HIV / AIDS Section Co-Chairs:  Berry Bennet MPH and  Bridgett Rahim-Williams, PhD, MPH, MA Updated: 8/13/11           Welcome from your HIV/AIDS Section Co-Chairperson! For those of you who do not know me, I am the Retrovirology Section Chief at the Florida Bureau of Laboratories and a past co-chair of this section when it was established in August 2006. I am honored to serve again in the same capacity and to share the chairperson responsibilities with Dr. Bridgett Rahim-Williams, Senior Research Fellow at NIH and Research Assistant Professor at the University of Florida. Also we are pleased to announce that Sherrie Serpas, Early Intervention Consultant with Bay CHD is willing to serve as our Membership Coordinator and Dr. Azliyati Azizan, Assistant Professor at USF is willing to assist in our newsletter updates. However our FPHA members, who selected the HIV/AIDS Section as their primary or secondary interest, are the ones who keep our section going and it is much appreciated.         Clearly the public health budget restraints and travel restrictions of past years and most likely years to come is inspiring creative ways for us to maintain our commitment to share HIV related issues and education. We encourage you to frequently access the FPHA website for the latest on Regional Educational Conferences in your area and to participate whenever possible. In addition, we would like to use the web page as well as the newsletter to share recent HIV related news and topics that may be of broad interest to our section membership. If you come across an article that you think would be of interest to our membership and meets the criteria of either category below, please send it to one of your section officers. We will try to include it in either the newsletter or web page. Spotlight (a salute to our membership who have recently published articles or presented oral/poster presentations on HIV/AIDS related issues, links only please) Headlines (links to recent HIV/AIDS related articles and news releases that have a “broad interest” among our membership)         1) Various HIV/AIDS awareness days are summarized at www.aids.gov/awareness-days         2) What is PrEP? www.cdc.gov/hiv/prep/?source=govdelivery         3) July 5, 2011 Press Release: Florida Consortium of HIV/AIDS Research launched at The AIDS Institute (TAI). www.theaidsinstitute.org         4) What is the importance of “Community Viral Loads”? www.natap.org/2011/CROI/croi_09.htm      Co-Chairs: Berry Bennett MPH Retrovirology Section Chief Florida Department of Health Bureau of Laboratories 1217 Pearl Street Jacksonville, FL 32202 T:  904-791-1527 Email: berry_bennett@doh.state.fl.us Bridgett Rahim-Williams, PhD, MPH, MA Senior Research Fellow NIH/National Institue on Minority Health & Health Disparities 2 Democracy Plaza 6707 Democracy Blvd., Buite 800 Bethesda, MD T: 301-594-8427 Email: brwms@PHHP.UFL.EDU Research Assistant Professor Department of Behavioral Science & Community Health University of Florida Gainesville, FL  Newsletter Coordinator  Azliyati Azizan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Global Health College of Public Health University of South Florida 13201 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC056 Tampa, Florida 33612-3805 Tel: (813) 974-2079 Fax: (813) 974-8506 aazizan@health.usf.edu Membership Coordinator  Sherrie Serpas Early Intervention Consultant Bay County Health Department 597 W 11th Street Panama City, Fl 32401 (850) 872-4720 ext 1183