JOHNSON CITY – Young, educated, attractive, assertive and ambitious are just a few of the words used to describe Rae Lewis-Thornton.
In 1986, during a routine blood drive visit at a Washington, D.C., Red Cross, she received news of another word that would soon be used to describe her health and future. At the age of 23, Lewis-Thornton was diagnosed as HIV-positive.
Lewis-Thornton will share her experiences in Johnson City during "Living With AIDS," a presentation scheduled at East Tennessee State University on Thursday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in the D.P. Culp University Center's Martha Street Culp Auditorium.
Despite her present-day status of having full-blown AIDS, Lewis-Thornton leads her own crusade to educate and challenge audiences to take control of their own bodies, futures and health. She uses her life as an example that AIDS is a non-discriminatory disease, challenging the most common myths and stereotypes surrounding who and how one can become infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
Lewis-Thornton has been featured in Essence, Ebony and Emerge magazines, as well as prominent newspapers throughout the country, and she has appeared on "Nightline" with Ted Koppel and on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
In addition, she served as a contributing editor for WBBM-TV, a CBS-owned and –operated station, for an ongoing series of first-person stories on living with AIDS. She received an Emmy Award for this series.
Before launching her speaking career, Lewis-Thornton was on her way to a promising political organization career. She was advance coordinator of Sen. Carol Mosley Braun's 1992 senatorial campaign, Illinois state youth coordinator for Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign, and national youth director for Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. However, she was forced to retire in 1993 as a result of her health.
Lewis-Thornton, a graduate of Northeastern Illinois University and a candidate for a master's degree in political science at the University of Illinois, is a licensed Baptist minister who is currently enrolled in the Master's in Divinity program at McCormick Theological Seminary. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and is on the Leadership Board of The Core Center.
Her free public appearance at ETSU is sponsored by the office of multicultural affairs. For more information or for special assistance for persons with disabilities, call the office of multicultural affairs at (423) 439-4210.