Meet Our New Team Members!

Nayasia Coleman

Executive Assistant

Nay Coleman has spent a decade supporting community engagement, diversity, equity, & inclusion, and the arts across the United States. Her work to increase the quality of life for marginalized members of our community directly intersects with her own lived experience. She aims to be a beacon to those experiencing racism, homophobia, classism, and health disparities. She is influenced by her ancestors, those named and those unknown due to the myth of white supremacy.

Nay currently supports the Executive Director of the Southern AIDS Coalition with the hope of ending the HIV epidemic. She also serves as Co-Founder and Chief Diversity Officer of OutFind Creative, a brand and design firm that centers Black and LGBTQ+ representation. Although born in New York City, Nay currently resides in North Carolina where she enjoys having access to beaches, mountains, and rivers to frolic in across the state.

Fun Fact: Nay hopes to create more ease, joy, and support in our work here at SAC. They look forward to building robust relationships with my colleagues, other organizations, and members of our community. They look forward to learning more about how they can grow both personally and professionally as a leader.

Justin Lofton

Training Manager

Justin is a nonprofit professional with over a decade of experience leading sexual and reproductive health programs, training and capacity building, and championing health policy initiatives. He is from Mississippi and is partaking in this necessary and timely work to spread awareness and information to providers across the South.

He says, “I grew up in a small town where HIV stigma cost many people their lives. So, when my friend was diagnosed, I was committed to rooting out that stigma so that they could live a happy and healthy life.” Through his work at SAC, he hopes that he is able to cultivate meaningful learning opportunities for healthcare providers by developing and scaling capacity-building programs that create safe and productive healthcare environments for people living with and affected by HIV.

Brady Maden

Community Science Programs Manager

Brady Maiden is from Bakersfield, CA, and resides in Washington, DC. She has experience in disability employment advocacy, research, programming, and health equity. As a former senior analyst, she has fervently advocated for equitable employment opportunities for people with disabilities. She has also contributed to HIV advocacy efforts by developing programming around sexual health, prevention, and increasing community awareness about HIV science.

She strongly believes that at its core, the HIV epidemic is still heavily concentrated in the South, and we must continue to not only provide awareness but also listen to the community’s needs to build an effective response. She says, “Far too often, policies and policymakers adopt large-scale approaches how to end the HIV epidemic but disregard community voices. This is regarding the call for more funding towards HIV prevention, stronger support in addressing stigma, and the increased efforts to help tackle the misinformation around HIV science and research.”

She hopes to continue to expand the reach of the efforts to end the epidemic to audiences who have yet to hear about the advocacy efforts that SAC is doing. Also, to continue to create safe spaces for people to come and know not only will they be heard but are represented by an organization that continues to have their best interest at heart. She will push for the spread of Ubuntu as she learns and grows from her community. She hopes to unite and develop programming that continues to always shine a light on those in the struggle. 

Fun Fact: She believes in the spirit of Ubuntu which calls for us to recognize the inner light within ourselves so that we may grow it amongst those around us. She hopes to continue to carry this ideology and believes that seeing the south for all its intersectional identities, culture, history, and its people will help to give us continued strength to fight to end the HIV epidemic.

Justin Searcy

Grants Manager

Justin Searcy is originally from Memphis, Tennessee, by way of Jackson, Tennessee. He has been in the public health arena for over 10 years with an emphasis on grant management, community engagement, and program management. He is grateful to join an organization that is thriving and making strides through implementation and passion. Currently, he is in the process of starting his doctoral degree. Justin says, “The research advancement of HIV has paved the way for many to have knowledge that may have not been privy in the past. As I step into this role, I will continue to be that voice and challenge myself to move the needle as others have done.”

Fun Fact: When Justin was in graduate school where most of his studies focus on HIV and the communities that it affected. While preparing for a Community Chat with a local church, he was able to learn and share numerous foundational concepts that offered foundational principles to my audience. As a result of that community event, his insight on HIV, its awareness, and community advocacy provided him the platform to continue his passion for research methodology.