Get To Know Those Who Created Mirror Images

Series Creator: Dr. Gail Barouh

Dr. Gail Barouh has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Long Island Association for AIDS Care (LIAAC) since its inception in 1986. Under her tenure, LIAAC has grown from a staff of four funded by a start-up grant of $250,000, to a staff of 75, with an annual budget of $6 million from multiple funding sources. LIAAC currently serves more than 1,100 clients – symptomatic people with HIV/AIDS and affected family members.

Dr. Barouh holds a Ph.D. in Health Administration and Thanatology from the Union Institute, and an M.A. in Health Education Counseling from Adelphi University. Her contributions to community service have been recognized by the Nassau County chapter of the National Organization for Women and the Suffolk County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1995, she was named the Long Island Crisis Center’s "Person of the Year." She was also profiled in the Jewish Week.

Dr. Barouh established the first Long Island support and bereavement groups for family members, loved ones, and friends of people with HIV/AIDS, and facilitated these groups for more than seven years. Her experiences in this area are distilled for health-care professionals in her nationally distributed book, Support Groups: The Human Face of the HIV/AIDS Bereavement – topics she has spoken about at numerous conferences and seminars around the country.

Dr. Barouh is a member of many boards, consortia, agencies, and councils, including the Long Island Network of Community Services (LINCS), bi-county Ryan White Title I Planning Council, Nassau and Suffolk HIV Commissions, Long Island Association’s Health Services Committee, Health and Welfare Council of Nassau County, Association of New York State Community Service Providers, and New York AIDS Coalition.

Dr. Barouh helped found and is the Chief Executive Officer of BiasHelp of Long Island in 1997, an organization dedicated to preventing, monitoring and lessening the effects of bias crimes, discrimination, and hate-related harassment in Nassau and Suffolk counties. BiasHelp believes that it can bring about change on Long Island with a combination of education, leadership and policy, and an outlook towards repairing the physical and emotional damages of bias crime.

Series Creator: John Haigney

John Haigney has a lifelong commitment to human services. For the past sixteen years, John has devoted himself exclusively to providing services for people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. His endeavors include Director of Services, Long Island AIDS Project, School of Allied Health, SUNY Stony Brook; Assistant Chaplain, SUNY Stony Brook; founding member of the Inter Faith Center, SUNY Stony Brook; Adjunct Professor, Suffolk Community College.

His past affiliations include HSA AIDS Plan Advisory Board; Research Action Project, sponsored by St. Philip Neri Parish; Community Research Project, Our Lady of Snows Parish; Seaman/Steward, United States Merchant Marine Corps.

Mr. Haigney was a founding member of the Long Island Association for AIDS Care, Inc. (LIAAC) becoming the first Director of Client Services. Mr. Haigney has been the Vice President of the Long Island of Network Community Services, Inc. (LINCS) since its incorporation in 1997. Mr. Haigney’s responsibilities include corporate outreach and foundation grants for the agency’s fundraising activities. Since the agency’s inception, the Long Island Network of Community Services has raised over a million dollars for its affiliate sister agencies, the Long Island Association for AIDS Care, Inc. and BiasHELP, Inc.

Production Credits For Mirror Images

Series Creator: Gail Barouh, PhD
Director: Gail Barouh, PhD
Series Producer: Adelaide Haigney
Film Production/Post: Colossal Molehill Productions
Executive Producer: Gail Barouh, PhD
Editing: Gail Barouh, PhD, Adelaide Haigney, John Haigney
Casting: John Haigney
Interviewer: Gail Barouh, PhD
Resource Booklet: Jeffrey Reynolds/ Gail Barouh, PhD/The Education & Diversity Training Departments of BiasHELP of Long Island, Inc.
Research: John Haigney, Karen Ross
Material Design & Packaging: Jeffrey Reynolds, Michael Conley

Special Thanks

The Mirror Images series was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the producers and the gracious volunteers who allowed their lives to be opened for the series. Here you can find out some information regarding the producers and those behind the scenes.