I feel blessed and privileged to be a part of the amazing TAG board as we celebrate 30 years of activism. I’m excited to continue to help TAG move forward in the fight to end HIV, viral hepatitis (HCV), and tuberculosis (TB) with equity for all.

This year we celebrate the unending dedication and accomplishments of TAG’s staff. They persevered through the challenges of an ongoing pandemic in 2021 to find new ways to carry out our work. Since the beginning of COVID-19, TAG has brought on seven new staff members who each uniquely contribute toward our shared mission. They join us as champions of communities affected by HIV, HCV and TB, advocating to expand and improve research and programs to end these three diseases around the world.

In 2021 we saw progress toward addressing the impact of racism on community health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) called out racism as a public health crisis. As CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stressed at TAG’s 2021 Research in Action Awards, building a healthier America for all requires us to confront the systems and policies that have produced generational injustice and given rise to racial health inequities. TAG has supported such commitments, contributing to NYC’s Board of Health resolution declaring racism to be a public health crisis and outlining concrete steps to address it. We know we still have much more work ahead.

TAG’s board and staff are deeply focused on ensuring that our organization embodies our values centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We updated our mission, vision, and values in 2021. We center people impacted by HIV, TB, and HCV in our work to achieve lasting policy change for every community. The board just deepened our dedication to TAG’s mission by adding three amazing new members who will help lead us into the future.

Your support is a lifeline that allows us to build upon our long history of treatment advocacy and keep waging the fights of the future. Thanks always, and I hope you will join me in continuing your commitment to support the life-saving work of TAG.

Yours in the fight,

Robert Lennon,
TAG Board President