StoreWanda Hernandez-Parks is a leading advocate for women living with HIV/AIDS and poor and working New Yorkers more broadly. In 2009, she participated in the first-ever White House summit on HIV/AIDS and homelessness. She recently helped lead the successful campaign to win a 30% rent cap affordable housing protection for over ten thousand homeless and at-risk New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS, including testifying during City Council and state legislative hearings. She is both a member and serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of VOCAL-NY, which builds power among people affected by HIV/AIDS, drug use and mass incarceration to create healthy and just communities. She is also working towards a publication of her poetry and works as a Peer Educator at Harlem United.
My passion to End HIV/AIDS by 2020 is Personal. As an openly HIV+ educated minority Latina woman, I love building power in my community and empowering women to find their voices, by sharing their needs and concerns. Low income communities are all one family and we as individuals have the opportunity and the platform to make change, by sharing the tools necessary to make a positive impact in the lives of our brothers and sisters.