Aaron has worked at Prevention Point Pittsburgh (PPP) since 2015, and served as a volunteer in various capacities since 2005. During his time serving as Executive Director of PPP Aaron has focused on strengthening the organizational infrastructure, expanding the provision of direct services, and advancing opportunities to implement harm reduction initiatives across Pennsylvania through advocacy efforts. He holds a master’s degree with departmental honors from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Alice is the Coordinator for PPP’s Overdose Prevention Project. She provides community training on Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction, oversees PPP’s naloxone distribution and works to advocate for people who use drugs on the local, state and national level. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has worked for PPP for more than 20 years.

Justin (he/they) recently moved to Pittsburgh from Austin, TX with 5 years experience working in the drug and alcohol field. Justin has worked as a recovery coach, group facilitator and co-founded The Satanic Temple Sober Faction. Justin is in recovery and wants to help others achieve their own interpretation of a higher quality of life. Justin's stands for equality, bodily autonomy and personal sovereignty.

As the PA Naloxone Project Coordinator, Alfred (he/him) works with PPP and NEXT Distro to expand access to free mail-based naloxone throughout PA, and uses program outcomes to inform advocacy for greater access to harm reduction interventions. He spent two years as an MAT counselor in his home state of Virginia before moving to Pittsburgh in 2014. Prior to joining PPP, he was the operations manager for Hazelwood Initiative, a community based non-profit focused on affordable housing, and was also the managing editor and layout artist of Hazelwood's community newspaper, The Homepage.

Julia Hilbert (she/her) is an Overdose Prevention Specialist at Prevention Point Pittsburgh. She distributes naloxone and provides training on overdose prevention, and can be found at several of our site locations assisting participants. Julia previously serve as the Chair of the Board of Directors for Students for Sensible Drug Policy and is the president of Pittsburgh DanceSafe.

Katie (she/they) is the Administrative Coordinator, and got her start at the organization back in 2013 as a volunteer. She does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work to ensure smooth operations, and enjoys bringing her own brand of creativity to the organization. She loves thrifting, horror movies, her cats and niblings, but not necessarily in that order.

Shay Gonzales (they/them) is a Harm Reduction Specialist for Prevention Point Pittsburgh. They support volunteers and organize supplies to support our service sites. Shay comes to Prevention Point after working in the Mon Valley to expand access to Medication-Assisted Treatment. They were raised in Denver Colorado and trained as a social worker with people experiencing altered states and psychosis in Chicago prior to putting down (mostly vegetable) roots in Wilkinsburg in 2020.

Malcolm "Mossy Bones" Visnich (he/him) is an Overdose Prevention Specialist with PPP. He distributes naloxone and provides training on overdose prevention, and can be found at several of our site locations assisting participants. After living all over the country, Malcolm is happy to have returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh. Aside from slangin' Narcan, he enjoys playing banjo for his plants and riding his beloved bike, "James".

Born a "Hoosier", Gabby (they/she) works at PPP as the Harm Reduction Services Coordinator. Gabby works alongside PPP's Community Health Advocates who save lives distributing Naloxone in their communities! You can also catch Gabby rolling chore at sites throughout the week. Outside of work Gabby enjoys crafts, (trying) to grow things, and hanging out with their cat roommates, Ino and Robocop.

Cass Simmons (she/they) can be found on site playing the role of Patient Care Specialist— supporting staff and assisting participants on the medical van here at Prevention Point. Their Aquarian nature gives them a humanitarian attitude and a disposition for autonomy and empowerment. Regularly engaging and working with the community allows Cass a unique perspective on navigating life, for the betterment of themselves and others. Alongside harm reduction, Cass is devoted to a life of humor, yoga, poetry, and mysticism. 

Libbi (she/her) comes to Prevention Point with over a decade of experience in the helping professions.She spent ten years focusing on abortion care, full spectrum ob/gyn care, and reproductive justice. Most recently, her work has been focused on harm reduction based case management and HIV advocacy. Libbi is a Chatham University alum. She lives in Highland Park with her canine best friend, Maple Jane, and their cat, Birch. In her free time, she enjoys karaoke, reading, and porch sitting.

Onyx (they/them) is a Harm Reduction Specialist at Prevention Point Pittsburgh. On Wednesdays they run the Hill SSP site. They also help people access naloxone through the statewide mailing project. Onyx got their start in harm reduction as a student in Atlanta, GA, where they helped facilitate outreach programs for unhoused community members. Outside of their efforts in harm reduction, Onyx is an artist, curator, and organizer whose work explores intersections of identity.

Lex Becton (she/her) is a social work student with lived experience with substance use and the criminal justice system. She provides case management to Prevention Point Pittsburgh's medical van.  Lex found harm reduction as a formerly incarcerated person seeing first hand how the criminal justice system over-sentences people, particularly people of color and people incarcerated for drug related offenses.  She is interested in working with people in the crucial period of time between release and relapse to reduce the risk of overdose death due to the poisoned drug supply and lowered tolerance from long periods of non-use. Her passion lies in helping people find wellness in whatever it means to them.

Jake Barney (They/Them) is a Pittsburgh native, independent Artist/Activist, and the PA Naloxone Mailing Project Specialist at Prevention Point. They oversee the mailing distribution of Naloxone (a life-saving medication) to folks across the state of Pennsylvania who wish to be opioid overdose first responders. During their years as an activist, Jake has organized a variety of protests and healing circles for the Asian community and created mutual aid fundraising events for local Abortion resources as well as local Queer/Trans-led organizations. They have made a lifelong commitment to fight in the struggles for Abolition, Racial Justice, Queer & Trans Liberation, Reproductive Rights, Climate Change, and Harm Reduction. Outside of work, Jake can be found skateboarding, dancing, DJ’ing, playing Kendama, spinning/breathing fire, and petting all the cats, dogs, and other critters!

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Sarah has been volunteering at PPP's exchange site since 2009 and has been on the Board of Directors since 2015. Outside of PPP, Sarah works at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health as a program evaluator. She enjoys tending to her chaos garden, playing trumpet, cooking, and biking around town. Sarah is originally from central New York and has an MPH from the University of Pittsburgh.

Paul is an Emergency Department Registered Nurse. He started volunteering at PPP in 2010.  He is also involved in his Union SEIU, the campaign for Safe Nurse Patient Ratios, and is in school to become a Nurse Practitioner.  He lives in the Northside with his wife Kate and two young children.  He is a long suffering Pittsburgh Pirates fan, and hopes for a World Series win and is optimistic about supervised injection sites in Western PA. 

Mary has a long employment history managing federal, state and county governmental funding for various non-profit profit medical and social service providers in Pennsylvania. Before retiring, Mary was a project manager for the Center for Inclusion Health, Allegheny Health Network that focuses on Hepatitis C, HIV screening and care, transgender person healthcare and other work to improve the healthcare of marginalized populations. Mary has served on and chaired several non-profit Boards and currently also serves on the board of The Open Door, Inc.

Ashley works at Wolff Center for Quality at UPMC as the project manager of the infection prevention team. In this role, she is responsible for understanding and communicating real-time data to inform infection prevention and control policies and procedures across the UPMC health system. Prior to this, she worked at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation managing the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Part B grant for southwestern PA. She is originally from Maryland and came to Pittsburgh to pursue an MPH. She cares deeply about harm reduction, racial and social justice as public health, and housing-first healthcare. In her spare time, Ashley is also on the Board of Directors for True T PGH, and enjoys cooking for her friends and hiking and biking (hoping to complete the entire Great Allegheny Passage to DC one day!) 

Kyle Harder has been involved in the social service field in the Pittsburgh area for 25 years, working direct care and administrative positions with children, youth and their families, as well as for a local addiction rehabilitation facility. Kyle received his BS in Social Anthropology from the University of Michigan and his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh Katz School of Business. Kyle is in long-term recovery from an addiction to alcohol. Reducing stigma and providing harm reduction services to those who use drugs is a passion and mission for him. It is an immense honor to serve on the board of Prevention Point Pittsburgh, alongside those devoted, hard-working employees who are literally saving lives on a daily basis.

Doree Simon is a Pittsburgh-based film director and producer whose work covers social impact topics ranging from mental health and women's empowerment to President Obama's first campaign trail. After her 23-year-old brother, Kevin, died of a fentanyl overdose, Doree began to direct a feature-length documentary film investigating stigma as the unspoken barrier to his recovery and treatment options that could have saved his life. Doree’s journey led to her involvement in Pittsburgh's harm reduction, recovery, and substance use disorder support communities. Along with being a proud Prevention Point Pittsburgh board member, she is a member of the Steering Committee for the Pittsburgh Recovery Walk. A New York University alum, Doree directed the feature documentary 99%: THE OCCUPY WALL STREET COLLABORATIVE FILM (Sundance ‘13 & Participant Media) and her short documentary IN HER SHOES: INDIA won the 2020 Webby Award for Diversity and Inclusion Video. She is currently the director of production at Matador Network, an award-winning global media brand.

