CHLP Staff
Catherine Hanssens, Executive Director and founder of the Center for HIV Law and Policy, has been active in HIV legal and policy issues since 1984. Previously, Hanssens was AIDS Project Director at Lambda Legal, where she led Lambda's HIV-related litigation and policy work. She also worked with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, where she created and managed one of the first medical-legal partnerships in the country, with on-site HIV legal services in several hospitals and clinics. While a staff attorney at the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate, Hanssens successfully litigated the state's first cases on involuntary HIV testing, a class action challenge to segregation and miseatment of prisoners with HIV in the NJ state prison system, and the only federal appeals court case recognizing the right of incarcerated women to funded elective abortions. She also has been a visiting clinical professor at Rutgers University Law School-Newark and Director of the law school's Women and AIDS Clinic.
Beirne Roose-Snyder, Managing Attorney, after years of working with AIDS services and education in the United States and Northern Ireland, Beirne earned her J.D. and certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies from Georgetown University Law Center, where she concentrated her studies on global health and human rights. Her research has focused on broadening access to essential medicines, and the role of perceived blameworthiness in AIDS funding priorities. Beirne has previously worked at the O'Neill Institute of National and Global Health Law, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, and was Associate Counsel for the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid. Her writing credits include: Beirne Roose-Snyder & Megan K. Doyle, The Global Health Licensing Program: A New Model for Humanitarian Licensing at the University Level, 35 Am. J.L. & Med. 281 (2009).
Adrian Guzman earned his Juris Doctor with a concentration in Health Law from Boston University School of Law, where he served as Executive Editor of Public Interest Law Journal. He earned his Master of Public Health with a concentration in Sexuality & Health from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. He has worked at Brooklyn Family Defense Project, and interned at a number of New York- and Boston-based HIV/AIDS organizations, including Gay Men's Health Crisis, The HIV Project at South Brooklyn Legal Services, The Health Law Institute at Justice Resource Institute, and HIV Law Project. He served for two years on Boston's Ryan White Treatment & Modernization Act Planning Council. His writing credits include: Adrian Guzman, Making the Grade?: An Analysis of Rights- and Due Process-Based Concerns Related to John School Diversion Programs, 20 B.U. Pub. Int. L.J. 79 (2010).
Sophia Sadinsky, Program Associate, received her B.A. with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University in May 2011, where she undertook a double major in the Science in Society Program and French Studies. She was a leader of the Wesleyan Clinic Escorts, whose work was recognized by NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut with its 2010 Catherine Roraback Award, and an editor of Wesleyan's Journal of Psychology. Sophia also spent time in Namibia studying the gender ideals promoted in a local reproductive and sexual health project in support of her undergraduate thesis, Redesigning Masculinity in the Pursuit of Reproductive Health. In the past, Sophia interned with MADRE International Women's Human Rights Organization and S.I.E.C.U.S., the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.
Nick Rhoades, Outreach and Event Specialist, attended the University of Northern Iowa and is a Certified Hotel Administrator, with extensive experience in event organizing. Rhoades was instrumental in reigniting support groups around the state of Iowa for people living with HIV/AIDS. He was a board member for over two years with the Waterloo, Iowa-based Community AIDS Assistance Project (CAAP). He is an active member/volunteer of several organizations including: The Positive Justice Project (PJP), Community HIV/Hepatitis Advocates of Iowa Network (CHAIN), Iowa HIV Community Planning Group (CPG) chaired by the Iowa Department of Public Health, Positive Iowans Taking Charge (PITCH) and the SERO Project. Rhoades has spoken at a Congressional briefing and appeared in two public service announcements on behalf of the ADAP Advocacy Association in support of increased federal funding of ADAP. He also has been an invited speaker in Geneva at a UNAIDS convening on HIV criminalization; and as part of a panel discussion organized by the Human Rights Council (the first time HIV and human rights have been discussed in such a venue).
Consultants and Advisors
Message Agency (formerly Ianncomm), Web Developer, developed and maintains CHLP's current website and content-management system. A media studio based in Philadelphia with signficiant experience working with non-profit, civil rights and arts organizations, their primary services include strategic communications, branding and messaging, web design and development, content development, and graphic design.
Deirdre Reznik, Information Design, provides design and production services for CHLP's web site and publications. Reznik is a freelance consultant and has worked in print and web design and production for educational and non-profit institutions in New York City since 1994. www.deirdrereznik.com.
