After twelve and a half years at CIRA, Leif Mitchell, Assistant Director of the Community Research Core, has accepted a new position with Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and commercializes innovative therapeutics in areas of unmet medical need, especially in HIV. As a Senior Community Liaison for Gilead, he'll be building relationships with and facilitating workshops for community-based organizations, community health centers and AIDS service organizations throughout New England while focusing on areas with high HIV prevalence. Leif's last day at CIRA will be Wednesday, May 15. Please join us in bidding him a very fond farewell.
Leif's Career at Yale
During his years at CIRA, Leif focused on strengthening university-community alliances through innovative programs including the Community Research Partnership Program, AIDS Science Day and community events such as the recent showing of the acclaimed documentary on the history of AIDS activism "How to Survive a Plague". Most recently, Leif was a recipient of a prestigious Yale University Seton Elm-Ivy Award which honors people whose efforts support the collaboration of the university and its hometown. Beyond his duties at CIRA, Leif was 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 co-chaired, the CT HIV/AIDS Identification and Referral Task Force (CHAIR) with the CT Department of Public Healthto develop 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.
This brief description provides only a glimpse of his impact at CIRA and in New Haven as well as his contributions to the University's positive role in the community.
Published: Monday, May 13, 2013
