UNC professor Peter Leone recognized for service to HIV/STD care in North Carolina
December 4, 2008 -- Associate Professor of Medicine Peter A. Leone, MD is the recipient of the 2008 Marty Prairie Award. The award was presented at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services HIV/STD Prevention and Care Branch’s World AIDS Day banquet and is given to individuals or organizations whose work with HIV/STDs exhibits distinguished, bold, and innovative community service and/or advocacy that positively impacts North Carolina.
Peter Leone, MDIn addition to his appointment at the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases, Leone has served as Medical Director of the North Carolina HIV/STD Prevention and Care Branch since 2001. According to Evelyn Foust, State AIDS Director for North Carolina, Leone was given this award for “his passionate work in helping to shape more responsive and current national policy regarding the HIV/STD screening and treatment programs, and for his steadfast commitment to directly helping people living with HIV/AIDS and other STDs.”
In nearly all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, Leone has worked on syphilis elimination, gonorrhea control, Chlamydia screening, STD treatment guidelines, STD racial disparities, and HIV surveillance and represents North Carolina at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Health and Human Services.
“Peter’s leadership has cultivated an important partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and the state of North Carolina to develop entirely novel and progressive strategies on a variety of public health issues,” says Myron Cohen, Associate Vice Chancellor and Director of the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases at UNC. Cohen gave the keynote address at the World AIDS Day event and was himself the recipient of Outstanding Service Award.
A long-term survivor of HIV/AIDS, Marty Prairie was as a dedicated educator for the prevention of HIV/AIDS/STDs, TB, and Alcohol/Substance Abuse, especially among minorities, the homeless, and gay men of color.
He was co-founder of Loving Food Resources, an HIV/AIDS food bank and the Western North Carolina Community Health Services clinic (WNCCHS) where he also served on the board of directors.
As a representative of the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center (NNAAPC), Prairie, who died in 2001, worked with many Native American tribes, including the Sioux, Navajo, Cherokee, and Catawba alerting elders and educating youth in an effort to avert a developing HIV/AIDS epidemic on the reservations and among all Native Americans.
Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases contact: Lisa Chensvold, (919) 843-5719, lisa_chensvold@med.unc.edu.
