About Us
About CANN
Community Access National Network (CANN) is a national healthcare access policy institute. We work where federal and state policy decisions meet patient outcomes — analyzing drug pricing, coverage policy, and the systems that determine who can afford care.
The mission of CANN is to define, promote, and improve access to healthcare services and supports for people living with HIV/AIDS and/or viral hepatitis through advocacy, education, and networking. These services must be affordable to the people who need them regardless of insurance status, income, or geographic location.
Our work is grounded in something most policy shops don't have: three decades of direct experience with the patients, providers, and communities the system is supposed to serve. That experience isn't separate from our analysis — it's the foundation of it.
Our focus today:
340B Drug Pricing Program reform • Prescription Drug Affordability Boards (PDABs) • HIV/HCV co-infection access • Viral hepatitis policy • PBM reform • Healthcare access for chronic conditions.
How we work
Three things differentiate our analysis and advocacy:
Lived experience as expertise.
We don't translate for the people the policy affects — many of us are those people. Our staff and board include patients, longtime providers, and former federal and state officials who built and oversaw the programs we analyze.
State-by-state grounding.
Most national policy work treats states as variables. We treat each one as its own context — with its own legislators, formularies, and access patterns.
Independent of the industries we cover.
We engage with manufacturers, payers, providers, and patient organizations, and we name our funding sources publicly. We don't take positions to match our funders.
Our Staff

Jen Laws
Pronouns: he/him
President & CEO of Community Access National Network since January 2022, and founder of Policy Candy, LLC, a non-partisan health policy analysis firm focused on the HIV-affected and transgender communities. Jen has worked in HIV advocacy since 2005 and in health policy since 2013, with prior roles including 340B Policy Consultant and Project Director of the HIV/HCV Co-Infection Watch at CANN, board service with the ADAP Advocacy Association, and current leadership on Louisiana's Ending the HIV Epidemic Data-based Policy and Advocacy subcommittee. He brings a patient-centered lens to policy work spanning 340B, drug pricing, and the intersecting needs of people living with HIV and transgender communities.

Kalvin Pugh
Pronouns: he/him
340B Policy Director at Community Access National Network and an award-winning advocate, writer, and public speaker based in Kansas City, Missouri. Kalvin led the creation of Zero HIV Stigma Day in 2022, the first global HIV awareness day established since 1988, and his work has appeared in publications across the field, including a 2024 op-ed selected for Q Syndication's Positive Thoughts column. He serves on the U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus, co-chairs Howard University's internalized stigma working group, and sits on the ADAP Advocacy Ryan White Grantee 340B Patient Advisory Committee.

Ranier Simons
Pronouns: he/him
Patient-Centered Drug Pricing Policy Director at CANN, where he leads state-level advocacy on Prescription Drug Affordability Boards and related drug pricing policy. With a background in science and medical education, research, and direct healthcare experience, Ranier translates technical policy and clinical evidence into accessible analysis for advocates, policymakers, and the public — driven by the conviction that quality data, not belief, should inform decisions that affect patient access.

Travis Roppolo
Pronouns: he/him
Managing Director of Marketing and Administration at Community Access National Network, where he leads communications, finance, and administration and is the primary contributor to CANN's weekly blog. With more than 20 years of marketing and communications experience and a growing focus on healthcare policy, Travis translates complex policy developments — particularly on medication access, drug pricing, and health equity — for diverse stakeholders, with work published in Positively Aware. His advocacy is informed by personal experience with HIV and substance use disorder and by his service as Treasurer (formerly Executive Director) of a Louisiana nonprofit addressing housing and food insecurity among at-risk youth.
Our Board

Hon. Donna Christensen, MD
Pronouns: she/her
Role: Former Member of Congress (U.S. Virgin Islands, 1997–2015); Founder, Christensen Institute for Community Health and Empowerment
Location: St. Croix, USVI
Board service: 2021-Present
The first female physician to serve in Congress, Dr. Christensen brings four decades of work on health equity, healthcare reform, and the policy needs of underserved communities to CANN's board.

Dusty Garner
Pronouns: they/them
Role: Marketing and business consultant; motivational speaker and writer
Location: New York, NY / Cincinnati, OH
Board service: 2023-Present
Dusty has been engaged in HIV advocacy since the height of the AIDS crisis, working to ensure that people living with HIV can claim their own stories and that nonprofits serving marginalized communities have access to the same strategic expertise as larger institutions.

Patrick Ingram
Pronouns: he/they
Role: Emergency Management Operations Administrator, City of Minneapolis
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Board service: 2025-Present
Patrick works to advance equitable HIV prevention and care by addressing gaps in access for Black, Latine, and Native communities while elevating Black queer leadership in healthcare.

Riley Johnson
Pronouns: he/they
Role: Medically Retired; Former Consultant on Transgender Healthcare Access
Location: Saint Petersburg, FL
Board service: 2023–Present
Riley spent nearly twenty years building the infrastructure that connects transgender, nonbinary, and queer people to affirming care and continues to share this expertise through his service on Florida's statewide HIV planning body.

Darnell Lewis
Pronouns: he/him
Role: Paramedic, Cabarrus County EMS
Location: Concord, NC
Board service: 2017-Present
Living with HIV for nearly three decades, Darnell combines lived and clinical experience to advocate for stigma-free, patient-centered care and to promote HIV education, equity, and empowerment in under-resourced communities.

Kim Molnar
Pronouns: she/her
Role: Director, Center for Convening and Planning, The AIDS Institute
Location: Florida
Board service: 2023-Present
Kim has worked in HIV for more than two decades, leading state-level prevention, testing, and provider education programs that translate federal policy into care that actually reaches patients.

Judith Montenegro
Pronouns: she/her
Role: Program Director, Latinos in the South Program, Latino Commission on AIDS
Location: Durham, NC
Board service: 2023-Present
Judith has organized with immigrant and farmworker communities since 2004, working to ensure that language, legal status, and geography are not barriers to HIV care or basic healthcare access.

Amanda Pratter
Pronouns: she/her
Role: Associate Director, Policy Advocacy, Gilead Sciences
Location: Washington, D.C.
Board service: 2024-Present
Amanda's work centers on building durable relationships between industry, advocacy, and policymakers to advance HIV policy priorities and improve clinical trial diversity.
Directors Emeritus
Kathie M. Hiers - served 2001 - 2026
William "Bill" Arnold, in Memoriam - served 1996 - 2021
Jeff Coudriet, in Memoriam - served 1995 - 2011
The Honorable Maurice Hinchey, M.C. - (D - NY 22nd), in Memoriam - served 1996 - 2015
Gary R. Rose, J.D., in Memoriam - served 1995 - 2017