Dawn Averitt is the Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors for The Well Project, a non-profit organization formed in 2002 to improve the lives of women living with HIV and AIDS and change the course of the AIDS pandemic through a comprehensive focus on treatment and prevention for women. Dawn was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 at age 19 and has since become one of the nation’s most prominent HIV and AIDS advocates as well as an accomplished speaker and published writer on women’s health issues. As the founder of the Women’s Research Initiative on HIV/AIDS (WRI), Dawn has been instrumental in shifting the research paradigm to include more women and people of color.

In 2010, Dawn was named to the Presidential Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). Her numerous board and panel affiliations range from a Food and Drug Administration Advisory Panel to several NIH Working Groups. Dawn is a member of the Perinatal HIV Guidelines Working Group as well as a member of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council. She has served on the organizing committees of several important scientific conferences, such as the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections and the National Women and HIV Conference. Dawn also serves as an advisory board member for most of the pharmaceutical companies involved in the HIV arena. In July 2007, Dawn received a Women Leading Global Change Award from the World YWCA for her leadership in the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

Richard Averitt joined The Well Project (TWP) in early 2002 to help his sister, Dawn, evolve the vision of TWP into a sustainable public service organization. He now acts as the chief technology strategist for The Well Project and is spearheading the development of a global TWP web portal. Richard has been creating and managing businesses for 15 years as either a partner or proprietor in various industries. He is delighted to apply his business knowledge towards a cause that will benefit real people, in very real ways, in their everyday lives.

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Abby Charles joined The Well Project Board of Directors in the Spring of 2012. She presently works as a Program Manager at the Institute for Public Health Innovation, the Public Health Institute for DC, MD and VA. Ms. Charles joined the Institute after serving for five years at The Women's Collective, a nationally-recognized organization providing care, prevention, and advocacy services for women, girls and their families living with and at risk for HIV in the Metropolitan DC area. Leveraging her knowledge and experience in sexual health and HIV, Ms. Charles provides leadership and coordination for two programs in DC and Northern Virginia that aim to increase the participation of people living with HIV/AIDS in medical care using a network of peer Community Health Workers and by increasing connectedness among clinical and non-clinical service providers. In this role she has been an advocate for including peers as integral members of the interdisciplinary care team and as essential members of the health system in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Ms. Charles is involved in various community HIV coalitions and community advisory boards (CABs)including the DC Community Coalition, the DC D–Center for AIDS Research CAB, and the GW University HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) CAB. Ms. Charles also volunteers on the Board of Directors for The Women’s Collective and the Alumnae Association of her High School Alma Mater, Bishop Anstey High School, as well as serves as the language arts coordinator at the Cultural Academy for Excellence.

A dancer and performing artist, Ms. Charles performs with the Taurus Broadhurst Dance company as well as with other dance and theater companies. In the fall of 2012, Ms. Charles will be featured as a monthly host of CaribNation Television a Caribbean based television show that airs in the DC region as well as in 19 islands of the Caribbean.

An alumnus of George Washington University, Ms. Charles earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Science and a Master’s of Public Health in Global Health. In 2006 Ms. Charles was awarded the George Washington University Martin Luther King Junior Award for Service and was honored with an Impact award from the GW Black Alumni Association. Ms. Charles is also an inductee of the George Washington University Wall of Fame.

Jennifer Johnsen began writing and editing articles for The Well Project in December 2010. As a physician trained in public health, she is committed to empowering women to be active participants in their own health. She strives to provide easily accessible and medically accurate information while recognizing women’s unique needs.

Most recently, Dr. Johnsen conducted a literature review for IAPAC (International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care) that is being used to develop guidelines to improve adherence to HIV treatment regimens. She was also acknowledged for her analytic and written contribution to a book by the World Bank entitled “The Global HIV Epidemics among Men Who Have Sex with Men.” Before her HIV/AIDS work, Dr. Johnsen served as Director of Health Programs for The Health Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of lesbians and other members of the LGBT community through education, advocacy, support, and access to care.

