Dec
14
2005
2005 Interview Series #4: Thomas Gegeny
Author: Frank LaBanca, Ed.D.
Thomas Gegeny is the Executive Director and Senior Editor for the Center for Aids in Houston, Texas.
Visit the Center’s site at: www.centerforaids.org
UPDATE: Mr. Gegeny just sent the following message:
“Wejust published a series of essays that I think the students might find particularly enlightening re: the epidemic in the US. It’s on our website, www.centerforaids.org/rita. The fall 2005 issue (PDF files).”
Mr. Gegeny’s bio (from the CFA website): Tom joined The CFA in January 2000 as Editor of the journal Research Initiative/Treatment Action! (RITA!) and the RITA! Weekly Newsletter. As Senior Editor, he is responsible for editing, writing for, and overseeing the planning and production of these publications, as well as the patient newsletter HIV Treatment ALERTS! Tom also develops and maintains The CFA’s website and online publications. In June 2003, Tom was appointed Executive Director of The CFA by the organization’s Board of Directors. He is responsible for overseeing all programs of The CFA, as well as supervising its administration and development activities.
Before joining The CFA, Tom was employed as the Publications Specialist for the Houston Academy of Medicine–Texas Medical Center Library, where he was responsible for the creation and operation of the library’s Publications Services program. Tom earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT) in 1994, with a second major in Studio Art and minors in Psychology and Philosophy. In 1997, he completed a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Sciences at The University of Texas Houston Health Science Center. In May 2000, he completed an Associate of Applied Science degree in Technical Communication at Houston Community College, where he also earned a Certificate in Web Production in December 2002.
Tom earned certification as an Editor in the Life Sciences (ELS) from the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences in November 1999. He is a Past President of the Southwest Chapter of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) and has served as Administrator of Publications and Administrator of Membership for AMWA nationally. Currently, he is the Administrator of the 2005 Annual Conference for AMWA. In October 2004, he was named an AMWA Fellow.
In February 2004, Tom was elected to the national Steering Committee for the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition (ATAC), for which he served as that committee’s President from 2004 to 2005. Currently, Tom serves as Co-Chair for the Drug Development Committee (DDC) of ATAC and helps coordinate activities of ATAC’s Media and Communications Resource Committee.
Using the information above as well as your own interests and further research, compose appropriate, relevant questions to ask Mr. Gegeny when he visits us on December 22nd. Questions should be conceptual, in-depth, and original (do not repeat other students’ questions). Post them here so we can share our ideas and thoughts.
Our interview will conclude with the “Big10.” . . . a series of rapid-fire, quick-response questions based on The Pivot Questionnaire. You will probably recognize them as similar to the 10 questions James Lipton asks of his interviewees on the television program Inside the Actor’s Studio.
01. What is your favorite word?
02. What is your least favorite word?
03. What gets your creative juices flowing
04. Who has made the biggest impact on your life? (name and relation)
05. What is your favorite scientific word?
06. What sound or noise do you love?
07. What sound or noise do you hate?
08. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
09. What profession would you not like to do?
10. What phrase or message should all people know?
December 16th, 2005 at 8:05 am
How are people approaching the AID’s crisis in Africa?
How do you plan on increasing awarness of AID’s in the US and Overseas?
December 17th, 2005 at 10:42 pm
Much of your jobs seems to be dependent on more than just science. You have a psychology and philosophy minors and seem to do a lot of organization and management.
What exactly is your job? Do you manage people, organize the company or do research? How important has it been to be well rounded? If you could do something different in your education, what would it be? Do you think the skills you have now from your job would be readily applicable to other professions? What choices has your education given you, and why did you make the decision you did?
December 18th, 2005 at 10:58 am
Do you work directly with AIDS victims?
If there are so many programs for AIDS awareness, why is the disease still spreading?
Are there any advances for cures or remededys to slow HIV from turning into AIDS?
December 18th, 2005 at 8:09 pm
You have many accomplishments and are involved with many organizations having to do with HIV/AIDS, which experience has been most memorable or has made the largest emotional impact on you?
What are some long term goals and future events planned for ATAC?
You do a lot of media and publicity tasks, have you ever worked with AIDS victims or researched the HIV virus itself?
Your educational background is very impressive, how did Fairfield University and your education in Houston prepare you for your career now?
December 19th, 2005 at 3:25 pm
Like Sarah said earlier your job seems to need a lot of qualifications, did you plan your high school classes as preperation for the field of science you are in today?
If yes which classes did you take and why?
Do you think it will ever be possible to defeat the AIDS epicdemic?
How long will it take? What steps do we need to take to make that goal a reality?
December 19th, 2005 at 5:11 pm
All of your degrees are so diverse. Which one was the hardest to achieve and which one are you the most proud of?
How has working on all of your previous jobs prepared you for working on the AIDS awareness program? If not one of your jobs what has prepared you?
What is the American Medical Writers Association?
Are there any new drugs currently in the testing stages that look as if they are going to be invaluable to AIDS?
Which college did you enjoy the most?
December 19th, 2005 at 6:03 pm
Is it likley that in the future there will be any type of vaccine for the aids virus?
Are their any steps being taken toward a vaccine?
What has been accomplished thus far?
December 20th, 2005 at 9:50 am
How did your education influence your career path?
December 20th, 2005 at 3:43 pm
What was the pivotal moment in your life that determined your career path in helping control the AID’s crisis? If you were not to be working to prevent the spread of AID’s, what would you like to be doing as a career?
December 20th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
Does ATAC raise money for AIDS? If so how much do you raise per year?
How did you get interested in AIDS?
Do you research and help AIDS victims at ATAC?
