CHLP Staff

René Bennett-Carlson, Staff Attorney, is the lead staff member on CHLP's Teen SENSE Youth Advocacy Advisor initiative. Her work also focuses on legal analysis and strategy in relationship to HIV criminalization, disclosure, and oversight of the Women's Advocacy Resource Connection.  While at Tulane Law School, René clerked for two federal judges and worked with AIDS Law of Louisiana, one of the only legal service providers for people living with HV/AIDS in the South. She has worked with multiple HIV/AIDS organizations including the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Global AIDS Alliance, and the Orange County AIDS Service Foundation. René is the recipient of the Cheverton Trophy, the equivalent of valedictorian, from Chapman University.

Catherine Hanssens, Executive Director, and founder of the Center for HIV Law and Policy, has been active in HIV legal and policy issues since 1984. Previously, as AIDS Project Director at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund for eight years, Hanssens lead the development of Lambda's HIV litigation and policy work, and was lead attorney on all of Lambda's briefing on U.S. Supreme Court cases affecting the Americans with Disabilities Act and people with HIV. Hanssens also worked with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, where she created and managed a model on-site HIV legal assistance program in Philadelphia-area hospitals and clinics. While working for the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate in the 1980's, she successfully litigated the state's first case addressing involuntary HIV testing, a system-wide challenge to segregation and treatment of prisoners with HIV, and the only federal appeals court decision recognizing the right of incarcerated women to funded elective abortions. She also has been a visiting clinical professor at Rutgers University Law School-Newark.

Trevoy Ross, Development and Administrative Associate, works primarily on assisting the executive director on development and fundraising strategies. He researches foundation, government, corporate and private funding opportunities and cultivates current donor relationships. He also coordinates fundraising events and provides administrative support for the staff. Prior to joining CHLP, Ross worked in development and communications for the Bronx Community Pride Center and the ACLU's Detroit office. He volunteered with GMHC instructing GED preparatory classes for their clients and at the David Bohnett Cyber Center in the New York LGBT Center.

Consultants

Message Agency (formerly Ianncomm), Web Developer,  is responsible for the development of CHLP's current website and content-management system. A media studio based in Philadelphia with signficiant experience working with non-profit, civil rights and arts organizations, their primary services include strategic communications, branding and messaging, web design and development, content development, and graphic design.

Deirdre Reznik, Information Design, developed the logo for CHLP and continues to provide design and production services to the organization, including the development of CHLP's Briefing Paper newsletter and Web site redesign. Reznik is a freelance consultant and has worked in print and web design and production for educational and non-profit institutions in New York City since 1994. www.deirdrereznik.com

Sean Strub, Senior Advisor, Positive Justice Project/HIV Anti-Criminalization Initiative, founded POZ Magazine (serving as its Executive Editor from 1994 to 2004), POZ en Español, (both for people impacted by HIV/AIDS, poz.com), Mamm (for women impacted by breast cancer and cancers of the reproductive system), and Real Health (an African American community health magazine, realhealthmag.com). He is a long-term AIDS survivor (30 years+) and activist and has been an outspoken advocate for the self-empowerment movement for people with HIV/AIDS. In 1990, Strub received 46% of the primary vote when he was the first openly HIV+ candidate for federal office in the U.S., running for Congress from New York's 22nd district. Strub has also been active in the corporate social responsibility movement, co-authoring Rating America's Corporate Conscience (Addison-Wesley, 1985), a guide to corporate social responsibility and Cracking the Corporate Closet (HarperBusiness, 1995). He serves on the board of the North American affiliate of GNP+, the Global Network of People Living with HIV ( gnpplus.net) and blogs at poz.com/sean, where he also serves as Advisory Editor.