Dr. Johnsen earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Yale University, finished a master of science in public health at the Colorado School of Public Health, and completed her medical training at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also a qualified independent instructor of mindfulness-based stress reduction, and a strong advocate of the value of mindfulness in promoting health.

Krista Heitzman Martel oversees The Well Project’s online resources including the web portal, social media, A Girl Like Me blog and e-newsletter, as well as the mobile application launched in 2012. Krista began working in the area of HIV education in 1995, shortly after her sister was diagnosed with HIV. Struck by the amount of stigma attached to the disease, as well as the lack of available resources for women living with HIV at that time, Krista was inspired to focus her career’s efforts on advocacy for HIV+ women, reducing stigma, as well as providing easy-to-use and language-appropriate information to people living with HIV and their providers. Today, Krista is excited to see and participate in advancements in HIV treatment, research and the quality of life for many living with HIV, but the ongoing social stigma, ever-increasing rates of infection in women and lack of universal treatment access continue to fuel her passion for her work at TWP.

Prior to her work at TWP, Krista helped develop and implement several women's peer treatment education training programs for HIV+ women in partnership with W.O.R.L.D., assisting in training over 40 teams of women across the US to conduct 'HIV Universities' in their communities. Krista also was the Vice President at Visionary Health Concepts, where she supervised the production of over 40 topical low-literacy educational booklets/comic books in English and Spanish related to HIV and hepatitis.

Tonia Poteat has been involved in the fight against AIDS since 1989 when she began volunteering at an AIDS service organization while in college. She is a certified HIV Specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine. She has devoted her clinical practice to providing compassionate, knowledgeable medical care to people with HIV since 1996. She serves as a consultant clinical trainer for the Southeast AIDS Training and Education Center as well as the Region III STD/HIV Prevention Training Center. She currently cares for patients at Chase Brexton Health Services in Baltimore while completing her PhD at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Ms. Poteat graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1991. She received a Master of Medical Science degree from Emory University’s Physician Assistant Program in 1995 and a Master of Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory in 2005.

CEO/Managing Director at Reed International Law & Consulting, LLC

Kim specializes in international business law, such as mergers & acquisitions, corporate governance and compliance, emerging markets, infrastructure/project finance, international litigation and arbitration, and advising nonprofit organizations and start-up companies. Her expertise is in Russian and central/eastern European countries, but has worked on transactions and litigation on six continents and over 30 countries. In her consulting practice, Kim has also advised presidential and other national candidates around the world on creating field operations/campaigns among expat populations outside their home countries. She is admitted to the bars of Washington, DC, Maryland and California, as well as several federal courts.

Deputy Director of Access, Advocacy & Innovation for AIDS United

Ms. Riordan's HIV/AIDS work spans back to the late 1980's when she began working with gay men who were dying of AIDS. Before her current job with AIDS United (previously National AIDS Fund), she served as Executive Director of Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Diseases (WORLD) for 7 years. Through working with both HIV+ gay men and HIV+ women, Maura has seen how gender inequities, racism, poverty and homophobia are fueling the HIV epidemic. She has dedicated a significant amount of work to raising the profile of HIV+ women in the epidemic and working to stop a trajectory for American women that mirrors the global reality of women serving as the majority of those infected with HIV.

Managing Director at The Strategic Continuum Company

Valerie has over 18 years of strategic business planning and tactical execution with a primary focus on patient and consumer communications, including grass-roots and community-based initiatives including the development of the HIV University Peer-Based Treatment Education Training Program, which helped 40 teams of women start peer-based treatment education programs in their communities. While she has worked in several specialty disease areas, Valerie has largely concentrated in HIV disease, helping pharma and biotech companies better engage patients in accessing HIV treatment.

Kelly Womack joined The Well Project in early 2002 to manage the organization's accounting records. Over the years, her role has evolved to include everything from accounting and administrative work to anything needed to help keep The Well Project running smoothly and efficiently. She has overseen direct mail initiatives, responding to general inquiries for TWP, facilitating technical issues and learned to use complex CMS software. Today, Kelly supports the Executive Director and the Director of Online Services by providing support for the organization's financial and operational functions on a day-to-day basis. Kelly enjoys the rewards in applying her knowledge to such a worthy cause.