AIDS Education Month Events

The HIV Prevention and Education Summit is a conference that welcomes all people interested in learning more about the wide-range of issues that impact people living with HIV (PLWH/A) and the AIDS epidemic at large. The conference provides information on the latest treatment, research, prevention, and outreach strategies and aims to bring forward explicitly the social determinants of health that place people at risk. These determinants include stigma, institutional racism, transphobia, homophobia, healthcare access, economic injustice, housing insecurity, and food insecurity to name a few. The HIV Prevention and Education Summit shares evidence-based strategies, and best practices to prevent HIV, link individuals to care, and provide culturally competent services to all individuals. The conference explains vital health information in non-academic language, and aims to amplify the voices of PLWHA and ensures that people with lived experiences are able to stand as experts in workshops and discussions.

Keynote Speaker

LáDeia Joyce

“We don’t try, we do” is the life mantra LáDeia Joyce chooses to live by. She knows that there is much more to life than to waste time dwelling on darkness and negativity. She is not allowing what she has been told to affect what she does to change the world for the better.

LáDeia Joyce is a gifted writer, retired makeup artist, a marketing maven, and business owner. She is also HIV positive. This diagnosis led her to launch positivelyDeia, a comprehensive platform effectively used to document her journey as an African American woman living with HIV.

African American women are of the most underserved communities being impacted by HIV. In her search for support groups within her community and religious organizations, she found few options that connected to her own experiences. The multi-faceted platform, positivelyDeia focuses on awareness, advocacy, and alignment. Joyce seeks to expand information on the human immunodeficiency virus and ways to prevent transmissions. Through ongoing educational courses, interactive presentations, and active support communities, Joyce desires to change the face and the stigma associated with HIV and Black women and its effects on the Black community.

Joyce’s goals are to help women overcome adversities, educate black women on how to champion women living with HIV, and support women ready to beat the odds and live a happy, healthy, and healed life as someone diagnosed with HIV.

Joyce leads:

• positivelyDeia
• The Positive Experience
• Positive & Still Pretty

Joyce is a graduate of the University of Memphis. She is a dedicated and distinguished member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated. She is a proud Memphian slash Brooklynite at heart who is currently residing in her hometown. She is a world traveler, leads an active lifestyle, and loves to interact with her supporters on social media and in real life.   

Support the HIV Prevention and Education Summit by becoming a sponsor, advertise in our event program, or purchase an exhibit table at the Summit. For more information, contact Chip Alfred at 215-525-8628.