Damon L. Jacobs is a New York-based Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and HIV prevention specialist who focuses his work on health, love, and pleasure. Through his clinical work, Damon has helped hundreds of couples and individuals create joyful and peaceful relationships. He is also the author of the books RATIONAL RELATING and ABSOLUTELY SHOULD-LESS.
He is best known for championing the use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) through his work on social media, news print, broadcast appearances, is featured as one of 35 “Leading HIV Activists” by The Advocate Magazine, one of the Top 10 “Influential Voices in HIV/AIDS for 2016” by Healthline Magazine, part of the “HIV Heroes” series through Metrosource Magazine, and one of the Ten “Most Captivating Voices of 2014” by HIV Equal. He was honored to receive a Commissioner Special Recognition Award through the New York State Department of Health in 2016. His trainings have helped thousands learn practical skills for successfully implementing PrEP and increasing adherence. To speak with Damon about counseling, speaking engagements, or media appearances, please contact Damon@DamonLJacobs.com or call 347-227-7707.
Damon is available to speak with your group/organization about:
•Changing the “Should” To Get The Good
•Accessing Beauty and Empowerment At Any Age
•The Art and Skill Of Creating Pleasure in Your Relationship “Home”
•Ending Stigma From The Inside Out
•PrEParing For Pleasure: Understanding How To Implement Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis And Increase Adherence
Damon’s work has been featured on ABC News, CBS News, MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times, CNN Health Online, USA Today, NPR, ABC Action News.com, NBC News, The Washington Post, VICE News, Here TV, Fusion TV, New York 1, The Huffington Post, Logo’s NewNowNext, Cosmopolitan, PBS First Person, A&U Magazine,The Dan Savage LoveCast, New York Magazine, Men’s Health Magazine, Fox News Latino TV, New York WPIX 11, Al Jazeera America TV, The Advocate Magazine, OUT Magazine, Bear World Magazine, Huffington Post Live, Metrosource, Daily Kos, Daily Xtra TV, UCSF’s “HIVE”, Queens Public Access TV, HIV Equal, OUTSpoken Radio, Broadway World, POZ Magazine, Feast Of Fun, Positively Aware, The Body.com, IMRU Radio, Lambda Weekly Radio, The Bilerico Project, Queerty, The Novus Homo, Albany’s Times Union, Affect Magazine, Big Fat Vegan Radio, Globo TV (Brazil), RTL Nieuws (Dutch TV), and more.
Damon recently spoke at The 2016 Creating Change Conference, The 2015 CDC National HIV Prevention Conference (NHPC), The 2015 International AIDS Society Conference (IAS), The 2015 Annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) [part 5:15 -15:15, audio only], 2014 Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA) [Part 18:20-38:40], 5th Annual NYS Transgender Health Conference, 2015 European AIDS Treatment Group Conference, Albany Medical Center, Desert AIDS Project, Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), New York University (NYU) as well New York State Health Department Of Health (NYS DOH) Trainings. See below for Endorsements.
Endorsements:
“Damon Jacobs is a brilliant health educator. His engaging speaking style, and willingness to share his personal experiences with, and extensive knowledge of, PrEP, create a unique opportunity for his audience to learn about new HIV prevention technologies. I have heard him present several times, in both professional and community settings, and have been impressed at how well he uses his training as a therapist to educate and stimulate his audience and to facilitate constructive dialogue.”
—Dr. Kenneth Mayer, Founder and Medical Research Director, The Fenway Institute
“Damon’s knowledge on the topic of PrEP, and the sharing of his personal stories and experiences regarding PrEP, combined with his energy and advocacy, all contributed to making a valuable and enjoyable training meeting. The response to his presentation was very positive and was highlighted in the participant evaluations. It was a pleasure to have him involved, and we hope he can collaborate with our programs again in the future.”
—Mara San Antonio-Gaddy, MSN, Bureau of HIV/STD Field Services, New York State Department on Health
“It’s always such an honor to share the podium with Damon. I work hard but he truly changes the world.”
—Dr. Anthony Mills, Medical Director at Southern California Men’s Medical Group
“Damon presented to our group of Los Angeles service providers. His presentation was OUTSTANDING in all regards. The content was informative and presented in a way that was engaging, relevant, and relatable. His energy and dynamic presentation style allowed our audience to learn about PrEP in a way that was easy to understand and can be applied to their daily jobs. His sincerity and passion about his work were definitely evident, which was motivating and refreshing.”
—Uyen Keo, Associate Director, Combination Prevention Core, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
“Damon’s PrEP & Pleasure presentation left our seasoned organizers feeling reinvigorated, with a renewed sense of purpose. His passion and enthusiasm for sex-positive PrEP education and messaging is incredibly powerful. Damon’s fresh perspective, his sensitivity, and his ability to infuse humor into his discussions allow him to connect with and understand his audience. We look forward to hosting him in Los Angeles again for future speaking engagements.”
