MEMORY LANE

Phillips looks back on his HIV advocacy and urges for renewed efforts in 2024. When he returned to NMAC in April after exactly 30 years, he went down memory lane. April 1994 was a busy time for him. He had turned in his master's thesis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was running the review process for the state health department's first Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS grant applicants and studying for finals, and his friend Phil from Maryland had died of an AIDS-related illness. What he remember most about working at NMAC from 1994 to 1997 was the pace and the passion. Leaving NMAC in 1997, he joined the Health Resources and Services Administration and remained in the federal government until January 2024 to advance HIV programs and policy. His decades of fast-paced and passionate work in and with the government focused on creating and making systems work better for their communities--in memory of those they lost and those harmed by the government and society.