Ten young HIV advocates have been selected as fellows in the first year of the HIV 360° Fellowship Program, which trains community-based HIV leaders, notably gay and bisexual men and transgender women.

Founded by the educational arm of LGBT advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) with funding from the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF), the HIV 360° Fellowship Program entails nine months of training geared toward helping the young advocates fight the epidemic in their home communities. According to an HRC press release, fellows will attend retreats and meet with experts in the field, including leaders from AIDS United, the Kaiser Family Foundation and amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

All 10 fellows are younger than 35 and already working in HIV advocacy.

According to an EJAF press release, the 2016 fellows are:

  • Andrés Cano, National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, Tucson, AZ

  • Thomas Davis, Health Education Specialist, LA LGBT Center, Los Angeles, CA

  • Nicole Elinoff, Director of Clinical Services, The GLBT Center of Central Florida, Orlando, FL

  • Mardrequs Harris, Public Health Program Director, Tennessee Department of Health, Memphis, TN

  • Sasanka Jinadasa, Capacity Building and Community Resource Manager, HIPS, Washington, DC

  • Tyrell Manning, Regional Integration Specialist, Williams and Associates Inc., St. Louis, MO

  • Pierre Jamar (PJ) Moton, Interim Clinical Program Manager, Abounding Propensity Inc., Dallas, TX

  • Steven Romeo, Executive Director, The Change Project, Birmingham, AL

  • Milan Sherry, Advisory Board Member, Positively Trans, New Orleans, LA

  • Lee Storrow, Executive Director, North Carolina AIDS Action Network, Raleigh, NC

“At EJAF, we believe collaborative, unified efforts like the HIV 360° Fellowship Program are critical to stopping the spread of HIV within communities that continue to be hit the hardest by the epidemic,” said Scott Campbell, EJAF executive director, in the press release. “We are very proud to be the primary funder for this groundbreaking program that is specifically focused on cultivating young leaders from diverse backgrounds with different ideas about how to stop the spread and stigma of HIV.”