Phill Wilson

Black AIDS Institute

Phill Wilson is founder and Executive Director of the Black AIDS Institute. The Institute is a training and mobilization center focused exclusively on Black people. The Institute's mission is to stop the AIDS pandemic in Black communities by engaging and mobilizing Black institutions and individuals in efforts to confront HIV. The Institute interprets public and private sector HIV policies, conducts trainings, offers technical assistance, disseminates information and provides advocacy from a uniquely and unapologetically Black point of view.

Prior to founding the Institute, Wilson served as the AIDS Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles from 1990 to 1993, the Director of Policy and Planning at AIDS Project Los Angeles from 1993 to 1996. He was co-chair of the Los Angeles County HIV Health Commission from 1990 to 1995, and was an appointee to the HRSA AIDS Advisory Committee from 1995 to 1998.

Mr. Wilson was the coordinator of the International Community Treatment and Science Workshop at the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th International AIDS Conferences in Geneva, Switzerland, Durban South, Africa, Barcelona, Spain, Bangkok, Thailand, and Toronto Canada.

Wilson was the co-founder of the National Black Lesbian & Gay Leadership Forum and the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention. He has been involved in the founding of a number of other AIDS service organizations and community-based organizations, including the Chris Brownlie Hospice, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the National Minority AIDS Council, the Los Angeles County Gay Men of Color Consortium, and the CAEAR Coalition.

Mr. Wilson has published articles in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, the Los Angeles Weekly, Essence, Ebony, VIBE, Jet, Poz, HIV+ and Arise. The Ford Foundation named him one of the 20 award recipients for the Leadership for a Changing World, in 2001. Wilson was a member of the US delegation to the 1994 World AIDS Summit in Paris, and has worked extensively on HIV/AIDS policy, research, prevention, and treatment issues in Russia, Latvia, the Ukraine, the UK, Holland, Germany, France, Mexico, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, India, and Botswana.

Mr. Wilson is a recent recipient of the Delta Spirit Award from the Delta Sigma Theta Los Angeles chapter, he was given the Discovery Health Channel Medical Honor in July 2004, and was recently named one of the "2005 Black History Makers in the Making" by Black Entertainment Television (B.E.T.).

Mr. Wilson graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts in 1977 from Illinois Wesleyan University. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his partner, Mark Schoofs.