Kathie Hiers

Chief Executive Officer, AIDS Alabama

Kathie M. Hiers is the Chief Executive Officer of AIDS Alabama, a statewide nonprofit organization in Alabama that provides housing, mental health, and services to low-income persons with and at-risk of HIV/AIDS.  Nationally Kathie was the only resident of the Deep South selected in 2010 by President Obama to serve on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, where she was elected Co-Chair of the Disparities Committee. She serves as elected Co-Chair of the Federal AIDS Policy Partnership, as Board Chair for the Southern AIDS Coalition, on the Convening Committee for the International AIDS Conference 2020, and on the board of the National AIDS Housing Coalition.  

In 2013 Kathie’s efforts to bring attention to the southern HIV epidemic were featured in the full-length documentary, deepsouth. Kathie won the 2014 “Research and Hope HIV/AIDS Community Champion” Award from PhRMA for her work in advocating for the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS and the 2015 UCLA School of Management/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive Leadership Community Innovation Project for her work enrolling participants into the Affordable Healthcare Act in Alabama. More than 250,000 Alabamians acquired health care through the Insurance Marketplace of the Affordable Care Act.  In 2017, Kathie was selected as one of Alabama’s Women who Shape the State.  

Kathie’s most recent publication is in the January 2020 edition of the American Journal of Public Health in which she discusses implementation of the “Ending the HIV Epidemic” plan in the southern United States.

Session

• SYNCing to End the Epidemics Through Service Providers