The Annual Hep B United Summit is the event all members, friends, advocates look forward to attend on July 23 to 25, 2019 at the Darcy Hotel in Washington DC. This year, a strong group of storytellers was invited to share their Hepatitis B stories to raise the profile of Hepatitis B as an urgent public health priority while deeply moving the audience.
The Summit first day was spent on preparing members to meet with representatives at Senators and Congress Members’ offices of their states. For California, we met with the staff at:
Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA): Kelsey Mellette
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA): Serena Gobbi
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-13): Victor Yang
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12): Wendell Primus
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA-33): Aurora Paik
Everyone was receptive to our asks and requests to endorse the FY20 Senate letter supporting increased viral hepatitis funding, or join the Congressional Hepatitis Caucus.
The following members were in the California constituents group:
Derek Imai, (Group Leader; CA-6; CA-13) from Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organization (AAPCHO)
Stuart Fong (CA-12) from San Francisco Hep B Free – Bay Area
Ben Cabangun (CA-13) from Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum
Binh Tran (CA-33) from Hep B Free Los Angeles and Asian Pacific Health Foundation
Kayla Giang (CA-52) from Asian Pacific Health Foundation
It was nice meeting representatives from all the State and learn of the regions’ activities.
Later in the day, we attended the Reception hosted by Hep B United and AAPCHO for the hepatitis B community and Congressional Champions in the US Capitol Visitors Center.
Invited speakers were Grace Meng (NY-6), Judy Chu (CA-27) and Members of the Congressional Hepatitis Caucus.
Dr. Richard Andrews, Co-chair of the National Task Force on Hepatitis B with Focus on Asian and Pacific Islander Americans,
Xuan Phan, Community Outreach Specialist of Mercy Housing and Human Development in Gulfport, Mississippi
were among the Champion awardees.