Who We Are

Lillie has recently taken on new and exciting leadership roles within the Drug User Health team and her position as Senior Manager! Lillie is an incredible leader and has grown the team into a trusted community resource. She creates spaces for ongoing and innovative relationship building with federal partners/agencies, community networks of harm reductionists, and a multitude of people and programs doing the work on the ground.

Julio Contreras has recently been promoted to manager on the Policy & Legislative Affairs team! Since joining the PLA team, two years ago, Julio has managed the federal appropriations and policy advocacy work for the viral hepatitis and drug user health policy portfolios, including convening the Hepatitis Appropriations Partnership coalition. Julio works with governmental agencies, national organizations, coalitions, and other non-governmental organizations to promote NASTAD’s hepatitis and drug user health priorities. In his new position, Julio will assume greater responsibilities in NASTAD’s hepatitis and drug user health policy portfolios, with an increased leadership role with external partners.

Kirsten was recently promoted to associate director on the Drug User Health team.

Meredith was recently promoted to a senior associate on the Drug User Health team! Meredith has created a solid bedrock for the Team DUH COVID/SSP funding project/team and also created additional TA opportunities that span across teams focused on vaccine hesitancy, sex work, and housing and harm reduction.

Elika was recently promoted to a senior associate on the Drug User Health team! Elika has turned this ever-evolving and expanding team and scopes of work into a well-oiled machine while also taking on extra planning, reporting, and facilitation responsibilities with the Governmental Public Health and Harm Reduction calls and co-coordination of the Racial Equity in Harm Reduction project.

Mike was recently promoted to associate director on the Policy & Legislative Affairs team! Mike joined NASTAD in 2014 and since then, Mike has become an integral part of NASTAD’s Policy and Legislative Affairs team and the HIV policy community. Mike currently serves as an elected member and co-chair of the Federal AIDS Policy Partnership (FAPP) and HIV Prevention Action Coalition and on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina AIDS Action Network (NCAAN). As Associate Director, Mike’s scope of work will expand to oversee the day-to-day programmatic work of the Policy & Legislative Affairs team to support the implementation of NASTAD’s policy priorities, with a particular focus on HIV prevention policy and external coalition management.