I am Marvell L. Terry II, a Cultural Organizer, Health Equity Strategist, and Activist.

My passion lies in addressing the HIV epidemic in the Black community and ensuring that Black individuals have access to life-saving prevention and treatment tools, particularly in the Southern United States, where the epidemic is particularly severe.

I have devoted my life to advocating for policies that benefit the Black community.

I am the founder of the Saving Ourselves Symposium (SOS), contributed to the Young Black Gay Men's Leadership Summit, and spearheaded the Southern HIV Impact Fund. As a native of Memphis, now residing in Atlanta, GA, the South holds significant importance for me.

  • I started my advocacy work by co-leading an HIV ministry at Christ Missionary Baptist Church, being an HIV tester and EIS at Christ Community Health Services, and volunteering on community task forces.

    Not long after, I answered a higher call to leadership by founding my own organization: The Red Door Foundation (2010). I was recognized as the only Black gay man living with HIV to found and lead an organization for HIV awareness and engagement at the time in Shelby County. Doubling down on my commitment to community, I started the Saving Ourselves Symposium (2013), a one-of-a-kind conference in the South for the Black LGBTQ community to address health, wellness, and social injustices.

  • One of my biggest thrills was expanding my impact to a national scale by joining the Young Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition Policy and Advocacy Summit as co-chair of the Organizing Committee (2014); the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) as an HIV Fellow (2015) and AIDS United as a Senior Program Manager of the Southern HIV Impact Fund (2018). I am known as a people-minded strategist: I established a leadership pipeline in the HIV movement by co-creating the HIV 360 Fellowship Program at the HRCF and improved grantmaking efforts and philanthropic funding sources within AIDS United to support organizations in the South working at the intersection of HIV and social justice.

    I am a former board member for Hope House (Memphis, 2022-2023), an advisory board member for Wake Forest University School of Divinity, and a founding member for the HIV Racial Justice Network.

    In September 2023, I was sworn in as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS during the 78th Full Council meeting.

  • I believe art has always been at the center of the HIV movement.  I am a curator and storyteller committed to telling more stories about HIV, Black queer men, love, and pleasure through film and art.  My photographic art installation titled “worship: black men and pleasure”, which deconstructs the ways in which Black men are taught about intimacy, opens in the Summer of 2024.  I am pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Media at the City University of New York.

  • POZ Magazine, 100 Black Advocates | November 2021

  • Emory University School of Public Health, 40 for 40: Honoring Our Champions & Trailblazers in the Fight against HIV | November 2021

  • Black and Pink, Kuwasi Balagoon Award | 2020

  • Gilead Sciences | May 2019

  • Board of The Red Door Foundation, Groundbreaking Leadership Achievement Award | June 2017

  • NAESM, Harold Dean Philpot Leadership Award | January 2016

  • Black, Gifted & Whole Foundation, Social Humanitatrian Award | 2015

  • POZ Magazine, 2014 POZ 100: Celebrating Youth Power | November 2014

  • Memphis Flyer, 30 under 30 | February 2013

  • Shelby County Health Department, Light of Hope Award | December 2012.

Honored.

Critical convenings.

My commitment to promoting health equity and equal access to healthcare shines through impactful gatherings. 

Each event brings together renowned experts, community leaders, and passionate individuals to discuss, share insights, and drive positive change in healthcare systems

In April 2020, at the crux of the COVID pandemic, I curated a four-part series of virtual town hall meetings. The “Ring the Alarm: Black Gay Men in Response to COVID-19” series was held prior to communities of color being identified as most “at-risk” for COVID-19. Years later, I convened again a virtual town hall meeting with the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, CDC, and Shelby County Health Department to discuss the outbreak of mpox in Memphis and limited access to vaccinations for Black gay men. My keen attention to detail and my community does not allow my to wait but instead innovate for the betterment of those who are in need.

Most recently, at the 2024 United States Conference on HIV and AIDS (USCHA) I organized the BLK in the South Summit, uniting local community members, HIV activists, and movement leaders to discuss the impact of HIV on the Black community in the Southern United States. This one-day event was designed to address pressing issues and provide ideas, concepts, and frameworks for collaborative efforts to end the AIDS epidemic in the Black community in the South.

Read.

My published written works on HIV research and injustices can be found in the Journal of Health and Disparities Research and Practice, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, TheBody.com, and more. 

Let’s do this.

marvellterry@gmail.com