Adam Tenner

Executive Director
Metro TeenAIDS

About Adam Tenner

Executive Director, Metro TeenAIDS

Adam Tenner has been the Executive Director of Metro Teen AIDS since 2001. Adam has worked in a variety of HIV prevention and adolescent health promotion capacities for over 20 years. Adam began volunteering his sophomore year of high school at a community food pantry and a school for physically disabled youth. He continued to volunteer throughout his college years where he helped to expand an afterschool tutoring program to better serve non-English speaking children. After college in New York, he moved to Seattle and after a year of doing art and working in restaurants, he decided to pursue a career in nonprofits. He began as an outreach worker in a homeless youth organization in 1992 and five years later was the director of the program. During his time there, he initiated the city's first HIV prevention programs for young gay men, and programming that ensured that HIV-positive young people were connected to and remained in care. From 1997 to 2000, Adam served as the HIV Prevention Planner for the Seattle-King County Health Department.

When Adam came to Metro TeenAIDS in 2001, he dramatically improved the organization's finances and refocused its direction. With the help of his dedicated Board of Directors, Adam helped to turn Metro TeenAIDS around and today the organization is thriving with a staff of over 30 adults, over 40 youth peer educators, and budget of over $2 million. As one city official said, "ten years ago no one was sure of what MTA did or whether the organization was relevant. Adam put an end to both of those questions."

In 2006, Adam won the Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman EXCEL Award for excellence in chief executive leadership. That same year, MTA was honored by Leadership Greater Washington and named as an "outstanding organization that helps support, develop and nurture area youth." In 2007, MTA was used as an example of one of the "best investments in charity for return on investment" by The Non-Profit Roundtable of Greater Washington in its report, Beyond Charity: Recognizing Return on Investment. Adam is a founding board member of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition (and, prior to coming to MTA, served as the organization's Interim Executive Director) and the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates (DCAYA). Adam received a BA in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College.

Q & A Videos

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What is RealTalk DC?

Future of HIV/AIDS in DC...

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Key Accomplishments

Adam Tenner
Executive Director, Metro TeenAIDS
Service Area: District of Columbia

Metro TeenAIDS works to prevent the spread of HIV, promote responsible decision making, and improve the quality of life for young people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS. Since 2005, Metro TeenAIDS has also housed and led the DC Healthy Youth Coalition, a group of 35 organizational members that includes service providers; public policy, youth, and health advocates; and invidiuals working to promote HIV, sexual and health education policy reforms in DC public schools.

Institutional commitment to supporting youth leadership
Between 2005 and 2009, number of young people that received AIDS testing through Metro TeenAIDS more than tripled, as did the number of young people engaged through one-on-one outreach.
Number of people reached through programs in schools grew tenfold between 2005 and 2009, to 3,000.
Metro TeenAIDS has grown into one of the region's leading HIV/AIDS prevention, education, and advocacy organizations.
Their REALtalk DC campaign, now in its third year, is working to increase condom use among sexually active young people ages 13 – 24 as well as increasing the number of youth who know their status. REALtalkDC uses the power of new media tools including social networking sites (Facebook, and MySpace), video (YouTube) and mobile messaging (Text 'REALtalk' to 61827).