December 20th, 2005 at 9:49 pm
What will occur if a cure for AIDS is not found? Will entire populations be wiped out eventually?
When did you first decide that you wanted to work with AIDS as a career? What inspired you to pursue this idea?
December 21st, 2005 at 8:25 am
I believe AIDS awareness is crucial, obviously your job is very prevalent. Do you feel awareness right now is affective? Do you have plans in the future to alter your approach on raising awareness to reach out to more of the population? Is there progress in the creating of AIDS drugs as well as any new research? What attracted you to becoming a part of CFA.
December 21st, 2005 at 10:33 am
In the fall issue of RITA you state in your letter from the editor that even with great advancements in medicine and ways to deal with HIV/AIDS we have not been able to stop its spread or destruction of human life. What would you say attributes to this failure?
Is your organization doing any thing to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa?
What advancements have you made in creating a vaccine or antiviral serum?
December 21st, 2005 at 11:31 am
Do you believe that even if an effective treatment for AIDS and/or HIV is developed, that the most powerful tool for fighting AIDS is education?
In your lifetime, how do you feel that AIDS will progress? In other words, do you believe that it will spread and become an even greater threat, do you think a vaccine will be developed?
Because AIDS is so widespread in Africa, do you think that even more attention and effort needs to be paid to Africa?
December 21st, 2005 at 3:06 pm
I was discussing with someone about a screen saver that allows your computer to help work to cure aids. Something about how when your not using your computer, the computer works to help solve certain DNA structures that would normally have taken a couple years to solve on the computer power that is available today, but through home users of computers, this screen saver allows researchers to solve this DNA decoding and come to a cure for aids faster. Are u involved in awareness of any of this, and is this true? If you haven’t heard of what I am talking about and it doesn’t exist, is there someway that in order to find a cure faster this could be created?
I am extremely impressed with your education and background as well. As advice to me, what drove you into being so dedicated to your work, and if you don’t mind me asking how did you get the finances for such schooling?
When you study aids, are people trying to find a way to help people who have other STD’s, who become more vulnerable to get aids? What is the latest news on this disease?
Is it a very emotional and heartbreaking field to go into? With so many deaths of all ages in this that you reasearch/study?Have you become attached to any of the people you have had to write about?
Is there research of how to make the condoms stronger and better, in order to help prevent aids too? Education is important to help prevent aids, so when educating others do you push more for abstinence and/or condom usage?
December 21st, 2005 at 3:53 pm
Clearly the AIDS pandemic around the world is a crisis. I believe that though there has been more effort to make people more aware recently, there still needs to be a greater emphasis on AIDS education in schools. What have you done to promote AIDS education and what do you plan to do in the future?
Also, seeing as you not only have a double major in studio art and biology, but you also have psychology and philosophy minors, what do you think the best choice in your college career was? Which major or minor do you find most useful in your life today? Have you ever dealt with the family’s of AIDS victims, or heard their perspectives? What have you done interms of psychology with your career?
December 21st, 2005 at 3:53 pm
Clearly the AIDS pandemic around the world is a crisis. I believe that though there has been more effort to make people more aware recently, there still needs to be a greater emphasis on AIDS education in schools. What have you done to promote AIDS education and what do you plan to do in the future?
Also, seeing as you not only have a double major in studio art and biology, but you also have psychology and philosophy minors, what do you think the best choice in your college career was? Which major or minor do you find most useful in your life today? Have you ever dealt with the family’s of AIDS victims, or heard their perspectives? What have you done interms of psychology with your career?
December 21st, 2005 at 4:59 pm
Were You expecting to be so involved with AIDs when you fist took the job?
Is it normal for someone to get such a large promotion in only three years?
December 21st, 2005 at 5:35 pm
What made you become interested in doing AIDS-related work?
What do you think it is about AIDS that is making it into such a wide-spread epidemic? Do you forsee a cure, or at least a decrease in the spread of AIDS as being possible any time in the near future?
How do you think that your education affects your work and your career today?
If you could go back and change what courses you took in high school and college, would you change any? And if so, what would you take instead?
December 21st, 2005 at 6:40 pm
Does the CFA currently have competition? I’ve heard from various medical professionals that the this is an extremely competitive environment academically speaking. Did you face problems concerning the competition throughout any of the schools that you have attended? How do you maintain modesty through this competition? Is it important to be humble in this field of science? What is your oppinion on paranoia? The CFA has a group that invites people with HIV/AIDS to dinner to converse with them about how to get involved in fighting the illness. What benefits does one recieve from the certification that one like yourself has recieved after completing a three hour exam? Is it simply a precaution used to prevent paranoia?
December 21st, 2005 at 7:51 pm
How did you choose AIDS as the focus of your career after earning so many degrees and studying so many different areas?
What do you see as the best or most effective step against the spread of HIV/AIDS?
Do you deal with research for treatment and a cure or do you focus primarily on awareness?
When most people think of AIDS they immediately think of Africa. ALthough the situation is horrible in Africa and deserves attention, is there the potential for it to have as big an effect on the United States in the future if something is not changed?
December 21st, 2005 at 9:32 pm
Where did you grow up and did this affect at all why you went to college in Fairfield CT or ended up in Houston at the CFA
Do you know where the HIV virus came from? How far back can it be traced? Is there a root virus it branched off of?
December 22nd, 2005 at 9:15 am
How prevalent is AIDS in Connecticut? Europe? Is the monkey theory of how HIV started still the most widely accepted one? Are there any other theories of how HIV started? Is there a possibility that HIV will one day become an airborne virus? Why is there such a long dormancy stage before one knows if they have HIV or not? What are possible treatments for AIDS? How does psychology and philosophy tie in with what you do?