Fighting HIV on a global scale

The job can be stressful at times, the director admits.
By MARY ELLEN PELLEGRINI
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
A college-sponsored trip to South Africa led former Youngstown resident Joy Williams into a career she "never thought of as an option." Williams is the project director for the special treatment and research program at the State University of New York's HIV Center for Women and Children in Brooklyn.
Seven years ago, Williams and nine other Oberlin College students participated in a research mission to South Africa. The trip was a collaborative examination of apartheid's effects on health care, faith, women's struggles and other issues.
Williams, a double major in biology and African-American studies, focused her efforts on health care. "They were just starting to do a lot of HIV/AIDS work," said Williams.
The South African experience allowed the college student to "see HIV and AIDS on a global level in terms of helping people with their health care." Williams, who had been weighing her career options, turned her attention to public health.
Making a decision
"I knew I didn't want to do medicine, but I wanted to do something else that was still in the health field but more programming and more prevention work," she stated. Visiting tuberculosis clinics and hospitals in South Africa showed Williams that "you could contribute in a different way. It was a very, very enriching experience."
After graduation, Williams accepted a position as program assistant for a teen pregnancy prevention program in Washington, D.C. "I would put on school programs to encourage teen abstinence," she explained. Williams also lobbied senators for their support and endorsement of satellite centers throughout the country.
"I really enjoyed the political part of that," she noted. After one year, Williams stepped into the director's position. "I worked with Alma and [then-Gen.] Colin Powell, chair people on the board," she said. Williams loved her job but left to pursue a master's degree in public health at Columbia University.
There she became a graduate research assistant in sexually transmitted diseases and HIV prevention, serving as the facilitator for two studies. Part of her duties required travel "to monitor AIDS prevention programs in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Jamaica."
That opportunity laid the groundwork for her present position.
Today, Williams works in Brooklyn, "one of the hardest-hit areas in the country with HIV." At SUNY Downstate Medical Center, she "manages research projects that have an STD/HIV prevention model." Williams designs curricula to teach and motivate patients with STDs to become proactive in their health care.
"What I find most fascinating about what I do is being able to empower people to make good decisions regarding their own health, making them feel responsible and letting them know things don't just happen. You do have choices," said Williams.
Goal of her work
Having an STD increases one's risk of HIV. The aim of Williams' work is to reduce the rates of recurring STDs and prevent HIV transmission. "It's a three-tiered process aimed at handling their medical issues, behavioral issues and their social services," she said of the STAR program.
"Health educators have to speak to the issues and barriers that impact clients," Williams said. In the case of HIV, barriers include deeply ingrained beliefs and practices, economic needs, depression, homelessness and the burden of a stigmatized illness.
Williams confronts those topics in two STD/HIV prevention studies, one with 80 adolescent girls and another with almost 500 men and women 18 years of age and older. Within her studies Williams treats black, Latino, Russian and Caribbean populations.
"I have to figure out what will work for the population, what will work for the problem and what will motivate clients to address issues," she explained.
Williams oversees a staff of five who implement the curricula she designs and pilots. "It's a lot of people, a lot of support, a lot of effort to treat and care for HIV," she stated.
The commitment brings some heart-wrenching moments.
Stress-coping method
To cope with the stress, Williams and her staff use the down times as a call to action. "We make it more motivating than depressing. We say, 'I've got more work to do. I have to do my job better,'" she said.
The director thinks she has prevailed in a challenging profession because, "I had mentors who pushed me along and asked me the hard questions to propel me to the next level."
The STAR program affords Williams an opportunity to fight HIV on both the prevention and care sides. "My purpose is to put a dent in this epidemic, to help educate people, to help people implement more prevention strategies in their lives," she said.
Williams finds it rewarding "when patients come back and say 'I was being self-destructive. Now I'm taking care of myself' or when you evaluate the project and find what you designed is working on a population level."
Those victories represent success for Williams, but she adds, "I don't think success can be measured on anybody else's scale but your own. I feel you've reached a point of success when you're happy with what you're doing and you feel like you found your purpose in life."