SAY HELLO TO OUR STAFF

Patricia Yates is a native of Fort Valley, Georgia, and was educated in the Peach County Public School Systems, where she ran Track and played B-Team Basketball. She attended her parents’ Alma MaterFort Valley State College, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and completed graduate studies in Rehabilitation Counseling. Patricia has also obtained over 4000 Continuing Education Units in Social Services and was among the first 20 people in 2014 in the State of Georgia to be licensed as a Navigator for Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. She also has received training from Former Vice President Al Gore for the Climate Reality Leadership Project. Patricia has worked in the social service field for over 28 years holding various positions in all levels of treatment modalities, including the Penial system, in which she served as the Program Director of a Prison Substance Abuse Program in a level 5 male correctional institution in Glennville Georgia. She has also worked at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Augusta, Georgia counseling Veterans in the Community Re-Entry / Substance Abuse Program. Her passion is for working with the HIV/AIDS community and she has served as the Program Director of an AIDS Service Organization in Aiken South Carolina, where she chaired the 1st World AIDS Day Walk in 2005. Patricia also started an AIDS Ministry at her church, Williams Memorial CME Church in Augusta, Ga, and wrote Ryan White Reimbursement Grant via the Richmond County Health Department to provide financial assistance to individuals and families living in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) In 2008, she participated in an 8 week trained the Trainer Elton John’s HIV/AIDS Initiative which was sponsored by AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA) out of New York, she later relocated to Atlanta in 2008 to work as a Medical Case Manager for AID Atlanta offsite location at Mercy Care Clinic in Atlanta, Georgia. Patricia has also worked for Conifer Health Solutions, in which she was a part of a select team to develop an employee online training curriculum for the Affordable Care Act. She currently holds the position of State Manager for Balm In Gilead, Inc, and manages their CDC-funded Ga-Southeast Diabetes Faith Initiative Program in which she supervises 6 counties across the state of Georgia National Diabetes Prevention Program. Patricia has served on several Community Service Boards throughout her career. She currently serves on the Morehouse School of Medicine Community Advisory Board and the Georgia Diabetes Coalition Board as Member-at-Large. She was appointed in 2014 by Bishop Kenneth Wayne Carter to serve as the Health Initiative Coordinator for the 6th Episcopal CME District (State of Georgia), which she still holds today. She is very active within the faith-based communities assisting churches with organizing community health fairs as well as organizing yearly health screenings at all major CME church conferences. Patricia has one adult daughter, Kourtney, and one four-legged grandchild, named Willow- a Pitbull. She has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc since Spring 1984. After traveling Georgia’s highways, she relaxes in her She Shed with her Adult Coloring Books and the sounds of smooth jazz. Her look is in honor of her aunt who lost the battle to Skin and Breast Cancer in 2008. She oversees the community resources we need to serve our peers. and shared responsibility for coordinating the engagements of StigmaGoddess.