Senator Portantino & City of Hope Hold HIV/AIDS Action Summit

Duarte, California – On October 12, 2018, Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D–La Cañada Flintridge) hosted the 10th Annual San Gabriel Valley HIV/AIDS Action Summit at City of Hope Hospital.  The summit brought together world renown researchers, students and health care professions for a half-day discussion on the current state of AIDS 37 years after the disease was first identified.  Senator Portantino is a long-time advocate for HIV/AIDS education and progressive public health policy.  He has successfully authored legislation to expand HIV/AIDS testing and influence health policy in California. A capactiy crowd of 300 high school health academy students, community college students, nurseing students, public health educators and AIDS advocates engaged with the researchers and public health officials for the conferenc.

“Our program this year exceeded my expectation and the level of interest from the attendees was dramatic.   My yearly goal is to foster a continued awareness of HIV and AIDS at a time when our collective focus on this horrible disease seems to be waning and fatigued.  Judging from the reaction of those in attendance as they left our 10th summit was a tremendous success,” commented Senator Portantino. 

The impressive slate of presenters included Dr. Alexandra Levine, Professor of Hematology/Transplantation at the City of Hope’s National Medical Center and Dr. Leo Moore, Acting Medical Director for the Division of HIV and STD Programs (DHSP) at Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.  The event was emceed by Emmy-Award winning journalist Suzanne Marques from CBS2 and KCAL9.  Completing the presentations were public health advocate Hussain Turk, Precious Jackson from the Pasadena Health Department and PPSGV Advocates.

Attendees included students from APU Policy, Monrovia Adult School, Duarte High School, Pasadena CIS, Blair Health Academy, PCC’s nursing program, and Montebello Unified. 

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