—Kiesha McCurtis, MPH | UCLA Department of Family Medicine, Los Angeles County PrEP & PEP Work Group
“Damon is that rare speaker who combines knowledge, passion, and the ability to hold an audiences attention from start to finish. He has been a champion of PREP as a safe and highly effective tool to prevent new HIV infections since early research results showed this new technologies great promise. As we continue to work toward a vaccine to stop HIV, Damon champions a proven tool to keep our communities safe. If you want any audience to get a clear grasp of this technology from a master communicator, Damon is an excellent choice!” — Jim Maynard, Director of Communications and Community Engagement, HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN)
“Damon’s energy and fluidity captivated the audience at Community Healthcare Network’s Fifth Annual Transgender Medical Conference and made such a great impact that calls for his return are already coming in for the 2016 Conference. CHN and myself are looking forward to host him as we are sure we all will benefit from his knowledge and expertise as well as his commitment. His participation made our conference the best we’ve had.”
—Dr. Luis Freddy Molano, Vice President of Infectious Diseases and LGBTQ Programs, Community Healthcare Network
“Over the course of the last year I have had many opportunities to work with Damon Jacobs through a variety of community based educational events and forums focused on PrEP. In that time I have come to know Damon as a skilled educator who utilizes his abilities and training as a Marriage And Family Therapist to convey information about PrEP in a manner that is accessible and non-confrontational. He is equipped with the latest information about the science of PrEP as an HIV prevention strategy and is able to convey this information in an eloquent, concrete and meaningful manner to those who he addresses. Moreover, he is highly approachable and creates an ease when he presents to an audience. As a research dedicated to the translation of knowledge to practice I could not ask for a better collaborator and the gay community could not ask for a better HIV prevention spokesman.”
—Dr. Perry Halkitis, Professor at NYU and Author of THE AIDS GENERATION: STORIES OF SURVIVAL AND RESILIENCE
“From the first time I met Damon, I was immediately drawn to the tender and passionate power in his voice. When he speaks, everyone listens! I am in awe of his fearlessness when he talks about being a gay man, PrEP—and much more. In May 2014, GMHC hosted a discussion on PrEP. Each panelist—including Damon—brought expertise, wisdom, courage and compassion to the discussion. Yet it was Damon who shared about the importance of pleasure connected to sex. Too often we are too focused on disease, stigma and shaming connected to sex, especially sex in this epidemic. Whether Damon is talking to a reporter, an audience member at a discussion or a staff person in a community-based organization, he makes people feel that he is 100% present for them. I love talking to him because I know he is truly listening to me. He is a wonderful human being and advocate, as well as a hero to many.”
—Krishna Stone, Communications Department, Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC)
“Damon is a dynamic personal speaker on the topic of PrEP. His willingness to talk openly about sensitive topics and his own personal journey connected with my students, many of whom face their own journeys. He was an inspiration and a role model for public health activism.” —David Seal, PhD, Professor, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
“Damon Jacobs is PHENOMENAL!! We had the pleasure of having Damon speak at our first ever Nassau Knows event and he totally stole the show! He was engaging, electric, raw and quite informative! He talked about PrEP and actually demonstrated how easy this life saving medication was to take. Thank you so much Damon for making our very first, of many, Nassau Knows events a memorable one!”
—Keisha Sumner, MPH Candidate Hofstra University, PrEP Outreach Counselor for the P.E.O.P.L.E Project
“Damon’s presentation was outstanding in all regards. The content was informative with valuable citations, and presented in his unique style that is engaging, relevant, and relatable. His energy and dynamic presentation skills allowed our audience to learn about PrEP in a way that was comprehensible, interactive and applicable to their daily jobs in HIV prevention.”
—Brian Risley, Director of Programs & Education, Men’s Health Foundation
—Spencer Case, MBA, NYU Stern School of Business, VP of OutClass
“Damon’s skills around Presentation and Public Speaking are beyond reproach given that he understands best practices in constructing and delivering trainings that work to not only deliver content, but also inspire participants to reach further in their quest for knowledge and understanding. Damon is able to accomplish this because he is driven to know his stuff and care about what a life saving tool PrEP is. Damon possess passion and purpose, such that his personality is real, determined and accessible; thus, listeners crave intimacy around his training and are always engaged. Damon is exceptional at the art of saying plain things in interesting ways and interesting things in plain ways; his workshops materials poses creativity, this is how he makes connections and build bridges to knowledge and understanding with his participants. Above all of these skills there is one that is rare within a trainer to which Damon possesses in abundance, that quality is empathy. It is through the use of this skill that a trainer can understand the complexity of how individuals learn and thus adapt, in real time, his knowledge and topic approach in a way that not only continues to engage each person in the room but also fosters that deep need that all people have to understand without fear of failure or mistakes. Partaking in one of Damon’s trainings isn’t so much a class but an experience that leaves each person forever impacted and empowered to teach others.”
