May 13, 2025
8:00 - 10:00am PT | 11:00am - 1:00pm ET
The stigma of being pregnant or parenting while living with HIV may result in individuals avoiding care and support from healthcare providers due to fear of or experience with child welfare reporting. This introduces delays in the delivery of timely HIV prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services and interventions.
The 2025 Perinatal Roundtable will feature a discussion on how families affected by HIV are impacted by the child welfare system. Through expert-led discussions, real-world case analyses, and interactive breakout sessions, participants will gain insights into alternative approaches and practices that prioritize family unity and care coordination.
This event, taking place on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, from 8am – 10am PT / 11am – 1pm ET, is designed for health practitioners, social workers, and professionals who work with families affected by HIV and are interested in child welfare.
Register today: bit.ly/2025PerinatalHIVRoundtable
Learning Objectives
At the end of this event, participants will be able to:
- Name the intersecting health, legal, and mental harms to parents and children that can result from referrals to child welfare agencies (CPS, DFCS, etc.)
- Describe racial disparities in the family welfare system in the United States and their effects on diverse families
- Identify strategies to support parents living with HIV and their families that don't involve criminalization or the spectre of family separation, prioritizing family unity and well-being
Panelists
Kytara Epps, public health and advocacy strategist, (she/her) is a fat, queer Black feminist public health practitioner. She is a graduate of Tulane University's School of Public Health. She is interested in all things relating to reproductive health and justice. Her approach to health is through a queer Black feminist and fat positivity lens.
Brenda Goodrow is an emerging advocate in the field of HIV awareness and de-stigmatization. Born HIV-positive in 1996, Brenda maintained her status as a private matter until the age of 21, when she recognized the profound impact that sharing her personal journey could have in the fight against HIV-related stigma.
Since embracing her role as an advocate, Brenda has gained valuable experience through her internship with The Sero Project and has collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on various initiatives related to the Act Against AIDS campaign, including the "Let's Stop HIV Together" anti-stigma initiative. Additionally, Brenda served as an ambassador for Next Step, a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, MA.
Kae Greenberg, staff attorney at Center for HIV Law and Policy (he/him), previously worked as a supervising attorney in the Housing Unit at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia. His practice focused on providing legal representation to indigent tenants facing eviction and helping them maintain housing. Prior to CLS, he was an assistant defender at the Defender Association of Philadelphia as a member of the Juvenile Unit. Among other honors, Kae was a Beasley Scholar at Temple University Beasley School of Law, from which he graduated in 2011. His published work includes, "Still Hidden in the Closet: Trans Women and Domestic Violence," in the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law, and Justice, and "Best Practices in Policing," in the book Transgender Intimate Partner Violence. In his past life, Kae worked as a theater electrician and lighting designer in NYC.
April Lee is a dedicated community activist based in Philadelphia, committed to supporting families affected by harmful systems, including the child welfare (family policing) system, the carceral system, and other structures that negatively impact her community.
As a founding member of Philly Voice also known as, Philly Voice for Change, April works to engage and mobilize community members and activists to push for systemic reforms. Her advocacy extends beyond Philadelphia, contributing to national efforts for justice and family preservation. She serves on the advisory boards of Stop Over reporting Our People (STOP), The Family Justice Law Center, United Family Advocates, and other initiatives aimed at dismantling oppressive systems.
April's commitment to service is evident in every aspect of her life—whether feeding the homeless, facilitating life skills groups, mentoring women in her community, or caring for her own family. Beyond her activism, she has a deep passion for writing and has performed her poetry on numerous stages throughout Philadelphia and beyond.
Becca Schwartz has been the clinical social worker with HIVE Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital since 2004. In her role as social worker for HIVE, she provides care coordination and psychosocial support to people living with HIV, or at risk for HIV, in and around pregnancy. For the past 20 years, Becca has provided these clinical services as well as practical help accessing housing and homeless services, healthcare, financial and nutritional benefits to pregnant people and their families. In 2018 Becca helped to start the Team Lily clinic at San Francisco General, a clinic specializing in care for pregnant people experiencing significant barriers to care such as substance use disorder, unsheltered homelessness, untreated mental illness and interpersonal violence. In her role with Team Lily, Becca provides direct patient care as well as systems advocacy for pregnant people who have been historically mistreated in the health care and child welfare systems. Becca is trained in Infant-Parent Psychotherapy and brings this clinical lens to her work with families.
Moderators
Ciarra "Ci Ci" Covin, is a dedicated advocate, mother, and board-certified Human Services Practitioner whose journey as a woman living with HIV has profoundly shaped her professional and personal interests to enhance dialogue surrounding issues that are important to her community. In her role as senior manager of community programming at The Well Project, a well-known and respected nonprofit organization whose mission is to change the course of the HIV epidemic, one woman at a time, she leverages her voice and expertise to advocate for women and parents living with HIV, emphasizing the importance of informed decision-making in our healthcare and addressing overall health issues in a broader context.
Bridgette Picou, LVN, ACLPN, is a licensed vocational and certified AIDS Care Nurse in Palm Springs, California. She works for The Well Project as the stakeholder liaison, representing the interests of women living with and affected by HIV in medical, research, policy, and advocacy spaces. Bridgette is a director at large for ANAC (the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care), and a sitting member of the board of directors for HIV & Aging Research Project-Palm Springs (HARP-PS). Sitting at the intersections of being Black, a woman, and living with HIV, her goal is to remind people that there are lives being lived behind a three-or four-letter acronym.
