.C. in 2003, she has served as the Chair of the D.C. HIV Prevention Planning Council.

Toni served as Co-Principal Investigator of the Community Education Group's "Equal Access" HIV Vaccine Clinical Trial project. "Equal Access" (a 2-site project based in Washington, DC and Oakland, CA) was a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Minority AIDS Research Initiative-funded project. The primary goal of this project was to determine the facilitators and barriers to African Americans' participation in HIV vaccine clinical trials.

Transferring models from the theoretical to practical application on the community level embodies the work she has done over the past 18 years.