The Eugene HIV Alliance is facing a multitude of challenges, including keeping people informed that AIDS remains not only a pressing concern, but an incurable disease. The agency is also facing the loss of $510,000 in federal funds, a huge blow to the non-profit agency.
However, newly hired director Diane Lang Brissenden is putting these challenges in a positive light. Armed with a law degree and experience as an Oregon assistant attorney general, as well as a two-year stint as director of the University’s Oregon Health Law Clinic, Lang Brissenden comes prepared.
“I’ve been doing law up to this point and this is a change in career — a unique opportunity to work for a non-profit agency,” Lang Brissenden said.
She is also an artist — spending five years at Parker Elementary School as a volunteer art teacher — and a docent at the University Museum of Art, in addition to being the mother of two.
With a mother who was a nurse in an intensive care unit, she admitted to a long-time interest in health policy issues. She developed an interest in the AIDS issue in the 1980s, after witnessing members of the gay community work together to change the health system.
She attributes that activism to helping improve hospice care and getting the Food and Drug Administration to supply new drugs to the market more quickly.
Lang Brissenden said that her biggest challenge is “keeping the community aware this is a disease that is very much present in our community … [and] trying to get info to the population that is under-served and fighting an uphill battle to begin with.
“I’m looking forward most of all to working with the staff,” she said. “It’s a very professional staff with a lot of expertise. I’d like to help them figure out how we’ll have the most impact in Lane County.”
After a period of seven months without a director, the agency was eager to have Lang Brissenden on board.
“We went from wanting someone to run the agency to wanting someone to enhance the agency,” said Trent Seager, the men’s outreach director for the HIV Alliance during the past two years.
“Diane fit that role because she has been here in Eugene for some time and has a background in health law,” he said. “Her strength is helping us run efficiently as a agency.”
Lang Brissenden was the obvious choice in a solid field of candidates, several members of the HIV Alliance board of directors said.
“Diane is fantastic, said Sherold Barr, a board member for the past five years. “She’s a great addition to the agency. She’s going to expand relationships for the agency and the community.”
The HIV Alliance is Lane County’s only nonprofit organization to provide support for those facing the challenge of HIV and AIDS.
Services include providing health care and social services to HIV-infected clients and their families, educating students and community members on the facts of HIV and reaching out to at-risk men and women.
HIV Alliance’s projects include the Sana Needle Exchange, a program designed to help intravenous drug users protect themselves from becoming infected with HIV or spreading the disease to others. Since its commencement a year ago, the program has collected 45,000 dirty needles.
The Riverwalk, which celebrated its 14th year on May 20, serves as a fundraiser for the HIV Alliance. This year’s theme, “It’s Not Over: Step Up, Be Aware, Act,” addressed an issue Lang Brissenden plans to emphasize — that tens of millions of people in the world have been infected with HIV and zero have been cured.