GMHC is saddened to share that Dr. Stephen Karpiak, Ph.D. passed away on October 16, 2021. Dr. Karpiak had a long and celebrated career in the field of HIV and aging. Since 2017, he served as Senior Director for Applied and Translational Research at GMHC’s Center on HIV & Aging, and he also was the founder and Director of GMHC’s groundbreaking National Resource Center on HIV and Aging (NRCHA). He invested a great amount of time to expanding NRCHA and planning two successful national HIV and Aging webinars, which brought together thousands of people to learn how to expand care models for this population.
Prior to working at GMHC, Dr. Karpiak was the Executive Director of an agency in Arizona providing congregate housing for the homeless with HIV/AIDS. He also served as the Executive Director of Pride Senior Network. Dr. Karpiak joined ACRIA in 2002, where he launched the groundbreaking Research on Older Adults with HIV (ROAH) studies and supervised clinical trials for HIV drugs. Dr. Karpiak was on faculty for 25 years at Columbia University Medical School in Neuroscience and Immunology. He was a member of the Einstein-Rockefeller-Hunter Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the HIV-AGE initiative of the American Academy of HIV Medicine and the American Geriatrics Society. He was also on faculty at NYU Nursing and has published over 150 peer reviewed scientific papers. Dr. Karpiak’s research was recognized by a special award from the U.S. Surgeon General. His work helped to support the establishment of the annual HIV and Aging Awareness Day in September, as well as the White House Conference on HIV and Aging.
Everyone at GMHC—and all who worked with and knew Dr. Karpiak—will miss his dedicated expertise, advocacy, and passion for supporting older adults living with HIV. We send our tender thoughts and condolences to his extended family, friends, and colleagues.
