OUR FOUNDER
Marvell L. Terry II
Marvell L. Terry II (he, him, his) is a dedicated educator, grassroots activist, and cultural organizer from Memphis, Tennessee. His personal experience with a positive HIV diagnosis jump-started his more than a decade-long career in HIV advocacy and education, with a significant impact at the local, state, and national levels. Marvell currently resides in Atlanta, GA, with previous professional experience in Chicago, IL, Washington, DC, and New York City, NY.
Marvell's passion for improving the health outcomes of Black gay and queer men led him to start his work as an Early Intervention Specialist (EIS), providing HIV testing and care linkage at Christ Community Health Services in Memphis. He also volunteered on the Ryan White Planning Council and the MSM Tennessee Taskforce. Marvell further answered a higher call to leadership by founding The Red Door Foundation in 2010, aiming to improve the health outcomes of Black gay men in the local community. Additionally, he established the Saving Ourselves Symposium (SOS) in 2013, a unique community forum gathering Black LGBTQ individuals in the South to address wellness, health, and social injustices. The success of SOS led to it becoming the home of the Southern AIDS Coalition (SAC), which has continued to elevate its impact going into its 10th year.
One of Marvell’s biggest thrills was expanding his impact on a national scale by joining the Young Black Gay Men’s Leadership Initiative’s Policy and Advocacy Summit as co-chair (2014), joining the Human Rights Campaign Foundation as an HIV Fellow (2015), and AIDS United as a Senior Program Manager (2018). He is known as a people-minded strategist: He established a leadership pipeline in the HIV movement by co-creating the HIV 360 Fellowship Program at the HRCF and improved grantmaking efforts and philanthropic funding sources within AIDS United to support organizations in the South. While at AIDS United, Marvell also commissioned the report “Changing the Game: Visibility of Trans Men in the South” in 2022 – the first report of its kind in the South that provided a call to action to address the funding and health needs of trans men. Marvell also secured funding for a new funding opportunity, iFORWARD: Equipping Organizations in the South through Technology to End the HIV Epidemic, to address the technological infrastructure of organizations in the South to strengthen their broadband and WIFI capabilities to ensure organizations keep pace with advancements.
In April 2020, at the crux of the COVID pandemic, Marvell curated a four-part series of virtual town hall meetings. The “Ring the Alarm: Black Gay Men in Response to COVID-19” series was held prior to communities of color being identified as most “at-risk” for COVID-19. Years later, Marvell convened again a virtual town hall meeting with the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, CDC, and Shelby County Health Department to discuss the outbreak of mpox in Memphis and limited access to vaccinations for Black gay men. Marvell’s keen attention to detail and his community does not allow him to wait but instead innovate for the betterment of those who are in need.
Marvell is a former board member for Hope House (Memphis, 2022-2023), an advisory board member for Wake Forest University School of Divinity, and a founding member for the HIV Racial Justice Network. In September 2023, Marvell was sworn in as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS during the 78th Full Council meeting.
His published written works on HIV research and injustices can be found in the Journal of Health and Disparities Research and Practice, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, TheBody.com, and more.
Marvell believes art has always been at the center of the HIV movement. He is a curator and storyteller committed to telling more stories about HIV, Black queer men, love, and pleasure through film and art. His photographic art installation titled “worship: black men and pleasure”, which deconstructs the ways in which Black men are taught about intimacy, opens in the Summer of 2024. He is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Media at the City University of New York.
To learn more, visit marvellterry.com