A former lecturer on AIDS at Harvard School of Public Health, he spoke about adolescent HIV/AIDS nationally and internationally at conferences. He was the executive director and founder of TeenAIDS-PeerCorps, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit youth AIDS advocacy organization with its headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. His latest initiative was conducting live public HIV testing of youth in the U.S. in order to end the stigma of AIDS among young people. He was known to youth as "Dr. John."
