Raniyah Copeland of the Black AIDS Institute can remember a time when HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — was the scourge of the 1980s. She remembers when the virus wiped out a whole sub-population of Black and Latinx men — she remembers what they faced while they were alive — and she knows that while HIV isn’t the scourge it once was, it’s still a disease that disproportionately affects the Black community…and she knows why. “In the United States, health is driven by inequity,” she told AfroTech. “HIV, as a disease, has a unique stigma in that it’s associated specifically with certain sexuality, a certain race, and a certain socio-economic class. While society isn’t as overt with its racism about AIDS as it once was — there was a time when the CDC would say that being Haitian, for example, made you more susceptible to AIDS — we still have progress that needs to be made.” Progress is, ultimately, the goal of the Black AIDS Institute. Dedicated exclusively to eradicating the disease...

To call Bernard J. Tyson an industry giant would still be a significant understatement. As Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente , Tyson heads an organization that provides care for 12.3 million members at 600+ locations across eight states and the District of Columbia. We had the fantastic opportunity to talk with him ahead of AfroTech 2019 about his career, the future of health care, and how Kaiser Permanente fights for equitable health care for its members and the 68 million residents in its surrounding communities. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. AfroTech: Mr. Tyson, you’ve been in the health care industry for about 35 years. In fact, your LinkedIn profile indicates that you studied health service management as an undergraduate and also earned an MBA with a focus on health services administration. Can you tell us what sparked your interest in health care? Bernard J. Tyson: When I was a child, my mother spent a lot of time with her doctor and in a hospital...