Leif Mitchell, Assistant Director of CIRA's Community Research Core, will be a recipient of Yale University's Seton Elm-Ivy Awards which honor people whose efforts support the collaboration of the university and its hometown. Besides his duties at CIRA, Leif is a member of the CT HIV Planning Consortium, Co-Chair of the Ryan White Planning Council for New Haven and Fairfield Counties, a member of the New Haven Mayor's Task Force on AIDS, Co-Chair of Yale's LGBTQ Affinity Group and a member of the Yale Medical School Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Steering committee, which provides guidance to RWJ scholars on their New Haven community projects.
He also championed, and now co-chairs, the CT HIV/AIDS Identification and Referral Task Force (CHAIR) with the CT Department of Public Health. This new entity was formed to develop effective strategies to identify people with HIV who are unaware of their status and link them to care. CHAIR has become an important vehicle to address inadequacies in the current response to HIV/AIDS and particularly in CT's urban centers, meeting monthly at CIRA offices at the Yale School of Public Health with active participation from the New Haven Health Department and other New Haven based organizations.
This brief description provides only a glimpse of his impact in New Haven and his contributions to the University's positive role in the community. Please join us in congratulating Leif on his achievements.
Published: Monday, April 1, 2013
