Chief Executive Officer
SHAYLA
KNIGHTON-BLACK
Chief Operating Officer
ALYSSA CRAWFORD
Research and Data Director
LYNNEA
RAILEY
Program Director
TALISSA
GERALDINO
Conference Liaison
KIA MICHELLE
BENBOW
Communications and Narrative Director
MARIO
CASTILLO
Membership and Community Partnerships Director
PORCHIA
DEES
Porchia Dees is a part of the first generation of children who were born HIV positive, diagnosed in 1986 and a native of San Bernardino California. She considers herself an Artivist, which combines the passions of art and activism together. Porchia graduated with her BS from the University of California, Riverside and has been working in the HIV Direct Services and advocacy field for over 10 years now. Porchia is currently enrolled in a Masters in Social Work program at Azusa Pacific University and working towards achieving her Master’s in Social Work. Porchia is the co-creator of the Lifetime Survivors Network. Helping others and giving back to her community is her passion. Educating people on the topic of HIV, and public speaking has become her calling. She feels she did not choose this life; it was given to her. With that being said, most importantly, her goal is to touch and inspire as many lives as she can with her story and with Hope!!!
Shayla Knighton-Black is a seasoned public health leader and doctoral candidate with over a decade of experience advancing HIV prevention, health equity, and community-based programming across the Southern United States. With a passion for addressing the social determinants of health, Shayla has led strategic initiatives focused on monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, and stigma reduction, particularly among Black communities. She currently serves as Manager of Operations for a national HIV prevention initiative and is the founder of a consultancy agency dedicated to culturally grounded health education. Shayla is pursuing her DrPH at Florida A&M University, with research centered on internalized stigma and retention in care among adults living with perinatally acquired HIV.
Alyssa Crawford began her advocacy career at 19, after going public with her HIV positive status. At the time, she was a student at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University where she was elected the 2012-2013 Miss Junior Attendant, deeming her the first openly HIV- positive campus queen. From such, she used her platform to further heighten her advocacy both on and off campus. Upon graduation, she became the Outreach supervisor for the #1 consumer-voted agency in HIV clinical care within Florida’s Big Bend region, MAACA, or the Minority Alliance for Advocating Community Awareness and Action (MAACA) inc. Her advocacy expanded in 2020 when she became 1 of 4 HIV positive women in America that breastfed while successfully maintaining an HIV negative child. This experience earned her a seat at the Well Project’s 2022 Perinatal roundtable, which consisted of over 200 infectious disease clinicians exploring informed decision making and research regarding breast and chest feeding in America. In addition, she recently grew an immense interest in HIV criminalization law reform with hopes of being part of the upcoming change in Florida. Alyssa has previous work experience with Duke University’s Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Evidence 2 Practice, or E2P Program, an initiative designed to increase interest in HIV science careers amongst minority students at colleges and universities. Alyssa’s lived- experience being a vocal advocate for people with HIV has earned her various recognition throughout television, radio, and print media. Alyssa serves as the Research and Data Director to the Life-Time Survivors network, a 501©3 non-profit and support group consisting of lifetime-survivors of HIV across the globe. In her personal time, Alyssa enjoys being a mother, spending time with loved ones, traveling, and recreational scuba diving. Alyssa believes in living life to the fullest, as limits are mere concepts one morph in one’s head.
Lynnea Railey is a proud, vibrant, woman who has devoted her life to serving the HIV/AIDS community. Her career as an HIV advocate started when she did her first public speaking engagements at the age of 7. From that day forward Lynnea has used her story to bring awareness, education, and hope to anyone willing to listen. She is currently working as a tax preparer for Intuit. She has worked for University of San Diego’s iSTRIVE Research Lab as a Peer Navigator for the Women SHINE study, co-facilitating weekly group sessions and providing psychoeducation. She serves as a member of the UCLA-CDU CFAR Community Advisory Board where she spent 3 years serving as the Chairperson. She has also served as a member of the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV/AIDS (2013-2014) and an APLA Peer Consultant in 2013. Mrs. Railey has been featured in the Los Angeles Times twice, for testifying before the Governor’s Budget Committee in 2009, and again for her participation in AIDS Walk LA in 2009. She was the recipient of the Sister Love 2020 Leading Women Society Award and the LA HIV/AIDS Women’s Task Force Peer Leadership Award, both in 2012. Mrs. Railey is newly married and lives in West Hollywood, CA with her husband and two children.
Talissa Geraldino is an HIV advocate and Registered Nurse living in Florida. She was born with HIV and diagnosed at five years old. Her diagnosis led her to educate others about HIV after being stigmatized by a virus that is commonly misunderstood. She’s worked in several different environments such as urgent care, skilled nursing, correctional facilities, long term acute care, dialysis, and HIV/STD education. As an active member of the HIV community, she’s had opportunities to speak publicly about her experiences living with HIV in schools, to at-risk youth, as a panelist and at conferences. She’s attended conferences such as Biomedical Prevention, USCHA, and Positive Living and volunteered twice for a Honduran Orphanage for children living with HIV. Her ambition is to extend her skills and compassion to the children and mothers in Africa and provide HIV education to end the stigma that surrounds it.
Kia Michelle Benbow, known professionally as Kia LaBeija, is an image maker and storyteller born and raised in the heart of New York City, Hell’s Kitchen. Her multidisciplinary approach to art making includes photography, text, movement based performance, collage, installation and film. She composes cinematic and theatrical autobiographical and autofictional works by staging, re-imagining, sometimes documenting in real time, or all of the above. Her performative self-portraits embody memory and dream-like imagery to narrate complex stories at the intersections of womanhood, sexuality, and navigating the world as lifetime survivor of HIV and woman of African American and Filipino descent. She’s presented work at The Whitney, The Tate Modern, The Brooklyn Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Museum of The City of New York, The Bronx Museum, and LACMA to name a few. In recent years she has received commissions from PAC NYC, Performa, Performance Space New York and WNYC. Heavily involved in New York’s Iconic House and Ballroom scene for over a decade, Kia was a member of the Royal House of LaBeija from 2012 to 2019. She received a BA from the New School University and is a 2019 Creative Capital Awardee alongside her partner Taína Larot.
Mario Castillo, a passionate and resilient activist from Houston, Texas, has turned his personal journey into a powerful mission for change. Mario graduated from Baylor University with a degree in business and has since dedicated his life to advocacy. His drive is deeply personal—shaped by the memory of childhood friends who, like him, were born positive but never had the same opportunities to thrive. With access to antiretroviral therapy, living a long, healthy life with HIV is possible. Mario is determined to ensure others know that, too. He works tirelessly to fight against HIV stigma, champion the rights of those living with HIV, and provide guidance through education, support, and empowerment. With a heart for global impact, Mario envisions reaching communities worldwide—delivering resources, securing funding, and aspiring hope where it's needed most.