DOH Announces 2023 Suzanne Richmond-Crum Award Recipient on World AIDS Day
Published on November 30, 2023 in Writing
HONOLULU – The Hawaii State Department of Health’s Harm Reduction Services Branch (HRSB) is pleased to announce Keiva Lei Cadena as the 2023 recipient of the Suzanne Richmond-Crum Award. The award will be presented at the annual World AIDS Day ceremony on Friday, December 1, 2023. Cadena is being honored for her outstanding contributions to services related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS ) in Hawaii. The award was established in honor of Suzanne Richmond-Crum, who died in 2004 after serving for more than 10 years as director of the Department of Health HRSB’s Hawaiian HIV and Medical Management Program. The award is given annually to an individual from Hawaii for outstanding contributions to providing HIV and AIDS services with skill and compassion, just as Richmond-Crum has demonstrated in her work.
Cadena has dedicated the last 12 years to supporting people living with HIV, including working to improve prevention efforts and sharing her own experience to make a difference in the community. Cadena is a passionate advocate for people living with HIV and people with transgender experience. Cadena’s efforts have inspired many people to take charge of their health and find their own voice to speak out against stigma and discrimination.
Cadena brings her personal story as a transgender Hawaiian living with HIV to her advocacy work. She uses harm reduction strategies to reach those most in need of support and manages to approach them in a spirit of kindness and understanding. Cadena’s success in helping people receive care or HIV preventive medication (PrEP) and finding ways to connect individuals to culturally appropriate services are important contributions to the nation-wide goal. ‘State to end HIV in Hawai’i.
As a result of his efforts, Native Hawaiians are more widely represented in policy and strategic planning at the local, state, and national levels. As well as ensuring that the issues of Kānaka Maoli living with HIV were included in policy, funding and programming decisions, she brought together people living with HIV across the islands for leadership training, retreats support and legislative advocacy efforts.
Heather Lusk, executive director of the Hawai’i Health and Harm Reduction Center and past recipient of the Suzanne Richmond-Crum Award, said, “Keiva Lei Cadena is a true role model and embodies the spirit of the SRC Award. Keiva’s advocacy for people living with HIV demonstrates the same commitment that Suzanne Richmond-Crum has shown in her work with the Ministry of Health and is very deserving of this award.
2023 marks the 20th annual edition of this honor. This year, the theme for World AIDS Day in Hawaii is “Fighting Stigma”; Ending AIDS, it is therefore particularly fitting that the award is given to Cadena, who has become a leader in this important effort.
This year, World AIDS Day will be commemorated at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 1, 2023, at Crossroads Church in Honolulu. The public is invited to participate in the ceremony, in person or via the Zoom platform, to celebrate World AIDS Day and celebrate the presentation of the Suzanne Richmond-Crum Prize.
For more information on this and all statewide World AIDS Day events, visit: https://worldaidsdayhawaii.org/
