About

The "harm reduction as resistance" edition (with Joyce A. Rivera). Welcome to PDIS. A week after the Trump election of November 2016, Joyce Rivera, the founder and Executive Director of the St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, joined me and my students at the PDIS studios. This was a few days after the federal election of 2016, which put Donald Trump in office, and Joyce explained to me why she's optimistic about the future. A lot of her optimism for the future stems from her work in the past. Rivera was an early researcher and activist in harm reduction and drug use policy, working in the 1980s and 1990s, a time when we knew little about the lives of people who used drugs, and when most people didn't care to know. In comparison to thirty years ago, Rivera believes, doing harm reduction in Trump's America won't be nearly as difficult. She also talked with me about what it was to do that work in the first decade of HIV, how she got into the work, and her perspective on why so-called "tough love" so often fails as a therapeutic and recovery strategy. Joyce A. Rivera is the founder and Executive Director of Saint Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction (SACHR), and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, teaching a course on drug use and abuse. She has over thirty years of experience in program development and social services delivery, and has worked in harm reduction since 1990. As a consultant and grant writer, her expertise in HIV prevention and harm reduction has made her a local and national leader in the field of AIDS and drugs. She is a founding member of the National Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC), the North American Syringe Exchange Network (NASEN), and the Harm Reduction Care Network of New York (HRCNNY). Joyce frequently presents and conducts training on drug policy, harm reduction, women, communities of color, and social justice. She has chaired the boards of HRCNNY and the Latino Commission on AIDS. Joyce holds a bachelor of science degree in health administration with a specialization in healthcare planning and a master’s in comparative political science.