Dr. Eric Rofes is a professor of education at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., where he teaches classes on community organization, elementary education and the sociology of education. He is a long-time activist, organizer and writer on gay and lesbian issues and HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Rofes has served as the founding chair of the Boston Lesbian & Gay Political Alliance, the executive director of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center and the director of Shanti Project, San Francisco's pioneering AIDS service organization. He has been a board member of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, the National Lesbian & Gay Health Association and the OUT Fund for Gay Liberation.

Dr. Rofes earned his doctoral degree in Social and Cultural Studies in Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He is the author of 12 books, including Reviving the Tribe: Regenerating Gay Men's Sexuality and Culture in an Ongoing Epidemic (Haworth, 1996) and Dry Bones Breathe: Gay Men Creating Post-AIDS Identities and Cultures (Haworth, 1998). He contributes to the current effort to create national gay men's health summits every other year and was the convener of the first LGBTI Health Summit in 2002 in Boulder, Colo.