We open the new year with gratitude to the room full of over 200 lawmakers, community members, public health leaders, industry partners, and media who made NMAC’s 6th Hill Champions Reception on December 3, 2025 such a success! Held in honor of World AIDS Day, our flagship policy event is an annual appreciation for the historically bipartisan Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus whose efforts have protected federal HIV programming and funding.

Click below to launch the 2025 Hill Champions slideshow.

NMAC's 2025 Hill Champions Reception Recap

As NMAC’s new Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer, this was my first Hill Champions reception, and it was beautiful to see our community come together. Hill Champions built upon NMAC’s endeavors to converge policymakers and community for public health impact. We celebrated 3 emerging champions - Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX), Rep. Sara Jacobs (CA), and Rep. Delia Ramirez (IL) - for their allyship and work to end the HIV epidemic.

We were also thrilled to also bring the constituent voices of TeQuan Tucker, Benjamin Ignalino, and Omar Martinez Gonzalez, each a leader of the HIV community in Dallas, San Diego, and Chicago respectively, to introduce their representatives. These guests emphasized that policies in Washington continue to affect our communities all over the country. 

In addition, we heard from longtime champions of the HIV community and allies of NMAC who stopped by our event: Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congressman Mark Takano, Congressman Paul Tonko, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Congressman Danny Davis, and many more. Each of these guests made two things clear: the HIV epidemic is far from over, and maintaining champions for HIV who will advocate on Capitol Hill is more important than ever.

Thank you to our partners at Merck for their support, and to the several team members for being in the room and in this movement with us. Also, thank you to Kelley Drye, Apicha, and San Francisco Community Health Center for your support of the event. Together, we will continue to uphold World AIDS Day and end the HIV epidemic.

NMAC members always gain special access to events like Hill Champions, while joining a powerful national network for change makers committed to equity, justice, and ending new HIV infections. Please reach out if you are considering membership.

Cecelia Thomas is NMAC’s Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer.