Positive Alliance is currently positioned as a safe and useful space for HIV+ male-identified individuals who are attracted to other men, and also for allies. We think of an ally as anyone who shares our commitment to working towards the best possible quality of life for people living with HIV.
Allyship can take the form of combating HIV stigma, promoting wellness and inclusivity, donating money or other resources, or just being that good friend who comes along for moral support and a fun time! Allies might also work in a healthcare setting, or a research capacity, or might provide mental wellness services.
Our goal is to undertake both community building (connecting folks with one another and other organizations), and community action (doing things to directly make life better or easier or healthier for people living with HIV, those affected by someone else's HIV status, and those at risk of becoming HIV+).
One major way we accomplish community building is through various events to get people together either in person or online. Some events are for HIV+ individuals and also allies, and other events are more private and intended for those who are HIV+ and wish to retain some privacy. Some are further specialized to HIV+ gay/bi/queer/trans men and those who identify as men— historically the community most severely impacted by HIV/AIDS.
We are committed to community building for those living with and affected by HIV, and to community action for those needs still unmet by existing systems and resources.
Positive Alliance NYC is proud of our contributions to this community: countless friendships exist because of our work. Several marriages came out of our events. Our community has come together to help people access physical and mental healthcare, find stable or safer housing, buy clothing when they’ve lost everything, and many more small, quiet acts of love and support that would fall through the cracks of larger organizations. Perhaps one of the most meaningful things we have been is an important part of diminishing the stigma surrounding HIV within the community as a whole.
Our previous leadership hosted a series of impactful conversations called Comfortably Uncomfortable, talking about issues important to the community that often go undiscussed. We look forward to finding a way to adapt this to carry some version of it forward!
Our Board of Directors
Josh Wellman
Board Chair | Chief Executive Officer
Josh Wellman is a New York City-based activist focused primarily on LGBTQ and public health issues. He is the co-founder of Positive Alliance, with the late Jacob Pring, and he first served in a leadership role from the first small gatherings through the first half-decade of the community's growth and development. He returned to the now-expanded role in the fall of 2023.
Josh is a survivor of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), and in addition to his commitment to LGBTQ issues and the well-being of those living with or impacted by HIV/AIDS, he is an advocate for trauma-informed mental wellness initiatives. Having lost many more “chosen family” to addiction and mental health challenges resulting in death than to HIV/AIDS, he is keenly interested in addressing those issues as parallel and overlapping public health emergencies impacting individual lives, alongside and in tandem with HIV.
He dedicates his service to the memories of Dan McConnell, Jacob Pring, Peter Brandes, David Monberg, Melanie Silvera, Poppi Kramer, Darius Smith, Arron Smyth, Michael Carfagno, Jerry Chapa, Jonathan Taveras, Jerry Tschopp, Aaron Shear, Myckel Minnick, Damien Cameron, and everyone else who has left us too soon from whatever cause; and to the health and well-being of everyone we love who is still here.
Outside his volunteer work and advocacy, he is an entertainment and publishing professional and a proud graduate of New York University and Baldwin-Wallace University. Josh enjoys puns (the highest form of humor), “dad jokes,” cozy murder mysteries, Britcoms, historic ocean liners, sampling (then recreating) untasted cuisines, crying at human/animal reunion videos, musical theatre, and kayaking in the questionably-sanitary waters of the Hudson River.
Robert Lopez
Secretary & Treasurer | Chief Operating & Financial Officer
Robert Lopez has been a champion of change at the city, state, and national level for over a decade. Focused on improving the lives of LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities, Robert leverages the power of data to support organizations in telling impactful stories and drive stronger program outcomes.
He served in a leadership capacity on the New York State HIV Advisory Body from 2015-2021, where he supported the AIDS Institute in collecting better data on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression in the AIRS data base.
Robert was honored to have been chosen as a recipient of a Community Hero Award from the New York City Anti-Violence Project.
Robert is the Co-Founder and Treasurer of NYC Gaymers and the former President and CEO of Folsom Street East. Developing non-profit Boards of Directors and creating safer spaces is his passion. If he’s not planning a community event, Robert is likely enjoying all that life in New York City has to offer with chosen family.
Scott Kramer
Vice Chair | Officer of the Board
Scott A. Kramer, LCSW-R, is a psychotherapist and the owner of Affirming Psychotherapy in New York City. He works with LGBTQ+ clients, specializing in gay men’s issues and gay men living with HIV and AIDS. Scott was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 and AIDS in 1995. He facilitates Living Successfully with HIV/AIDS, a free, virtual, weekly group for people living with HIV and AIDS, which is a collaboration with Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST). Scott continues to be an advocate and activist for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and for those living with HIV & AIDS.
Scott is excited to be a board member of Positive Alliance. He will use his skills to assess the needs of our community and help to create essential activities to bust stigma and fear, to bring us together in a meaningful way.
Michael McGinn
Officer of the Board
Michael McGinn recently retired from his long-time role as an educational psychologist.
Michael first tested positive for HIV in 1987 and thus has been “poz” for more than half his life. Over these decades, he has been a member or active participant in many HIV-related organizations, such as ACT UP, Body Positive, Nothing but Guys, Strength in Numbers, and Positive Alliance.
