It is with a sad and heavy heart that we share that Ms. Loren Jones transitioned on June 4, 2021. Loren was a fierce and courageous social justice leader in the East Bay HIV community. She was instrumental in building East Bay Getting to Zero as a founding advisory board and steering committee member and ensuring we were rooted in community. She inspired and guided many people in our network over the decades. She will remain beloved and will be dearly missed.
A virtual memorial service and celebration of Loren’s life will be held on Friday, July 23 at 1pm PST and an in-person service and celebration will be held on Saturday, July 31, 2-4 pm PST in Berkeley. We are grateful for our friends at Positive Women’s Network and WORLD for hosting these events. Please see the invitation below. Please click here to register for the July 23 virtual service and click here to register for the July 31 in-person service.
The EBGTZ steering committee shared thoughts, prayers, anecdotes and love for Loren. Here are some words that were shared:
“She was a fierce champion and was so inspiring to me personally. I was everywhere at one time but everywhere I was Loren was there and still managed to do more. We worked with BASE as co-chairs, UCSF CAB, where we would find ourselves alone walking to the building and it afforded us a chance to chat, and that’s the times that I came up know her and to realize the challenges she had faced and was continuing to face. She never complained but was a strong community driven leader. My heart remains heavy. RIP Queen“
“I have known and soooo respected Loren for so long, since the early 90’s in our common work at Oakland Independence Support Center and homeless, HIV, harm reduction activism work in that time, and she was always such a shining light always simultaneously humorous and deadly serious. I will miss her a lot.“
