Rita joined NC AIDS Action Network as a community organizer in 2018. Rita has been a longtime leader in the HIV community in North Carolina for decades. She has worked with Triangle Empowerment Center as the Woman’s Facilitator, and focused much of her work on HIV and its impact on women. In 2012, she founded the “It’s All About Me” support group, which has supported minority women living with HIV throughout the the triangle region of NC. She has served on the Duke AIDS Research and Treatment Community Advisory Board, and was recognized on the POZ 100 list in 2017.