Clifton Garmon is a Senior Policy Analyst at VOCAL-NY where he monitors, examines, and promotes policies designed to improve the quality of life for marginalized communities, while engaging and educating elected officials across the state through grassroots lobbying. Clifton holds Bachelor degrees in Sociology and Political Science from Lenoir-Rhyne University, and a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University.

Elizabeth became a VOCAL-NY member in 2010 and was hired as a community organizer in 2012 to coordinate our GROW (Grassroots Organizing to Win) program for member-led base building and mobilization. She is a long-time community activist around LGBTQ and harm reduction issues and previously worked as a community outreach worker in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan.

Joan M. Duwve, MD, MPH is Associate Dean for Practice at the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, and the Chief Medical Officer at the Indiana State Department of Health. She is the PI on a mixed methods study in Scott County and has co-authored multiple presentations and presented nationally on the HIV outbreak in Scott County and the opioid epidemic in Indiana. She co-chaired a statewide Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force, successfully championing legislation for evidence-based opioid prescribing, improved access to addiction treatment, and expanded access to/use of naloxone by first responders/lay savers.

Holly Hagan, PhD, is an infectious disease epidemiologist, a Professor at New York University Meyers College and Co-Director of the NYU Center for Drug use and HIV Research. Her research has principally focused on the infectious disease consequences of substance use, and her main interest is in reducing the burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in people who inject drugs (PWID). Currently, she is leading a case-control study of the onset of injection among young people who use heroin or prescription painpills in rural New York state.

Judy has worked in the HIV and community health and development field for eight years, across areas of programme management, resource mobilisation, and communications. She has been increasingly involved in harm reduction, community mobilisation and drug policy work, particularly in regards to women who use drugs. She has worked across India, China, and Thailand. She holds a Master’s in International Development and is an MPhil Candidate at the National Drug Research Institute, Australia.