Hello Members and Friends:
Welcome to 2025! This New Year greeting is very different that previous years, in fact it's even different than what was drafted before January 20. I’m grateful to be lifted by the message of Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C. Her powerful call, from the same pulpit that Rev. Martin Luther King spoke from, for mercy and grace for LGBTQ+ people, including transgender children and for immigrants and their families helped to inspire this message.
Now is the time I renew my commitment to the mission and values of ANAC, an articulation of core beliefs that were in adopted by ANAC leadership and members, years before I came into ANAC roles in 2012.
Our mission centers on the professional development (evidence-based HIV education is a main component) and advocacy for the rights and welfare of people living with or vulnerable to HIV. The growing list of threats to these ideals call for an individual and organizational renewed commitment to them and to our core values:
- Knowledge: the development and dissemination of evidence based knowledge
- Collaboration: among members, colleagues, researchers and community
- Advocacy: working for public policies grounded in human rights, compassion and social justice.
- Diversity: meaningful and intentional efforts at inclusion and equity makes us stronger as an organization, a profession and a nation.
- Support: kindness, lifting each other up and helping each other as we work towards the shared goal of ending the HIV epidemic by caring for our co-workers and colleagues, our patients and communities as we move through these challenging times.
Yes - these are challenging times. For our LGBTQ community, for immigrants, many who work hard behind the scenes in our communities, including in our healthcare systems, for those that believe in the rule of law and equal justice under the law, for scientists and researchers working towards ending diseases, for those working in public health here and globally. These are challenging times for all of us. I hope you take care of yourself and your family and the communities we serve. Be kind to those in need, they need it now more than ever. Take strength from your commitment to our shared core values.
Reach out to me, I really would love to hear from you as we move forward in this fight for human rights, science and public health based in diversity, equity and inclusion.
Love and genuine thanks,
Carole Treston, RN, MPH, ACRN, FAAN
ANAC Executive Director
P.S. Let’s go!
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