Michael holds a Bachelor's Degree from The University of Pennsylvania and a Doctoral Degree in Clinical Child Psychology from Pace University. He worked for nearly 30 years with children and adolescents in public and private schools. He recently retired from full-time employment and is contemplating what comes next.
Michael lives in Morningside Heights.
Our History
Positive Alliance began life in a Hell’s Kitchen living room in 2009. About a dozen HIV+ gay men started a monthly party to connect with one another and build social bonds. HIV was no longer a death sentence, and a new generation of treatments meant that the infection was, for most people, a manageable, chronic condition to keep under control. However, undercurrents and overtones of HIV stigma still flowed freely through the gay community, PrEP wasn’t an option yet, and there were still many more hurdles to dating and intimacy than there are today. In 2010, Jacob Pring’s POZ party, which had already started successful runs in both Washington, DC and Philadelphia, started at Vlada Von Shats’s Vlada Bar in Hell’s Kitchen. Vlada provided a welcoming home, and very quickly the private living room group and Jacob’s POZ group merged into what would eventually become Positive Alliance, and then Impac+ , and now Positive Alliance again!
Between 2010 and 2015, the group grew from 13 guys, to several hundred regular, active members. Michael Hager and Jeanathan Lei assumed leadership in 2015 and further grew the organization.
Positive Alliance NYC is proud of our contributions to this community: countless friendships exist because of our work. Several marriages came out of our events. Our community has come together to help people access physical and mental healthcare, find stable or safer housing, buy clothing when they’ve lost everything, and many more small, quiet acts of love and support that would fall through the cracks of larger organizations. Perhaps one of the most meaningful things we have been is an important part of diminishing the stigma surrounding HIV within the community as a whole.
Like many organizations, we were severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need for distancing and isolation. Programming was at first slow to recover, partly because of surges in new strains of Covid-19, and a reasonable concern for health and safety; and partly due to the new economic realties faced by would-be venues. However, we have dusted ourselves off and gotten back on our feet. We are back to regular programming, and are working hard to implement both aspects of our mission: community building and community action.
Previous Leadership
Michael Hager
President Emeritus
Michael Hager is a public health and quality improvement expert focused on LGBT health and HIV. He has been living with HIV since 2002 and has 20 years’ experience working within HIV service systems across Federal, state, and local levels. Michael has led several national initiatives aimed at improving RWHAP patient health outcomes, including the in+care Campaign.
He continues to be a leader in coaching and technical assistance as it relates to LGBT health, community engagement, public/private partnership creation, and evidence-based co-design and leads such initiatives in jurisdictions across the US.
Over his career, Michael has been at the forefront of cutting-edge systems change like integration of behavioral health and primary care, the harmonization of HIV-priority initiatives (Fast Track Cities, 90-90-90, US-ETE, regional ETE, etc.) and the development new tools and systems in addition to written procedures all with a focus on sustainability. He recently formed a new consultancy focused on public involvement in policymaking, cross-sectoral collaboration, and economic resilience featuring six novel services.
His firm emphasizes diversity equity and inclusion by hiring people with lived experience relevant to the projects they work on (homelessness, addiction, sex work, gender expansive identities, language ability, etc).
Jeanathan Lei
Social Director Emeritus
Jeanathan Lei is an NYC-based stylist and image consultant. He is passionate about teaching others to see themselves more kindly, more stylishly, and more authentically. He has the opportunity to help folks show up and show out for themselves. In addition to his unwavering encouragement for everyone to be their most stylish, Jeanathan is a tireless advocate for his LGBTQIA+ community in all their forms. He has worked closely with many HIV/AIDS charities over the years both in his adoptive home of Denver CO, and in NYC. When he relocated to NYC, he became a member of and eventually Social Director of IMPAC+NYC with the legendary Michael Hager. Together, along with the help of many others, they led a lively, thoughtful, inclusive organization offering a social outlet to those affected by HIV/AIDS. As Jeanathan often says, “IMPAC+NYCis a social organization that combats stigma and isolation associated with HIV/AIDS. ” In his time with IMPAC+NYC, Jeanathan also facilitated open, often uncomfortable conversations about race and racism as it related to our QUEER community. As the saying goes, "We can not fix a problem we are afraid to talk about.” An educator by nature, Jeanathan does everything with a wicked combination of southern charm and hilarious observations.
In Memoriam
Jacob Pring
Co-founder
Our co-founder, Jacob Pring, lost his battle with addiction on September 26, 2022. He was open about his struggle with that part of his life, and was an advocate for transparency to destigmatize substance use and addiction in the world in general, but especially in the gay community. He took a similar approach to HIV stigma and secrecy, prompting him to launch the his “POZ” events in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and of course the New York event that became part of the foundation of Positive Alliance and Impac+NYC. His work in this area was transformative for many people’s lives.
In its coverage of his passing, The Washington Blade described Jacob as, "an LGBTQ rights advocate whose career included working as a mortgage loan officer and Lyft driver by day while organizing social events and parties at night and on weekends at D.C. gay bars and other venues, including “Gay Day” at the National Zoo.” He was also remembered in The Advocate.
Prior to his work as an activist and connector within the LGBTQ+ community, Jacob was an Air Force and Air National Guard veteran.
Our team honors his service to our country, to our communities, and to those who needed his leadership to open up the world for them.