Sources:

http://www.blackaids.org/ShowArticle.aspx?pagename=ShowArticle&articletype=ABOUT&articleid=111&pagenumber=1

http://blackaids.org/ShowArticle.aspx?pagename=ShowArticle&articletype=NEWS&articleid=198&pagenumber=1

Phill Wilson

 

 (Born 1956)

Phill Wilson is founder and Executive Director of the Black AIDS Institute. The Institute is a training and mobilization center focused exclusively on Black people. The Institute's mission is to stop the AIDS pandemic in Black communities by engaging and mobilizing Black institutions and individuals in efforts to confront HIV.

The Institute interprets public and private sector HIV policies, conducts trainings, offers technical assistance, disseminates information and provides advocacy from a uniquely and unapologetically Black point of view.

The Black AIDS Institute, founded in 1999 by Wilson, is the only HIV/AIDS think tank that focuses exclusively on AIDS among African-Americans. And its birth came out of a near-death experience.

"I found out that I was HIV-positive at 27 and I didn't think 30 was an option," says Wilson, who has full-blown AIDS. "So, to be 50 is amazing."

"In 1996, I got very, very sick," Wilson says. "My doctor basically had given me a matter of days to live. I was unconscious and I was in intensive care at Kaiser Permante. Everyone thought that I was going to die. When I came out of that, I could not work like I had been working, which is basically how I work today," the workaholic explains.

"By 1999, there had been a lot of progress made in the Latino community and among women, but there had been very little progress made in mobilizing traditional Black institutions. It was clear to me that the only way to stop this epidemic in Black America was for our institutions to take ownership of the disease."

More than anyone else, Phill Wilson has energized and mobilized the Black community, calling out gays and straights, encouraging Black churches to become more active, getting the Black Press to devote more coverage to AIDS, and persuading national civil rights leaders to take a more active role in fighting the epidemic.

"It's amazing the changes that have been happening in areas that we've been working," Wilson said. "Over the past three years, our work with the Black media has been remarkable; we finally made a huge breakthrough with civil rights organizations, we've had an increase in the number of celebrities taking on HIV and AIDS and we have a very engaged college program."

Prior to founding the Institute, Wilson served as the AIDS Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles from 1990 to 1993, the Director of Policy and Planning at AIDS Project Los Angeles from 1993 to 1996. He was co-chair of the Los Angeles County HIV Health Commission from 1990 to 1995, and was an appointee to the HRSA AIDS Advisory Committee from 1995 to 1998.

Wilson was the coordinator of the International Community Treatment and Science Workshop at the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th International AIDS Conferences in Geneva, Switzerland, Durban South, Africa, Barcelona, Spain, Bangkok, Thailand, and Toronto Canada.

Wilson was the co-founder of the National Black Lesbian & Gay Leadership Forum and the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention. He has been involved in the founding of a number of other AIDS service organizations and community-based organizations, including the Chris Brownlie Hospice, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the National Minority AIDS Council, the Los Angeles County Gay Men of Color Consortium, and the CAEAR Coalition.

Phill Wilson has published articles in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, the Los Angeles Weekly, Essence, Ebony, VIBE, Jet, Poz, HIV+ and Arise. The Ford Foundation named him one of the 20 award recipients for the Leadership for a Changing World, in 2001. Wilson was a member of the US delegation to the 1994 World AIDS Summit in Paris, and has worked extensively on HIV/AIDS policy, research, prevention, and treatment issues in Russia, Latvia, the Ukraine, the UK, Holland, Germany, France, Mexico, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, India, and Botswana.

Mr. Wilson is a recent recipient of the Delta Spirit Award from the Delta Sigma Theta Los Angeles chapter, he was given the Discovery Health Channel Medical Honor in July 2004, and was recently named one of the "2005 Black History Makers in the Making" by Black Entertainment Television (B.E.T.).

Mr. Wilson graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts in 1977 from Illinois Wesleyan University. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his partner, Mark Schoofs.