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February 27, 2009

Biographical information on ACSWP’s HIV/AIDS work group released

Group will prepare comprehensive study for 2010 General Assembly

by Bethany Furkin
Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has appointed eight people to participate in developing a new report on HIV/AIDS.

The 218th General Assembly (2008) directed the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy to develop and fund a comprehensive study on HIV and AIDS for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The study is to recommend compassionate action and give prophetic witness about the issues surrounding people living with HIV and AIDS in the United States and around the world. It will report to the 219th General Assembly (2010).

The biographical information on work group members:

Delfin W. Bautista: Bautista is a graduate student at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT. He has a Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in social work from Florida International University. He has served as a case worker with ActionAIDS in Philadelphia, where he worked primarily within the Latino community. Bautista is a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

Rev. Andrew Black, moderator: Black is the associate director of Religious Life and the associate chaplain at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. He is a graduate of the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law, the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Eckerd College. Black organized the Louisville HIV/AIDS campaign and has researched HIV/AIDS justice concerns in South Africa.

Kezia Ellison: Ellison is a clinical research assistant at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in human biology, human health and disease from Brown University. In high school, Ellison developed Pittsburgh’s Educating Teens about HIV/AIDS project, which is now a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization in its ninth year.  

Marco A. Grimaldo: Grimaldo is a policy and public affairs consultant for Bread of the World, an ecumenical organization urging policy makers to end hunger. He has also served as policy consultant to the Global AIDS Alliance, the AIDS National Interfaith Network and the 1998 Presidential Commission on AIDS. Grimaldo served on the Presbyterian AIDS Network for eight years. He is an elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.

Rev. Ann L. Hayman: Hayman developed and previously directed the Mary Magdalene Project, a long-term residential program in Reseda, CA, that helps prostitutes change their lives. She has been active in HIV/AIDS ministries since the 1980s and has served on committees at every level of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 

Dr. James A. Lemons: Lemons is a professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is also the director of the section of neonatal-perinatal medicine, the largest of its kind in the country. For more than 14 years, Lemons has been involved with the HIV/AIDS treatment program in Eldoret, Kenya. That program is a joint project of the IU School of Medicine and the Moi University School of Medicine in Eldoret. It was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Rev. Clive Neil: Neil is the pastor of Bedford Central Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, NY. He is an advocate for AIDS causes in New York City and serves with the Balm in Gilead’s Brooklyn AIDS Task Force. Neil has developed an AIDS ministry program in his congregation.

Marsha Fowler: Fowler is the ACSWP liaison assigned to this group. She is a professor of ethics, spirituality and faith integration at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, CA. She is also senior fellow at the Institute of Faith Integration there. Fowler has expertise in Christian ethics, bioethics and health care and has published journal articles and presented professional papers in these areas.

Cheryl B. Anderson, consultant: Anderson is an associate professor of Old Testament at Garrett-Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, IL. In 2008, she completed a seven-month sabbatical at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, where she researched the church’s response to HIV/AIDS. She has presented papers on HIV/AIDS in the United States and overseas.  Anderson is also an ordained minister and lawyer.

The group will be staffed by the Rev. Belinda M. Curry, ACSWP Associate for Policy Development and Interpretation, based in Louisville, KY. 

For more information about this project, please contact Belinda M. Curry or (800) 728-7228, x5813.