Avac Event
This interactive webinar invites HIV prevention advocates and movement workers to explore how storytelling can be a tool for resistance and possibility, especially now. Drawing on the Storytelling Project Model, we’ll examine the stories that shape our work, surface examples of resistance from within and beyond the HIV movement, and practice generating the emerging stories we need for the future we’re building.
Speaker
Oni Blackstock, MD, MHS
Founder and Executive Director, Health Justice
Avac Event
Join AVAC and partners for the launch of STI Advocacy Hubs and the introduction of new country-led advocacy agendas from Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. This webinar will highlight the key challenges shaping STI prevention, diagnostics, and care in each country, and outline priority actions to strengthen national responses. Speakers from partner organizations will share how these agendas aim to drive policy change and improve access to STI prevention tools.
Moderator: Alison Footman
Speakers:
Avac Event
This webinar outlined the transition to a country-led prevention framework, focusing on the new 2030 global targets and the integration of long-acting prevention tools. Participants learned how community-led organizations will take the lead in service delivery to ensure equitable access and sustainable health systems through the end of the decade.
Avac Event
The 20th edition of the International Conference on HIV Treatment, Pathogenesis, and Prevention Research (INTEREST) 2026 will take place on May 12-15, 2026.
The annual INTEREST Conference is the premier scientific conference for HIV in Africa, and brings together scientists involved in HIV treatment, pathogenesis, and prevention research from around the world. The conference showcases cutting-edge knowledge in the diagnosis and treatment of HIV and the prevention of HIV-1 acquisition. It continues to foster a community of African physicians and scientists to facilitate the implementation of local solutions for the management of people living with HIV and for the prevention of HIV transmission.
Avac Event
At the SYNChronicity conference, this morning plenary session will bring together nationally recognized leaders who exemplify true synchronicity across scientific discovery, clinical practice, policy, and real-world implementation. This session will highlight how aligning drug user health, long COVID and vaccine research, care delivery, advocacy, and public health strategy accelerates meaningful impact, advances innovation, and improves outcomes — particularly for communities most affected by chronic diseases.
Speakers will provide critical updates on biomedical HIV prevention, vaccine preparedness, and current research studies shaping the prevention landscape; explore the intersections with drug user health, highlighting models that bridge treatment, harm reduction, and community-based support; discuss lessons from long COVID research and chronic disease management to draw connections to advocacy, research equity, and patient-led movements; and share insights on synchronizing policy and research with public health priorities and marginalized community needs.
Speakers: Gregorio Millett, MPH; Mitchell Warren; JD Davids; and Judith Feinberg, MD
Avac Event
Advocacy requires us to understand that local actions connect to broader systemic change. This plenary session at AIDSWatch will discuss the interconnected nature of advocacy at the state, national, and global levels and highlight how policies, movements, and decisions influence one another. Participants will examine the tactics of our current administration, learn how grassroots work impacts national and global efforts, and identify how we can learn from each other and collaborate as we face unprecedented threats at every level.
Speakers: Kamaria Laffrey, SERO Project; John Meade, AVAC; Joseph Stango, AIDS United; Kelly Flannery, PWN
Moderator: Liz Kaplan
Avac Event
In today’s world of misinformation and geopolitical upheaval, are we more prepared or less prepared for the next pandemic than we were when COVID-19 hit?
Join the Center for Global Health Policy & Politics for a conversation with Bloomberg’s Global Health Editor, Jason Gale, former White House Global Health Security Coordinator Stephanie Psaki, and Senior Scholar and former USAID COVID-19 Vaccines Access Director Nina Schwalbe on the future of pandemics and global health.
Drawing on Gale’s award-winning reporting, the discussion will explore COVID’s enduring legacy and look ahead to what today’s environment of inequality, strained health systems, mental health challenges, and the rise of misinformation and anti-science narratives means for the future. Moderation by Professor Matthew Kavanagh and discussant remarks by Professor Rebecca Katz.
Avac Event
The annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) took place February 22–25, 2026, in Denver, Colorado.
AVAC’s visuals for presentations and discussions were seen across the conference. Access them here in an easy-to-use slide format.
Each day during CROI, AVAC, EATG, Fiocruz, TAG, and other partners hosted virtual webinars called Community Breakfast Clubs featuring researchers and advocates breaking down important prevention, treatment and cure science presented at CROI and the implications for the field.
Avac Event
The Community Breakfast Club is a joint initiative made possible through collaboration among AVAC, the European AIDS Treatment Group, the Treatment Action Group, Fiocruz, and other partners. They feature researchers and advocates discussing some of the most consequential science being presented at CROI.
Monday, February 23, 7-8am MT
Speakers
Moderator
Tuesday, February 24, 7-8am MT
Speakers
Moderator
Wednesday, February 25, 7-8am MT
Speakers
Moderator
Avac Event
The monthly Dapivirine Vaginal Ring (DVR) is a critical option in the HIV prevention tool kit, being entirely woman controlled, discreet, and very safe and simple to implement.
This webinar highlighted ongoing market access activities to ensure women have access to the monthly DVR; key learnings from community and government engagement activities; the perspective of local advocates in the HIV prevention space; and provided updates on the development of the 3-month DVR, which promises to be a more convenient and cost-effective product. Join The Choice Agenda to learn more.
Speakers:
Recording / Transcript / Slides / Resources
