Kaiser Permanente Acknowledges HIV/AIDS Prevention Work at Organization's 33rd Annual National Diversity Conference

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaiser Permanente has awarded JoAnne Keatley, Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease, and the Life Foundation the organization's 2010 HIV/AIDS Diversity Awards, which recognize outstanding HIV/AIDS prevention work. The awards will be presented to the three winners on Friday, Oct. 29, at Kaiser Permanente's 33rd annual National Diversity Conference.

Recipients of Kaiser Permanente's National Diversity HIV/AIDS awards are recognized for their work in HIV/AIDS prevention and care. Recipients have worked to decrease HIV/AIDS disparities and developed HIV/AIDS care practices or prevention methods that are easily repeated. They have found effective and impactful HIV/AIDS prevention and/or care strategies to curtail the increasing rates of HIV infection and AIDS.

"Ms. Keatley, WORLD and the Life Foundation have had a tremendous impact on their communities and the communities around them. Their work in HIV/AIDS prevention has positively impacted the lives of many and will continue to do so for years to come," said Gayle Tang, senior director of national linguistics and diversity infrastructure management for Kaiser Permanente. "We are pleased to honor their hard work and dedication at Kaiser Permanente's 33rd annual National Diversity Conference."

About the Winners

Keatley has served on the California State Office of AIDS Latino Advisory Board since 2006. Keatley is the project director of Health Studies for People of Color at the University of California at San Francisco, where she leads a team of researchers, students and outreach workers. As a Latina transgender woman and immigrant herself, she has served as a role model for the UCSF community and beyond.

WORLD is located in Oakland, Calif., and serves all San Francisco Bay Area counties. WORLD's programs serve women across California, nationally and internationally. WORLD is committed to raising awareness about the issues that fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS in women such as poverty, gender inequities, racism and incarceration rates. Having served the Bay Area for nearly 20 years, WORLD has reached numerous women across the globe. Its newsletter has more than 12,000 readers in 88 countries. WORLD's speakers' bureau has trained more than 200 HIV-positive women and affected allies to address the stigma of HIV and its impact on access to care and prevention.

The Life Foundation was started in 1983 as a first responder to the AIDS epidemic in Hawaii. The Life Foundation has adapted to the cultural needs of the people of Hawaii to treat and prevent AIDS. In doing so, it has been extremely successful in implementing various prevention and care methods. The Life Foundation's native Hawaiian program provides traditional native Hawaiian healing practices, including lomilomi and ho'oponopono.

About Kaiser Permanente's National Diversity Conference

Kaiser Permanente's National Diversity Conference is an educational forum drawing hundreds of employees, physicians, senior executives and governance leaders from across the organization. It attracts some of the nation's foremost experts in the areas of linguistic services and care access, culturally competent care, diversity research, workforce and supplier diversity, multicultural marketing, workplace inclusion, strategic diversity management and other leading-edge diversity disciplines. In addition to a host of internal senior leaders including Chairman and CEO George C. Halvorson, speakers include:

• M. Joycelyn Elders, former surgeon general of the United States Public Health Service
• Bonnie St. John, silver medal-winning Olympic skier and author
• SuChin Pak from MTV's Planet Green
• A panel of CEOs from four cutting-edge diversity publications
• John Amaechi, founder and chief executive, Amaechi Performance Systems

"This annual educational forum celebrates Kaiser Permanente's many diversity accomplishments and underscores the new diversity horizons that lie ahead to fully integrate diversity into our core business and leverage our diversity expertise to provide high-quality, culturally informed care to our members and patients," said James E. Taylor, senior director of diversity strategy execution and workplace inclusion at Kaiser Permanente. "As health and health care disparities continue to expand, particularly among populations of color, convening the nation's best thinkers on this topic is critically important and valuable."

Media Registration

Free registration for Kaiser Permanente's National Diversity Conference is open to credentialed journalists working for media companies (e.g., news editors, reporters, magazine writers, etc.) and also to bloggers. Permission in advance is required for news cameras and radio broadcasts onsite during the conference, but in-studio interviews may be arranged. Recording all or any part of the conference without prior approval from Kaiser Permanente is prohibited.

Journalists may contact: Laura Dunn at [email protected] or 510.414.9245.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.6 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente