Tracy Swan, an HIV/AIDS activist since 1990, has been a direct service provider at HIV clinics, syringe exchange and drug treatment programs, methadone clinics, and homeless shelters. She has worked extensively with people living with, or at risk for HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Tracy’s work includes HIV prevention, counseling, and testing; treatment education and access work; and curriculum and policy development. In 1998, she created a groundbreaking hepatitis C education and services program at the Cambridge Health Alliance. She moved to New York City in 2001 and worked at the AIDS Treatment Data Network and the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America. Tracy is a member and former board president of the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition.
In 2000, Tracy’s interest in research led her to serve as a community representative at the US-based AIDS Clinical Trials Group, focusing on liver disease and immunology. Since then, she has collaborated with other activists and researchers in the United States and internationally to ensure that HIV and hepatitis C treatment trials are well designed and address issues relevant to HIV-positive people.
Tracy joined the Treatment Action Group in 2003. She continues to work with other activists, US and European regulators, researchers, and pharmaceutical industry representatives to monitor clinical trial design, as well as to establish regulatory guidance for hepatitis C drug development. Tracy serves as an expert advisor to the US Food and Drug Administration and writes extensively on HIV and hepatitis C coinfection issues. In 2005, the US Health Resource Services Administration commissioned her to write the first definitive technical guide to providing hepatitis C education, care, and treatment at the country’s publicly funded HIV clinics.