|
 |
| Mary Fisher |
Keynote Fee: $* *Fee Note Travels From: AZ |
Mary Fisher Biography
MARY FISHER is an artist, author, and speaker who travels the world advocating for those who share her HIV-positive status. She has served as an ambassador for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and on the Leadership Council of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS. Her art work has been featured in one-woman and group shows and is found in distinguished private and public collections. Her words, photographs and art have filled six books.
Ms. Fisher was a mother of two young sons when she was diagnosed HIV-positive in the summer of 1991. Within months, she went public with her status and founded the Family AIDS Network, a national advocacy organization. In August 1992, her speech at the Republican National Convention brought the convention floor to silence and tears, moved millions around the world, and gave her a new role: ambassador of compassion in the fight against AIDS.
In the years since, Ms. Fisher has used both art and advocacy to improve the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS, especially women and girls. She established the Mary Fisher CARE (Clinical AIDS Research and Education) Fund to support long-term, outcomes-based research for the care of people living with the virus. To enable HIV-affected women in Africa to support themselves and their families, she taught women in Rwanda and Zambia to hand-bead bracelets that she designed and markets through her Web site, www.maryfisher.com.
The recipient of honorary doctorates and numerous tributes, Ms. Fisher attended The Cranbrook Academies, Wayne State University, and the University of Michigan. A television producer and an assistant to the President of the United States before she gained international recognition as a chronicler of the global AIDS epidemic, she lives and works in Sedona, Arizona.
Publications
Sleep With The Angels presents Fisher's strategy for dealing with the AIDS epidemic: strong leadership in fighting ignorance and fear, and a public-private partnership to fund a cure. A mother of two healthy young children, she talks about the importance of family support for people with HIV/AIDS, and the future that children today face in a world where 12 to 14 million people have already contracted the disease. Mary Fisher's assessment of this country's moral response to AIDS is particularly striking; "We have killed each other with our ignorance, our prejudice, and our silence. We may take refuge in stereotypes, but we cannot hide there long. Because HIV asks only one thing of those it attacks: 'Are you human?' And this is the right question: 'Are you human?'" With Fisher's voice and passion coming through on every page, this is a moving and powerful book that delivers a much-needed message about the AIDS epidemic and what people can do to help. "We have no assurance about the length of our lives and we can do amazingly little to insure it....In the face of stigma and hopelessness, daunting challenges and desperate need, it is my prayer that we will, each one of us, wake to a day with courage. It would be a remarkably good morning if we began not by wondering what others have done about AIDS, but by asking "What can I do?" Mary has also authored: I'll Not Go Quietly Angels In Our Midst My Name is Mary
Titles
My Name is Mary I'll Not Go Quietly
Clients
Testimonials
AV Needs
Podium Intro