Speakers


 
 
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Julie Lewis

30/30 Project Founder

30/30 Project Founder

Julie Lewis, 35-year HIV survivor and mother to Grammy award winning producer, Ryan Lewis, believes in the power of educating, encouraging action, community mobilization and compassion to further the quality of life and healthcare equity and options for all individuals. With this passion and dedication, she and the Lewis family founded the 30/30 Project in April of 2014.

In 1984, Julie Lewis gave birth to her first daughter, Teresa. Due to a complicated pregnancy she received a blood transfusion and in that moment was infected with HIV. When she was finally diagnosed in 1990, she was given only a few years to live. By that time she had already given birth to two other children, Laura and Ryan. Although they each had a 25% chance of being born HIV+ they were extremely fortunate and were not infected. (With ARV treatment the risk of mother to child transmission is now less that 2%). Thanks to advanced medicine and healthcare available here in the U.S. Julie has lived despite her odds.

Wanting to find a way to celebrate her amazing journey she launched the 30/30 Project in 2014 to have a positive impact on the lives of other women, girls, and families who didn’t have the same access to the healthcare opportunities that she has had.

In 2019 the 30/30 Project, in partnership with Construction for Change, reached their goal of funding the construction of 30 healthcare facilities built in communities around the world impacted by HIV/AIDS, as well as those needing maternal and compressive health care access. Because of the 30/30 Project there are now 30 medical facilities serving 18 organizations in nine countries, including the US and Puerto Rico.

Along with founding the 30/30 Project, since 2011 Julie has volunteered as the Co-Director of Global Partnership Development for Construction for Change. A former science and health teacher, Julie has over 15 years of experience in the public service sector as a public health educator. She has spoken to audiences globally, including opening the International AIDS Society 2015 Conference on HIV Science and being the keynote speaker for the 2016 UNAIDS Gala focusing on women, children and families affected by HIV. Among her honors, Julie received the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award from the Nelson Mandela Foundation as well as the Network Global Generation Award from Millennium Campus.

Julie lives in Seattle with her husband Scott and her cat, Finney. She loves spending time with her family and just welcomed her 5th grandchild!

 
 

 
 
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Teresa Hillis

30/30 Project Director

Teresa joined the 30/30 team in August 2015, with nearly ten years of professional non-profit experience from around the globe. She formerly worked with the senior leadership and project management teams at Swedish Health Services, the government relations and advocacy team at International Justice Mission and on the ground in Pretoria, South Africa as a project manager for the Tshwane Leadership Foundation.

Teresa has long been an advocate for providing healthcare to communities in need around the world and believes that sustainable infrastructure can impact the health of a community for years to come. Her passion for human rights, health care equality, and poverty alleviation led her around the world over the past fifteen years as she worked and studied in Africa, Europe, SE Asia and Latin America. Teresa holds a BA from the University of Washington in International Studies with a minor in African Studies.

 
 

Contact us at teresa@constructionforchange.org to schedule a speaking engagement.