New HIV/AIDS Coordinator Dedicated To Prevention

By ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer

Published: October 30, 2003

ATLANTA—When Irene Miranda’s friends began dying, she took action.

Miranda, 53, began her role as the new archdiocesan HIV/AIDS coordinator on Sept. 1. Her dedication to her ministry began many years ago, when the disease took on those that she loved.

A native of Chicago, Miranda holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and secondary education from Northeastern University in Chicago. In 1982, she received her master’s degree in public health from the University of Illinois.

Her interest in AIDS ministry first began when she worked for the Illinois Department of Public Health in infection control and environmental toxicology. During this time, she was also working as a youth minister on the West side of Chicago.

“I worked with African-American and Hispanic teens doing gang prevention and teen pregnancy prevention,” she said. “I loved teaching.”

At first, in the 1980s, her interest in HIV was purely academic.

“But then friends of mine started dying,” she said. “I had a cousin who died, and I was his caretaker. I started wondering if there was a way I could bring together my academic interest with the ministry I was already doing. It seemed like a natural.”

After relocating to Miami, she soon began working as the HIV/AIDS education coordinator for the Archdiocese of Miami.

“I worked mainly on a Catholic prevention program for students in grades six through 12,” she said.

She worked with parents and schools to introduce a curriculum that centered on a program that educated students from a Catholic perspective.

“Having a background in youth ministry, I was able to incorporate that into the curriculum,” she said. “We were able to address the Catholic Christian response to this disease.”

The program that Miranda created was eventually adopted by all the Catholic schools in Miami and then moved throughout all the dioceses in Florida.

“I really think that from a scientific perspective that what is going to curb this epidemic is prevention through education,” she said.

When educating young people, Miranda said, it’s necessary “to create an environment that they feel comfortable asking questions.”

“Then we have to answer those questions in light of our Catholic faith,” she said. “Catholic parents and their teens need to dialogue because their teens learn it on the street, and it’s costing them their lives.”

As a Mexican-American, Miranda is especially concerned with the Latino population, which has a growing rate of HIV infections each year.

Georgia has the fastest growing Hispanic immigration rate in the country, she noted. “And people of color—African-Americans and Latinos are especially at risk (for HIV/AIDS) … I’m hoping to start a Hispanic network here and develop bilingual material on prevention.”

She also hopes to develop a team of other Hispanics who can serve as interpreters in the ministry.

Miranda is happy to be in Atlanta because she’s missed the change of the seasons and hilly landscapes while in Miami. Her first major task as the HIV/AIDS coordinator was the annual AIDS Walk held Oct. 19. She says that she has been pleased with the ministry that the archdiocese has already been doing.

“I’m happy with the work that’s been done so far,” she said. “I just need to help them by providing resources.”