FERNDALE'S MICHIGAN AIDS COALITION NAMES TERRY RYAN CEO

Ryan Brings MAC More Than 25 Years of HIV/AIDS Experience to New Role

The Michigan AIDS Coalition (MAC) today announced Terry Ryan as its newly appointed CEO. Ryan, the former director of grants and special projects for the organization, was chosen in December to succeed former CEO Helen Hicks.

Among many duties he handled as director of grants and special projects for the Michigan AIDS Coalition, Ryan was also the AmeriCorps City Supervisor. He was instrumental in bringing two exclusive national fundraising events held annually in Detroit: Dining Out for Life (April), and DIFFA’s (Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS) Dining by Design (September).

In his new post as CEO, Ryan will oversee the Michigan AIDS Coalition and its mission to prevent HIV/AIDS in Michigan by promoting healthy lifestyles, providing and investing in evidence-based, innovative programs and through advocacy and education. MAC is one of Michigan’s largest non-profit, community-based organizations dedicated to health promotion, harm and risk reduction, HIV and sexually transmitted disease prevention education, grant making and public policy. MAC has conducted thousands of workshops and training sessions, reaching more than 500,000 people – 30,000 in the last year alone.

Ryan, a Grand Rapids native, attended Grand Valley State University where he majored in political science, and minored in business. In the late 80s, Ryan moved to Detroit to take a job as a sales representative in the textile industry where – at the same time – he began volunteering at Wellness Networks (now AIDS Partnership Michigan), the first agency in Michigan to address GRID (Gay Related Immune Disorder), as HIV/AIDS was formerly known.

Wellness Networks hired Ryan as manager where he helped establish the State’s first toll-free hotline for AIDS. He helped recruit and train volunteers who worked the hotline, assisted in hospital visitation, the buddy program and more. Ryan also served as a co-chair of AIDS Community Alliance, a local Detroit coalition of emerging AIDS service organizations. He has conducted HIV counseling and testing at the Macomb County Health Dept., which he continued until 2003.

The Michigan AIDS Fund (MAF) hired Ryan in 1997 as a grants monitor. He launched an AmeriCorps team as a partnership between MAF and the National AIDS Fund), which is the only team in Michigan – and one of eight nationally – whose program focus is HIV/AIDS. MAF merged with Midwest AIDS Prevention Project in 2009 to create the Michigan AIDS Coalition, where Ryan serves at CEO today.

MAC’s key annual fundraisers are some of the most well-attended and notable events in Detroit, including nationally acclaimed fundraisers, such as, Dining Out for Life Detroit held annually in April, and DIFFA Dining by Design and ArtWorks Detroit held in September. MAC is also the key benefactor of the Ferndale Blues & Music Festival held in January. Find more information at: http://www.michiganaidscoalition.org.