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Program Description

The Getting to Zero Coalition is excited to congratulate our 2021 Fellows for completing the Activist Academy Program! 

The Activist Academy Fellowship aims to train a team of HIV and AIDS activists in order to advocate for the community, mobilize others, and continue moving the conversation forward in Massachusetts. We’re proud to share that we recruited a team of passionate, energetic, and hardworking individuals dedicated to ending the HIV epidemic to build a movement in Massachusetts that will ripple to states and communities beyond.

This program trains and develops community activists in educating community members in issues related to HIV prevention and access to care for those living with HIV/AIDS. The Academy will equip participants with the comprehensive knowledge and tools to advocate on issues related to ending the HIV epidemic, mobilize and cultivate other activists, and educate community members and state officials.

The advocacy focuses for the 2021 cohort were: 

  • sexual health education, 
  • sex work decriminalization, 
  • overdose prevention, 
  • and housing access. 


Each team was connected with one or two bills related to their advocacy focus. Each team was tasked with creating a project that engages the community in policy awareness while advancing the goals of their advocacy focus. Please check out the team pages below to learn more about their projects! 

A special thank you to our amazing Mentors who partnered with us in this work. We are so grateful for the leadership, care, and time. 

A special thank you to our community partners who joined us for webinars and panels. We appreciate the knowledge you offered and learning you facilitated in this program.

Our Teams

Housing Access

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Sex Work Decriminalization

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Sexual Health Education

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Overdose Prevention

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While all of the topics covered by the GTZ AA had always been of interest to me, I had no experience to put on paper that conveyed that. This was a perfect introduction to more productive and professional experiences that I was longing to be a part of.
Rey Calabrese
Rey Calabrese2021 Fellow, they/them
Public health can be a big, hard, amorphous concept to define for people. Activist Academy is just one way for people to “do public health”, and it feels great doing just that! As someone committed to stopping the spread of HIV, Activist Academy and Getting to Zero MA has done a great job of preparing me to both engage in meaningful service and have those hard conversations. I feel more confident in my teamwork, presentation, leadership, and communication skills, all of which are necessary for doing impactful work. And the work never stops!
Andrew Cogliano
Andrew Cogliano2021 Fellow, he/they
I decided to participate in this program because I wanted to be a part of a fellowship that offered mentorship, guidance, and support to achieve a sustainable project outcome that had impacts on HIV & AIDS. I gained so much experience advocating with my team on what we needed to achieve our project goals and vision, in compromising to tailor our project to the current public health state of our communities, and in creative efforts like filmmaking. I feel that my professional and personal network has grown immensely through my time in the fellowship and this makes me really excited about the future.
Maya Correa
Maya Correa2021 Fellow, she/her
“Activism means that we steep ourselves in the issue, listen to people directly impacted by it, and work to change hearts and minds. The Activist Academy creates a platform from which participants can learn, grow, and use their imagination to impact change.”
Michael Cox
Michael Cox2021 Mentor, he/him
Rayna Danis
Rayna Danis2021 Fellow, she/her
Being surrounded by the right community, with all the right tools and resources, that is exactly how you’re going to determine the right path for you. I joined Getting to Zero to activate my yearning hope and leadership for public health equity across all marginalized communities.
JP Grant
JP Grant2021 Fellow, he/him
Activism, to me, is sparking movements to address community needs. As Activist Academy grows, I hope to see it continue to broaden the Fellows’, and subsequently the public’s, understanding of how HIV/AIDS impacts the community, thus creating a generation of activists who are comfortable shedding light on issues that have long been deemed taboo or forgotten about.
Jason Henriksen
Jason Henriksen2021 Fellow, he/him
Activism means putting in the work to make change -- to make things happen. The Activist Academy has connected me with new networks, and some truly amazing people that are passionate about HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and testing. I'm so excited to keep in touch with them after this, and continue working together.
Sasha N. Jimenez
Sasha N. Jimenez2021 Fellow, she/her/ellas
Akila Muthukumar
Akila Muthukumar 2021 Fellow, she/her
I learned a lot from people that are on the ground fighting for sex work decriminalization. This was a great opportunity to deeply explore a relevant topic that is affecting our community!
Stephanie Orozco
Stephanie Orozco2021 Fellow, she/her/ella
My participation in this program came from wanting to turn my outrage at inequities into something tangible and potentially change-making, work with a group of folks who are passionate about social impact work and learn about the impact of housing inequities at a local level. I noticed that I would read a Globe article, or see inequities playing out in my own community in real time, and feel helpless to combatting them at a systems level– the problem always felt disproportionately larger than me. I wanted to turn my helplessness into something productive, and this program provided the space and resources to do just that.
Tanairi Sorrentin
Tanairi Sorrentin2021 Fellow, they/them
Activism is using your voice to help empower other individuals whose voices are not being heard. But in order to help empower other people you first have to educate yourself on the subject, and listen to their voices and their stories. Throughout this experience I learned so much about sex work and different organizations that are out there doing the work. I want to continue to learn more about sex work (since learning is a continuous process) and also submit statements to help with the bill to decrim sex work. I will keep in contact with the organizations that have helped with the symposium and the video to ensure that I’m up to date on what’s going on.
Ivana Sosa
Ivana Sosa2021 Fellow, she/her/ella
This fellowship offered me a unique experience by allowing me to explore a public health topic that intersects infectious diseases and substance use disorder. Not only was I able to research about these interesting topics, but I was also able to communicate my research findings to the broader public and advocate for policy changes. Ultimately, the fellowship strengthened my research skills, but more importantly, it showed me how my research work could be leveraged to make a difference in my community.
Koki Takabatake2021 Fellow, he/him
Kimm Topping
Kimm Topping2021 Mentor, they/them
I wanted to participate in Activist Academy in order to expand my knowledge on the HIV/AIDS prevention field. What I gained was the confidence and resources needed to take the next step in my career. The amazing team I was a part of was able to smoothly collaborate to create an end project that showed all of our strengths. I hope to take the knowledge I have gained from this program for many years to come!
Giavanna Worthy
Giavanna Worthy2021 Fellow, she/her
I decided to participate in this program because I wanted to engage with another dimension of public health to learn more about advocacy, outreach and policy-making. This experience highlighted important conversations pertaining to each team and I love that we were all given the creative freedom to relay messages across different audiences. I am so grateful for this fellowship experience!
Heidi Zakoul2021 Fellow, she/her
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