A Different View from the Conference This Year: A Recap from USCHA 2026

unpublished

Submitted on Oct 22, 2026

By Katie Willingham

This year's United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA 2026) took place in Anaheim, CA, from September 17 – 20, 2026, under the banner United and Unbreakable: The HIV Movement at 45. The Well Project's team and community advisory board members again had a strong presence at the gathering, from facilitating workshops to one staffer's featured spot on the afternoon plenary stage. Read on for a perspective from our community of the US's largest HIV-related convening.

I've been to a few USCHAs before; it's the largest conference on HIV and AIDS in the United States, put on every year by an organization called NMAC. I usually look forward to this conference every year, and though I'm still grateful to have attended, this year was markedly different from USCHAs that I've seen in the past. This year was also different for me because I came in a different capacity: I came to work the exhibit hall table for my organization, which paid for me to be there, so I was more of an observer this year.

I noticed the scale-back from previous years, like the exhibit hall capacity can usually take up two massive rooms in the hotel, but this year everything seemed about half the size. The plenaries seemed smaller to me too, though highly entertaining, but noticeably smaller. Was it due to budget cuts and other constraints that the current government administration has served us all with? I wondered. But I didn't see any pushback from NMAC on the government, and that was disheartening.

As I said, I was more of an observer this year and what I observed was some discontentment with NMAC for not standing up to this administration and Big Pharma and raking Trump across the coals by name. I heard some people's fears and concerns about our future, about our present, and how we were going to live through this time in our history. I could feel Trump weighing on everyone's minds and emotions and it led to some emotional, distressing conversations. But NMAC said nothing.

There was only one protest (which I missed). I literally expected to see someone rush the stage and protest the administration and any capitulation to that administration ... but nothing ever happened. USCHA went off without a hitch, but some of the attendees didn't; I heard quite a bit of noise about the frustration with NMAC. I even heard some saying that they might not be back, but I know plenty who will, because the work is still too important to lay down now.

For many of us seasoned advocates, these conferences are nearly as necessary as our meds, because they're healing and energizing for us. The gathering of advocates and professionals in the field is powerful and invigorating and I felt it in the hallways of the conference and the exhibit hall. These conferences are often like family gatherings and reunions, because many of us advocates have known each other for many years and, yes, consider each other as family, and these reunions are important for us to reenergize and refuel so we can go back home and continue the work that we do.

This year was a different kind of experience for me. I saw a different side of the conference, focusing more on networking and meeting new people than on the education of the workshops, but though I didn't attend very many workshops I still learned quite a bit this year. I don't regret having missed many of the workshops because I met so many amazing people and learned a lot from them that perhaps I might have missed otherwise, and I had a great experience. I just hope that next year is better and NMAC remembers who we are. We're protestors, ground shakers, and stubborn as hell; we give the White House administration headaches and keep them up at night. That's who we are. I hope we get back to that.