Dafina Ward currently serves as Interim Executive Director of the Southern AIDS Coalition. For more than a decade, she has led efforts to develop community-based health programs serving groups facing the greatest health disparities, including Black women and LGBTQ youth. Most of her work has focused on the intersection of HIV and other key systems of care. Her work at SAC includes guiding the organization’s grantmaking processes and supporting grantee partners through linkage to technical assistance and other developmental opportunities. Prior to joining SAC, she led prevention efforts for AIDS Alabama (Birmingham, AL) and served as Director of External Relations for Provide, a national organization committed to improving access to reproductive health services for women in low resource communities. She is also a writer and a 2017 Ford Foundation/Op-Ed Project Public Voices Fellow, with work published in The Washington Post, The Lily and Role Reboot. Dafina was a founding member of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham LGBTQ Fund and was the first southern board member of the Urban Coalition for HIV/AIDS Prevention Services (UCHAPS). She received her BA from Clark Atlanta University (Atlanta, GA) and her Juris Doctor from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law (Philadelphia, PA).