Olivia G. Ford has had the privilege of being part of The Well Project's team since 2015, beginning on a consultant basis and transitioning to the role of editorial director in early 2021. She has been engaged with HIV-related media since 2007 and previously held leadership positions with Positive Women's Network - USA, a national advocacy network of women with HIV; and at TheBody, a comprehensive Web-based HIV resource – both partner organizations of The Well Project.
Olivia has written and edited articles, developed award-winning content, and moderated discussions with community members and professionals on a wide variety of topics, including HIV stigma in media; criminalization and racism; trauma and gender-based violence; healthcare access in transgender communities; familial homophobia and HIV vulnerability; as well as numerous aspects of reproductive and parenting experience for people living with or affected by HIV. She has consulted with programs and organizations including Forward Together, HIV Justice Network, InPartnership, the Sero Project, and UCSF.
Olivia is a founding member of the HIV Racial Justice NOW Coalition, guiding the group's authorship of "A Declaration of Liberation: Building a Racially Just and Strategic Domestic HIV Movement" in 2017. As a member of the inaugural cohort of the ViiV Healthcare-convened Black Women's Working Group, she participated in the initial development of the "Risk to Reasons" framework. She worked with preeminent activists and communicators in the reproductive justice movement as a mentor editor for Echoing Ida, a program of Forward Together. She serves on the advisory board of The Center for HIV Law and Policy and in the leadership body of the Black United Leadership Initiative (BULI).
Olivia trained as a birth doula for the first time in 2004, and strives to incorporate that distinctive model of practice and informed presence into all her professional endeavors. She has also served as a perinatal health advocate with Birthmark Doula Collective, a birth justice organization supporting pregnant and parenting people and their families in the New Orleans, Louisiana area. Her writing has appeared in Black AIDS Weekly, Positively Aware, POZ, Rewire, and TheBody/TheBodyPro, among other outlets.
In addition to working with The Well Project's medical and community experts to regularly review and update the website's resource library, Olivia also authored or collaborated on the following fact sheets:
- Abortion and HIV (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Abortion Laws and HIV in the US (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Advocating for Women Living With HIV in Prisons or Jails in the US (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Black Women, Racism, and HIV in the US (with Connie L. Johnson as primary author)
- Can I Breastfeed While Living With HIV? (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Cannabis, Health, and the Law in the US (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Cannabis, HIV, and Your Health (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Collected Resources by and for Black Women Living with HIV
- Factors Affecting HIV Among US Women of Different Races/Ethnicities
- HIV Criminalization and Women
- HIV Symptoms
- Immigration to the US, Women, and HIV: Facts and Resources (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Lifetime Survivors of HIV
- Long-Term Survivors of HIV
- Medical Concerns for Women Lifetime Survivors of HIV
- Mental and Behavioral Health, Women, and HIV
- Moving Forward, Living with HIV: Considering Education or Training (with Vickie Lynn as primary author)
- Overview of Infant Feeding Options for Parents Living with HIV (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Preparing for Birth and Beyond: Postpartum Checklists for Parents Living with HIV
- Serodifferent Partners: Dating, Relationships, and Mixed HIV Status
- Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, Justice, Pleasure, and HIV
- Shingles and HIV (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Undetectable Equals Untransmittable: Building Hope and Ending HIV Stigma
- US Immigration and HIV: The Basics (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- What Health Screenings Can Help Me Age Positively? (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
- Why Language Matters: Facing HIV Stigma in Our Own Words (with Vickie Lynn as primary author)
- Why Race Matters: Women and HIV
- Women, Gender, and Sexuality
- Women and HIV in US Prisons or Jails (with Barbara Jungwirth as primary author)
