THE PHARMICIST
Dr. Eric K. Farmer is an HIV clinical pharmacist at the Indiana University Health LifeCare Clinic at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. He was instrumental in starting formal clinical pharmacy services in 2009 at LifeCare, one of the largest providers of HIV medical services in the state of Indiana. At LifeCare, Dr. Farmer provides pharmacy services that include medication adherence counseling and patient education, drug information services, medication procurement, medication therapy management, and medical care coordination services. He currently serves as a clinical preceptor for APPE students, PGY1 residents, and PGY2 residents at IU Health and is on the clinical faculty of the Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center. He is involved in the PGY2 ID Residency Advisory Committee as well as the Indiana HIV/STD Advisory Council with the Indiana State Department of Health. Dr. Farmer graduated from Butler University with his Doctor of Pharmacy in 2007. He then completed an ASHP-accredited PGY1 pharmacy residency at Eskenazi Health (formerly Wishard Health Services) in Indianapolis, and subsequently an ASHP-accredited PGY2 HIV specialty pharmacy residency at the Center for HIV/AIDS Care and Research at Boston Medical Center.
THE DOCTOR
Dr. W. David Hardy currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lives in Washington, D.C. His previous professional experience includes serving as Senior Director of Research at Whitman-Walker Health in D.C. (2015-2018), Chief Medical Officer of Calimmune, a translational science company investigating gene-modified cellular therapies as a potential cure for HIV (2013-2015) and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (2002-2013). Dr. Hardy has cared for persons with HIV infection since 1982 and conducted research on HIV and related diseases since 1984. Dr Hardy currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) and Chair of the Education Committee of the American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM). He has worked with several community-based organizations, including AIDS Research Alliance, Alliance for Housing and Healing, Being Alive-Empowering People with HIV/AIDS, Project Angel Food, and AIDS Project Los Angeles.
THE ACTIVIST
Moisés Agosto-Rosario is a longtime treatment advocate and educator for people living with HIV/AIDS. A frequent public speaker and writer in both English and Spanish, Moisés has played a crucial role in ensuring that communities of color have equal access to care, treatment, and lifesaving information and has won numerous awards for his work with the HIV community. He is currently the Director of Treatment for NMAC (formerly known as the National Minority AIDS Council). Before joining NMAC, he worked as program manager for the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) with the HIV Collaborative Fund for HIV Treatment Preparedness, a project of the Tides Foundation. In this role, he was responsible for grant making activities in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Africa. Previous to ITPC he served as the Vice President and Managing Director for Community Access, a Nelson Communications Company and member of the Publicis Healthcare Group. Moisés served as the editor of SIDA Ahora, the Spanish publication of the People with AIDS Coalition of New York, and was an active member of ACT UP. Moisés graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras with a B.A. in Literature and Education.
THE ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Enid Vázquez has been Associate Editor of POSITIVELY AWARE ever since she joined the magazine in 1995. She earned her B.A. in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She interned at The Chicago Reporter and was a cub reporter for The Hartford Courant, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. Her freelance work has appeared in publications around the country. She became interested in health reporting because of the importance it has on people’s lives. It is a privilege to work on behalf of people living with HIV/AIDS, Enid says. She believes that HIV is as a much condition fueled by societal discrimination as it is by a virus. As such, it makes her reporting socio-political as well as medical. She enjoys reporting on medical updates and making them relatable to readers’ lives. Enid has a special interest in sexual violence and sexual freedom, and in serving the sex trade worker and transgender communities.
THE EDUCATOR
Carla Blieden, PharmD, MPH, AAHIVP completed her Doctor of Pharmacy, Master of Public Health, and PGY1 Residency at the University of Southern California. She is certified as an HIV pharmacist and has worked as the clinical pharmacist at the Maternal, Child, and Adolescent/Adult Center, a family-centered HIV clinic in Los Angeles, for almost a decade. She works directly with patients focusing on adherence to HIV medication, managing other chronic diseases, and analyzing HIV medication resistance. Carla is adjunct faculty at USC School of Pharmacy where she lectures on HIV and her primary focus is the integration of Public Health within the school curriculum. She reviewed the DHHS guidelines and pull-out drug chart for this guide.