Dr. Pernessa Seele is a native of the settlement town, Lincolnville, SC, where she spent her young years in a thriving, close-knit community that gave her the foundation she would need to become the Founder and CEO of The Balm In Gilead, Inc., a not-for-profit organization celebrating over 37 years of providing technical support and disease state awareness that strengthens faith communities in the USA and Africa to promote health education and services that contribute to the elimination of health disparities. Dr. Seele is well-known for her extraordinary vision and ability to create national and global partnerships in support of service to people. It is that very same service to people and passion for community and legacy that led her in 2021 to establish the Lincolnville Preservation and Historical Society. Historic Lincolnville is a town located in Charleston County that is home to rich histories of pre-Civil War, Reconstruction and the Civil Rights eras - yet its stories are untold.

As a pioneer in developing public health & faith-based models for engaging individuals in health promotion and disease prevention, Dr. Seele is the recipient of numerous citations and honors. They include: Dr. Seele was featured on the cover of TIME magazine in 2006 as One of the Most Influential Persons In the World. Ebony Magazine selected Dr. Seele as one of their Power 150; Essence Magazine has honored her with numerous features. In its 35th Anniversary issue, she was named one of the 35 Most Beautiful and Remarkable Women In The World; In May 2010, Dr. Seele was selected as 21 Leaders of the 21st Century of Women E-News in New York City. In April 2008, Clark Atlanta University honored Dr. Seele with the Pathway of Excellence Award, citing her as one of its most outstanding graduates of all time. In October 2017, His Eminence, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, bestowed the Pierre Toussaint Medallion upon Dr. Seele.

Rebecca Makkai is the author of the New York Times bestselling I Have Some Questions For You as well as four other works of fiction. The Great Believers, a novel set in Chicago at the height of the American AIDS epidemic, as well as in 2015 Paris, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and the 2018 National Book Award. One of the New York Times‘ Top Ten Books of 2018, it also won the ALA Carnegie Medal, the LA Times Book Prize, the Stonewall Award, the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, the Midwest Independent Booksellers Award, the Clark Fiction Prize, and the Chicago Review of Books Award. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Rebecca teaches graduate fiction writing at Middlebury College, Northwestern University, and the Bennington Writing Seminars, and she is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago.

Dr. Stephen Lee is the executive director of NASTAD. Stephen oversees all NASTAD programs--Health Care Access, Prevention, Hepatitis, Drug User Health, Health Equity, Policy & Legislative Affairs, and Health Systems Integration – as well as NASTAD’s overall operations.
 

Stephen has deep expertise in program and organizational management, and his experience as a
physician brings a practical perspective with regard to policy and program implementation. Prior to joining NASTAD, Stephen was a global HIV expert for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, where for 13 years he managed the development and implementation of programs that provided prevention, care, and treatment services to individuals affected by HIV.

He has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Baylor University, a degree in medicine from Emory University School of Medicine, an MBA from Heriot Watt University, and a post graduate diploma in health systems management from the University of London, School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.