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The AmASSI Group Team
Cleo Manago, Founder & Managing Director:
BACKGROUND: As founder and CEO of the African, American Advocacy, Support-Services & Survival Institute (AmASSI), a national
non-profit organization, Cleo Manago has provided leadership regarding African American health concerns nationally for two
decades. Mr. Manago was one of the first innovators in the AIDS movement to reveal that psychosocial concerns were a major
determinant to assure treatment adherence and preventative behavior modification. He founded the AmASSI National Centers
for Wellness and Health in order to provide HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention services utilizing a psychosocial, mental health
model that was culturally specific to African American identity. Opening the first Wellness Center in Oakland, California,
the AmASSI Centers now provide services in South Central Los Angeles, Atlanta, Georgia and Harlem, New York. Established in
1989, the AmASSI Community Health & Cultural Centers are committed to the wellness, affirmation, education and preservation
of African American health and culture.
BEST PRACTICES: AmASSI models and program strategies have been identified as Best Practices by the United States Conference
of Mayors Best Practices Center, the American Journal of Public Health, POZ Magazine, AIDS Action, and the California Wellness
Foundation.
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| Manago on C-SPAN Television - Cost & Casualties of Black HIV/AIDS |
Cleo Manago Biography Continued...
Sandra Singleton McDonald, Evaluation Consultant:
Sandra Singleton McDonald is a recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Award for work in HIV/AIDS.
As President and Founder of Outreach Inc., a non-profit AIDS prevention organization in Atlanta, Ms. McDonald has conducted
trainings for the National Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control, and the U. S. Department of Health and Human
Services (where she was appointed to serve on the HRSA AIDS Advisory Committee. Ms. McDonald was also named by President
Bush to serve on the Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). Ms. McDonald has extensive experience with the Atlanta African
American community and is instrumental in providing qualified guidance in curriculum development and the implementation of
evaluation.
CLICK: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leaders
Gisele Biamby, MD, MPH, Medical Consultant:
Dr. Gisele Biamby is a physician with over 20 years of experience of working with infectious diseases and the patients with
AIDS/HIV. Dr. Biamby has been a significant contributor in AIDS/HIV public awareness and an active advocate for preventive
medicine in the African American community. She was an AIDS trainer at the AIDS Educational and Training Center (AETC) and
a clinical instructor for the National Minority AIDS Education Training Center (NMAETC) at King-Drew Medical Center. She
has also organized cultural exchange approaches to the treatment of AIDS with physicians in West African.
INTERNATIONAL: Dr. Biamby actively engages in the global treatment of patients in various countries, including in El
Salvador, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia. She has served as a committee member of the International Health Institute,
Charles Drew University of Medicine; and, in 1987, started the first specialized AHIV/AID clinic at the County of Los Angeles
Public Health Department. Dr. Biamby has an MPH from the University of California, Los Angeles.
COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP: Dr. Biamby founded the Treatment, Education, and Assessment Institute in 2001 in response to a critical
need for comprehensive delivery of healthcare and ancillary services to the people in the underserved and disenfranchised
communities. T.E.A Institute was established as a General Medicine facility, employing culturally sensitive therapies within
the framework of the best traditions of western medicine. The program focuses on diseases and conditions disparately impacting
the poor and racial minorities including diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, obesity, prostrate cancer, drug misuse, among
others.
Dr. Biamby received her medical degree from the University of Haiti and her Master of Public Health at the University
of California, Los Angeles. She speaks French, English and Spanish fluently.
CLICK: PubMed Central (PMC) U.S. National Institutes of Health
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