Bay Area Reporter - March 20, 2008
Matthew S. Bajko, m.bajko@ebar.com

Noon, 35, replaces Robert McMullin, who stepped down as the agency's executive director last November after three years in the job. Noon, who is HIV-negative, is the second African American to be at the helm of the agency since the 1990s.

He will oversee a staff of 23 employees, hundreds of volunteers, and an annual budget of $1.85 million. His annual salary will start at $92,000, several thousand dollars less than what McMullin had been paid.

McMullin, who is HIV-positive, left the agency in stable financial footing and oversaw an updating of how it approaches HIV prevention but faced concerns about Stop AIDS' commitment to the African American community due to staffing issues with its Our Love black men's program.

In a release announcing Noon's hire, the agency's board of directors pointed to his "long history" of community activism in LGBT communities and communities of color as a main factor for their offering Noon the executive director post.

"We have complete confidence in his ability to be a thoughtful leader in HIV prevention and gay men's health advocacy. We see him as critical in nurturing and expanding our relationships within the communities that we serve," stated Martin Butler, president of Stop AIDS' board of directors.

Noon's main priorities over the coming months will be to refine Stop AIDS' sexual networks approach to HIV prevention, expand staff development, and create a leadership development program for volunteers and community members in low-income and communities of color.

"Moving forward, I am pretty excited about learning from other agencies that have made great strides working in low-income and communities of color. Those communities increasingly are becoming the face of AIDS," said Noon, who lives in San Francisco with Erik Bennett, his partner of four years, and their two children.

The board also noted Noon's experience in nonprofit development, fundraising, and program management as another key factor in selecting him for the job. Prior to a two-year tenure as a visiting assistant professor of religion at Reed College in Portland, Oregon between 2005 and 2007, Noon worked as a grant writer at Youth and Family Enrichment Services in San Mateo County, where he managed $6 million worth of government, corporate, and foundation grants for three years.

He also worked with San Francisco-based Juma Ventures, best known for its operations of local Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops staffed with low-income and at-risk youth, as its senior writer, where he brought in $2 million in private foundation and public grant proposals.

Noon plans to diversify Stop AIDS' funding streams and make it easier for supporters to donate to the agency, be it online, through major gifts, estate planning, or stock donations.

"By diversifying our funding streams we will be better situated to advance the innovative programming the community knows and has come to expect from Stop AIDS," he said.

Presently a doctoral candidate in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University, Noon anticipates earning his degree later this year. An academic interest in Islam in America spurred him to specialize in early Islamic history and American religious history, with an emphasis on African American Muslims.

He currently teaches as a lecturer in the Department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley and plans to focus on his new job full-time once the spring semester ends. He said his doctoral work provides a unique vantage point from which to view the rise of HIV infection in the African American community as well as in communities of color generally.

His new job offers Noon the chance to wed the academic theory he has learned to real-world social practices.

"I want to affect change where I live. In academia there is less opportunity to affect visible, tangible change," said Noon.

First up will be a new social marketing campaign Stop AIDS plans to unveil in two months. Noon declined to offer any specific details about it, but the agency has posted ads looking for men in their 20's to 40's of all racial backgrounds and body types.

According to the announcements, the agency is seeking "gay, bi, or trans men who are 'regular guys' with very expressive facial features for a headshot of a man looking quizzical or contemplative in a kind of fun or campy way." Those selected to take part will receive $100 stipends.

Noon did mention that he believes Stop AIDS needs to better plug its holistic approach to gay men's health in addition to its HIV prevention work.

"But doing so in a thoughtful way that doesn't deny our core competency of HIV prevention," he said. "We have great strengths and great connections in the community. We need to expand our breadth a little bit to meet folks where they are."

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