Staff

Cyndee Clay, Executive Director

Ms. Clay has advocated for, by and with individuals engaged in sex work or sex for gain with since 1995. She has developed harm reduction based programs and provided technical assistance and training for medical and social service providers both in the U.S. and internationally on topics including HIV Prevention, LGBT Sensitivity, Sex Work and Harm Reduction. . Ms. Clay served as foundation representative on the Ms. Foundation’s first collaborative for Healthy Girls/Healthy Women, and serves on Washington DC’s Community HIV Prevention Planning Group, and the Health Department’s working group on Substance Use and HIV, and represents the District of Columbia on the national Urban Coalition of HIV/AIDS Prevention Services.

Elizabeth Saracco, Director of Programs

Elizabeth Saracco has been serving as the Director of Programs at HIPS 2008, where apreviously she served as the Peer Education Program Manager. Ms. Saracco works closely with the Executive Director in all aspects of program development and on organizational goals and is responsible for HIPS program supervision and administration and acting as a liaison to foundation and public funders. In 2003 Ms. Saracco developed and implemented an intervention called “Choices” for NJ DOH which provided peer support, health education and advocacy to the female drug using community. She has also worked as a consultant for NECAPT (Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies-) affiliated with SAMHSA/ CSAP as well as presented numerous workshops on peer based strategies regarding public health and issues around the sex work community at national and international conferences. Ms. Saracco possesses an AA in Liberal Studies from Harcum College, BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a MS in Clinical Psychology from California Coast University. While not doing HIPS stuff Ms. Saracco likes collecting 80’s punk and metal records, watching Arsenal F.C. matches, and experimenting with eye shadow.

JD Rosario, Peer Education Program Manager

J. D. Rosario began as a HIPS volunteer and team leader in 2006. J.D. has led a career dedicated to working with traditionally marginalized population and is entrenched in the movement to end gender-based violence. He is responsible for the overall implementation of all in-house group programming.

Lia Scholl, Director of Programs

Lia Scholl joined the HIPS staff in early 2010, and is the Client Advocacy Program Manager. She is the founder and former executive director of Star Light Ministries, Inc., where she worked with sex workers for eight years. Originally from Alabama, she earned her M.Div. from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and pastors the Richmond Mennonite Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia.

Jenna Mellor, Outreach Manager

Jenna runs our flagship street-based outreach and needle exchange programs and coordinates the passionate volunteers who make our work possible. Before joining HIPS she worked at Safe Horizon in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office as a case manager for domestic violence survivors. Jenna is a sex-positive leader and oral historian, who as an undergraduate at Harvard founded the high-impact Female Orgasm Seminar and chaired the Radcliffe Union of Students, a feminist organization devoted to activism and the arts. She has led menstruation workshops for Boston-area teenagers, taught literacy courses to migrant farm workers in New Jersey, and conducted original research into the history of involuntary sterilization in the United States. Jenna reps the big hair and bodacious ways of her beloved hometown, Atlantic City.

Charisse Moore, Programs Administration Assistant

Charisse Moore is HIPS Programs Administration Assistant. She became a staff member in November 2008. She is responsible for the administrative tasks that allow HIPS to implement the various programs.

Angel Brown, Peer Education Program Assistant

Angel Brown came to HIPS as a full time volunteer in 2009, giving as many as thirty-five (35) hours each week of her time. She was invited to join the Peer Education Program and has grown through that program to her current position. Angel supervises all peer education and manages the logistical implementation of group level programs.

Dana McCoullough, Peer Education Program Facilitator

Dana McCullough became involved with HIPS in 2000, at which time she became trained as a Peer Educator. Ms. McCullough is currently the Female Programs Facilitator and has made a very successful transition into a staff position within the agency. Dana works with women in both the female support group and Charm School programs.

Brandon Beale, Syringe Access Assistant

Brandon is a native Washingtonian–born, raised, and educated in the city–who is proud to serve his community as the HIPS Syringe Exchange (S/Ex) Coordinator and Outreach Assistant. Brandon joined HIPS with a passion to reach those who are seldom reached and, to do so, he canvases DC’s hot spots four days a week to make connections, provide syringe exchange services, and grow community partnerships. Brandon trained in S/Ex as a volunteer at Prevention Works and is completing his certification in Addictions Counseling. He currently has 1,000+ hours in Addictions Counseling training and a lifetime of training in being a “people person”. If you’re lucky enough to see Brandon doing outreach, you just might hear his catchphrase “Glove it before you love it!” Brandon is a fan of sports, music, R & B, and his 12 grandchildren. . . and he’s looking forward with great pleasure to reaching you

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