Emmy Award Winner LeVar Burton Joins AIDS Research Alliance’s Board of Directors

Los Angeles, CA, September 11, 2012 --(PR.com)-- AIDS Research Alliance (ARA) today announced that actor/activist LeVar Burton has joined its Board of Directors. As one of seven members of the Board, Burton will play a key role in shaping AIDS Research Alliance’s program and fundraising.

“AIDS Research Alliance is honored to welcome Emmy Award-winning LeVar Burton to its Board of Directors,” said Carolyn Carlburg, CEO of ARA. “Since LeVar became our national spokesperson just over a year ago, his energy, knowledge and commitment have furthered the mission of this organization and cause. We are thrilled that his involvement will now grow.”

AIDS Research Alliance helped to make HIV/AIDS treatable, but 8,000 people still die of AIDS every day, while millions more with HIV may lose a third of their life spans. As an independent research organization, AIDS Research Alliance has moved the science forward, contributing to the approval of half of today’s HIV/AIDS treatments. Now, AIDS Research Alliance is dedicated to finding a cure, and is conducting research on its drug candidate, prostratin.

“As someone in show business, I was very much aware of the AIDS epidemic,” noted Burton. “So when Carolyn Carlburg explained the work of AIDS Research Alliance and really broke down the ongoing need to shine a light on AIDS and AIDS research, as well as the unique position ARA has in the AIDS research community as an organization working on an HIV cure, I couldn’t say no to joining the Board. I realized there was such a need.”

LeVar Burton is an Emmy Award-winning actor, director, producer, and HIV/AIDS activist, whose career has spanned decades. He served as host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow, the popular children’s television program that ran for more than 25 seasons; directed and produced several segments of the Star Trek franchise; and directed the Emmy-nominated Tiger Woods Story for Showtime. Currently, Burton is promoting a new tablet-based Reading Rainbow application, which he developed. You can also see him on TNT’s new drama, “Perception.”

AIDS Research Alliance is a nonprofit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS. Since 1989, AIDS Research Alliance has conducted clinical trials leading to the approval of half of today’s HIV/AIDS treatments. Its current research targeting latent HIV reservoirs, including the development of prostratin, will bring the world closer to a cure. AIDS Research Alliance is also at the forefront of infection prevention as a member of the federal HIV Vaccine Trials Network. Free from political or profit motives, AIDS Research Alliance offers clinical trial volunteers access to the next generation of HIV/AIDS treatments and vaccines at its world-class clinic in downtown Los Angeles, and in this way, pursues all pathways to the worldwide eradication of HIV/AIDS. For more information, visit www.aidsresearch.org.