Alicia Ozier

Alicia Ozier is honored for saving a flailing organization that was, and still is, vital to the LGBT and African American community. When she took on the task, she walked into a situation that most would have turned around and walked away from. She truly saw its importance and was determined to make the organization survive.

She began with minimum funding for TaskForce to function and applied for many grants (through a sleepless process) and successfully obtained several major grants through CDPH, IDPH and CDC, in addition to a number of smaller grants.

She created new signature programming for the organization; one of which is a youth program called Adolescent Community TaskForce Network (ACTN) on the west side of Chicago.

She has successfully expanded TaskForce into the faith based community, helping create and also serving as Executive Director of the Illinois Faith Based Association (IFBA). She has provided both breast and cervical cancer screening for low income women in addition to teaching the faith based community about HIV prevention and helping them to initiate programs in their own churches. She has worked to help them understand the importance of embracing all people regardless of sexuality. She has given TaskForce and the community her all and then some. She is truly a community hero.