Janeen Gingrich
Janeen has worked for non-profit organizations for the past 25+ years, with her most recent areas of focus being capacity building, executive coaching, strategic planning, and interim leadership. She started her career working overnight at a shelter for survivors of domestic and sexual violence in the 1990s. Janeen believes in strength-based leadership, creating connections between organizations and people, and developing the tools to address issues of equity and inclusion head on. Over the years, Janeen has built programs from the ground up for a range of social justice-focused organizations, with budgets from $250,000 to $20 million annually. She was the Director of Programming for the statewide domestic violence coalition in North Carolina (NCCADV) for several years and the interim CEO of SHIFT NC from 2017-2018.
Janeen is the principal consultant at Marquis-Duggan Non-Profit Solutions, which she founded in 2008, and is named in honor of her mother and grandmother. She lives in Durham, NC with her daughters Zora and Phoebe, her fantastic partner Seth, and her pit/lab rescue Coco. In her free time, Janeen is an avid voter, reader, podcast consumer, and international traveler (pre-COVID).
Contact her at janeen@ncaan.org.
Christina Adeleke
Christina Adeleke is NCAAN’s Policy and Communications Manager. Before coming to NCAAN, Christina was the Coalition Organizer at Equality NC, an organization dedicated to securing equality rights and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) North Carolinians. While with ENC, Christina created and maintained partnerships with broad-based coalitions and grassroots activities and assisted in lobbying efforts with the North Carolina General Assembly. Christina has also worked at the Freedom Center for Social Justice, an organization providing essential support and advocacy for transgender people, elders, people of color, youth, sexual minorities and communities of faith, and at the Children of Inmates, an organization focused on assuring that children with incarcerated parents have opportunities to be cared for and supported in their development by responsible adults, helping professionals, and others in their communities. Christina currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Human Rights Campaign.
Christina received her J.D., with the highest pro bono honors, and is a member of the Florida Bar. While in law school, she was a member of the LGBT Legal Society, Public Interest Law Society, Delta Theta Phi Legal Fraternity, and the competitive Civil Rights Clinic. Christina graduated cum laude from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee with her B.A. in Public Relations and minor in Religion. Christina’s passions include music, politics, and traveling. She is native of Miami, Florida, and currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Contact Christina at christina@NCAAN.org or (980) 819-1876.
After completing his degree, De’Shea continued field work as an intern at a federally qualified health center that was formerly the AIDS Project of Central Iowa. His internship led to him becoming a Prevention Specialist at the same clinic. Along with providing HIV, Hepatitis C, and STI testing and education, De’Shea served on the board for the Iowa Community Planning Group for HIV and Hepatitis C. He also served on the board of the Des Moines Pride Center as the Diversity Liaison and a facilitator for the Gay Men’s Support Group. While volunteering and working closely with the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition, De’Shea learned more about the health disparities facing those living with Hep C and the policies that stagnate the mission of harm reduction.
Matt Martin
Matt Martin has been with the North Carolina AIDS Action Network’s since August 2016 and currently serves as the Grassroots Advocacy Manager. Matt graduated from Western Carolina University in 2013, receiving a B.S.Ed. and B.M. in Instrumental Music Education with a minor in Religious Studies. After teaching Middle School Band in the NC Public School system for two years, Matt left education to follow a passion for advocacy and activism. Prior to joining the NCAAN team, Matt worked as a Field Organizer on the TurnOUT! Charlotte and TurnOUT! North Carolina campaigns, two LGBTQ+ issue based coalition campaigns.
Matt served on the board of directors for Time Out Youth Center in Charlotte, NC in 2015, is a graduate of the Latino Commission on AIDS Dennis deLeon Sustainable Leadership Institute, and volunteers with various progressive organizations across North Carolina. When not working, you can typically find Matt reading dystopian novels and drinking entirely too much coffee. Matt currently is based in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Contact Matt at matt@ncaan.org or (336) 263-3067.
Rita McDaniel
Rita joined NC AIDS Action Network as a community organizer in 2018. Rita has been a longtime leader in the HIV community in North Carolina for decades. She has worked with Triangle Empowerment Center as the Woman’s Facilitator, and focused much of her work on HIV and its impact on women. In 2012, she founded the “It’s All About Me” support group, which has supported minority women living with HIV throughout the the triangle region of NC. She has served on the Duke AIDS Research and Treatment Community Advisory Board, and was recognized on the POZ 100 list in 2017.
Contact Rita at rita@ncaan.org or 919-908-4983.
J. Donte` Prayer
J. Donte` Prayer is the NC AIDS Action Network’s Health Access Coordinator. He is a native of Greenville, North Carolina but currently resides in Charlotte.
Donte` is a proud product of Elizabeth City State University with a Special Education and Psychology background but also has expertise in the public health field. Prior to joining the NCAAN team, Donté was a Prevention Coordinator for a local AIDS service organization, focusing on community-based outreach and engagement, mobilization, health disparity education, counseling and assessment, sexual wellness, HIV and Hepatitis linkage to care and other referral services including PrEP navigation. Donte’ served as the Chair of the Collaborative Council for Statusboiz and Statusgurlz, a University of North Carolina at Charlotte research study funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Minority AIDS Research Initiative. This $1.1 million project focused on HIV prevention for young African American gay/bisexual men and transgender women through culturally based social networking. His involvement ensured the success of the project.
Donté continues to serve on community councils, boards and planning bodies to eradicate the HIV disparity including the Black Treatment Advocates Network and the Greater Charlotte HIV Collaborative Council. Although, Donté is no longer doing direct services, he has community rapport to ensure marginalized groups are effectively and holistically being served within the community. Aside from his advocacy passion, Donté has a passion for fashion and entertainment. He loves to travel, enjoys music, theater or anything that is performance based.
Contact Donte’ at donte@NCAAN.org or (252) 702-5166.
Matthew Harvey
Matthew Harvey joined the NCAAN team in December 2020 and is super excited to serve as its Administrative Assistant. Matthew graduated from Davidson College in 2017, with a BA degree in Political Science and a Minor in Theatre. Since then, Matthew has worked for a variety of organizations in the nonprofit sector, with missions ranging from accessibility for the disability community to producing and delivering intellectually provocative theatre. Matthew is also the Founder and Executive Director of his own arts philanthropy, ACT-TWO (actwo.org), whose mission is to deliver the transformative experience of live theatre to the under-served in our community. He hopes to one day achieve an MPA.
Matthew is the proud youngest (by one minute!) of triplets (all boys!). At 2 pounds, 9 ounces, he once held the record for the smallest human being to undergo the arterial switch cardiac procedure and survive (late 1994/early 1995). He is a voracious consumer of musical theatre scores, and a scholar/major nerd of U.S. history, particularly U.S. presidential history. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, creative writing and spending time with his family.
Contact Matthew at matthew@ncaan.org.