—Christopher Collazo-Wiscovitch, MHFA, Capacity Building Services Program Coordinator, Harm Reduction Coalition
“Damon was a super compelling speaker. He engaged our diverse audience of public health students, faculty, staff and community members on a timely and important, yet under discussed topic. Damon’s framing of PrEP as a social justice issue motivated our membership to get involved and re-inspired our motivations to do right by public health in the first place.”
—Jennifer Glick- PhD Candidate. Founder and President of Tulane Society for Sexuality Health and Gender (TSSHaG)
“Damon delivers the PrEP message (as well as positive messaging regarding sexual wellness) with passion, enthusiasm and integrity. He knows the subject well and is able to connect with his listeners on a personal level, putting them at ease while at the same time ensuring that they are receiving accurate (and life-saving) information.”
—Terry L. Smith, MPA | Associate Director, Prevention AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) Health & Wellness
“I asked Damon to speak at a meeting in Brussels of European HIV prevention researchers and advocates. I think it was the first time he’d spoken about PrEP and his PrEP Facts group this side of the Atlantic. He gave an immensely spirited, humorous and passionate presentation which helped turn the two-day meeting into one that, all participants agreed, had been an exceptional gathering of expertise on the subject of HIV prevention. His example of using social media as a way of developing grass-roots support of and education about PrEP has been inspiring and is serving as a template for European activists to do the same thing.” –Gus Cairns, Editor at NAM AIDS Map
“Damon Jacobs is a passionate, energetic, compelling and extremely skilled public speaker and community advocate. We were so lucky this year to have Damon come speak to our group of PhD’s, Nurse Practitioners, nurses and nursing students about PrEP. Damon is by far one of the most dynamic and engaging speakers we’ve ever had. Damon came straight off of a plane from New York to speak to our group and was the brightest star amongst a plethora of PrEP speakers we had that evening (myself included). Though Damon was our final speaker of the evening and our attendees attention spans were challenged after numerous presentations, dinner courses, wine and dessert, he came in and electrified the room. He is fiercely knowledgable about his subjects and his passion and enthusiasm illuminate his presentations. Through the lens of his personal experiences, he is able to expertly blend evidence based and cutting edge research with warmth and humanism. Damon makes PrEP, personal health and pleasure come alive. It is difficult to find speakers who are adept both at understanding and sparking interest from their audience; Damon is that rare jewel of a speaker.”
—Jonathan Van Nuys, RN, MS, ANP-BC, President of The Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Golden Gate Chapter
“The world doesn’t mold speakers like Damon anymore. Damon’s vulnerability — the way he inserts his personal experiences and stories to drive home his message — is what makes his voice is an immeasurable gift. Everyone should experience his speaking engagements — he’s a tour de force.” —Steven-Emmanuel Martinez, Huffington Post
“An authentic powerhouse of a speaker! Damon graciously spoke at an educational seminar I coordinated at AltaMed Health Services on PrEP and Pleasure. My HIV prevention department was composed of front line staff, doctors, mental health therapists and county workers. The level of engagement was outstanding. I have never attended a speaking engagement with such enthusiasm and spark. Damon is current, vivacious and adds just the right amount of humor. He completely holds the audience hostage from start to finish! Damon possesses a quiet confidence that easily transfers information no matter the level of education or background. A dedicated wonderful human being that cares. You can’t get more heart and soul than this guy!”—Kenneth Almanza, HIV Prevention Specialist, Los Angeles
“Damon spoke at Open Love NY’s monthly discussion group on the topic of providing five tips on experiencing peace and pleasure in relationships and it was one of our best-attended events of the year. Damon presented the topic with infectious energy, valuable insight and on-target humor, creating an entertaining and comfortable atmosphere in which to explore the topic. The feedback from the audience was overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to having him speak at a future event!”
—Mischa Lin, President, Open Love NY
“I have worked with Damon on a variety of projects and always learn so much, most especially during his speaking engagements and trainings. His engagement skills are outstanding—he helps make learning new ideas fun by explaining things in new and different ways. Damon has an infectious energy. While speaking to a youth group about HIV vaccine trials, members were not only intently listening to what Damon had to say, but also asking questions and relating their experiences. I was so impressed, I asked Damon to engage my mental health staff about specific theories and modalities that might benefit our clients. Staff was excited about what they learned and have begun to implement new ways of working. Damon is professional, personable, and passionate about his work, his clients, and his audience. Thanks for all you do Damon—looking forward to hearing you speak and/or present again!”—Scott A. Kramer, LCSW
“Damon is an effective, informative and entertaining speaker. His wisdom, knowledge and enthusiasm to help and heal is most evident in his words. This is a rare quality and most impressive. He is a caring professional with boundless energy, intelligence, sensitivity and creativity. I was fortunate to share the podium with him concerning the topic of same sex marriage for Ameriprise Financial. I have been a matrimonial lawyer for 25 years and would be most comfortable referring my clients to Damon.”
—Sherri Donovan, Family Lawyer