Kell is a public policy and non-profit management professional. As former intern and volunteer, Kell has been involved with PPP for over a decade and joined the Board of Directors in June of 2019.  Kell holds a Master of Public Administration and Master of Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Liebschutz is a primary care and addiction medicine physician, substance use researcher, educator, and administrator. She is Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and UPMC Endowed Chair for Translational Medicine and Research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC. Her research agenda focuses on prevention and treatment of opioid use disorders, including safe opioid prescribing for pain and disseminating treatments for opioid use disorders in non-specialty medical settings. She is a national lecturer and educator on opioid prescribing. She has been a certified buprenorphine prescriber since 2006, managing an active panel of opioid-dependent patients within her primary care practice and serving as inpatient addiction medicine consultant. She also is a national expert on physician wellness.

Nicky (they/them) founded the legal services program at the Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation to provide civil legal aid for low-income LGBTQ+ and HIV+ people in Southwestern Pennsylvania. They work to improve social determinants of health by addressing the unique legal challenges these communities face. They also serve as a regional resource for LGBTQ+ jurisprudence and advocacy. In addition to their legal advocacy work, Nicky leverages their platform to promote diversity and inclusivity within the legal profession. In their free time, Nicky enjoys exploring nature, cooking for friends, and hands-on crafting projects.

Amy M Edwards is an artist and producer interested in the liberation and empowerment of individuals via artistic collaborations, experiential mental health and substance use destigmatization, + the practice of trauma-informed, somatic tattooing experiences. With over 10 years of experience as a curator, grant writer, program coordinator, + festival planner for local Pittsburgh Non-Profits, she is honored to now share these skills with the organization of Prevention Point. Edwards' involvement with the organization followed her creation of the Harm Reduction and Recovery Punks weekly meeting that now meets every Sunday at 6pm at Prevention Point. In her spare time, Edwards shoots Super8 films, enjoys yoga, meditation, cooking, + taking her two cats, Aeon and Dmitri, to the Allegheny Cemetery.

Sara (she/her), a former PPP volunteer, is the Director of Quality and Compliance at Allies for Health + Wellbeing.  She earned her BSW from Carlow University and her MPH from the University of Pittsburgh.  She is a member of the Pitt Men’s Study Community Advisory Board.  Sara has worked in community, clinical, academic, and governmental settings in the field of HIV for over 12 years.  Her public health interests include harm reduction; LGBTQ+ health disparities; reproductive justice; and criminal justice reform.  Sara lives in Avalon with her cat Oscar.

Yasaswi Kislovskiy is a board-certified OB/Gyn who has completed a fellowship in Reproductive Infectious Disease and is an American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM) Specialist. She is the Director of Reproductive Infectious Disease and the Co-Director of the Perinatal Hope Program at Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, PA. She holds a Masters of Science in clinical research with a focus on health services, and conducts qualitative and community-based participatory research. She teaches and proctors medical students and residents, provides consultation for complex infections related to the reproductive organs, and provides integrated perinatal care for pregnant people with substance use.

Her research works to advance the rights of people who are combating marginalization and to mitigate health disparities, especially related to sexually transmitted diseases/HIV, and chronic HCV. She is a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Committee on Ethics, and the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Innovative Research on Gender Equity. She has published several peer-reviewed journals on trauma-informed care, care among people living at high risk for STD/HIV acquisition, and living with substance use or having survived violence. She has been interviewed for WTAE, WESA 90.5 NPR, Vox, and The Lily. She was named one of Pittsburgh Magazine's Top 40 under 40 in 2022.

Dr. Jawa is an Assistant Professor and Clinician Investigator in the Department of General Internal Medicine and Center for Research on Health Care at University of Pittsburgh. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease, and Addiction Medicine. She has been a long term advocate for harm reduction and low-barrier addiction service access and is leading xylazine training and technical assistance for providers, health departments, and HR agencies. Clinically, she provides office-based addiction treatment and endovascular infectious disease consults UPMC and enjoys volunteering at the PPP wound clinic. Dr. Jawa’s research focuses on mitigating health disparities and aims to optimize integration of harm reduction services for individuals who use substances within health settings by developing and studying provider education and clinical interventions to prevent drug use complications. She has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, been featured on health podcasts, and has been interviewed on WebMD, WTAE, NPR, PBSNews Hour for her work and advocacy on harm reduction. For fun, Dr. Jawa is an amateur photographer and accomplished musician who performs vocals and ukulele, leading musical collaborations with her band Leher.

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