Award-winning journalist and HIV/AIDS activist to speak at UF

August 30, 2013

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Regan Hofmann, whose memoir about being HIV positive was published in 2009, will speak at 7 p.m. Sept. 12 in the Reitz Student Union Grand Ballroom.

Hofmann will give an open account of being HIV positive as one of the disease’s least likely subjects: a young, straight woman.

“I had no thought that I was at risk,” she said. “I had been careful all my life, I thought. I was really devastated.”

As one of the nation’s leading AIDS activists, Hofmann travels internationally on behalf of the U.S. Department of State to speak about the disease; has served as a U.S. delegate under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama at the United Nations’ Special Session on HIV/AIDS; and was appointed to the HIV/AIDS advisory committee for the Center for Disease Control in 2009.

Hofmann is a board member of The Foundation for AIDS Research and a global ambassador for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. She spends time on Capitol Hill defending domestic and global funding for HIV/AIDS.

She is a leader in the movement to elevate the conversation around HIV/AIDS, focusing on  the possibility of an AIDS-free generation. She believes that educating people about prevention is the first step in the right direction.

“We can teach people to avoid it,” Hofmann said. “It’s not that hard to avoid, we just have to have the courage to talk about it.”

For more about Regan Hofmann and her work visit http://www.reganhofmann.com/.

The event is free and open to the public and will be streamed live at http://www.bobgrahamcenter.ufl.edu/

The program is part of the Common Reading Program and is being co-sponsored by the Bob Graham Center, Dean of Students Office, Pride Student Union and Intercultural Engagement.