LEADERSHIP

James Vellequette

Managing Director

Development Officer- AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Board of Directors - Secretary - The Samburu Project

AIDS LifeCycle - Captain

James Vellequette has been working actively in HIV/AIDS prevention and education for almost twenty years both internationally and in the Southern California region.  In addition to his position as the Managing Director of the R. Scott Hitt Foundation, Mr. Vellequette serves as the Development Officer for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, where he is responsible for procuring significant individual donations through the acquistion of major gifts and planned giving.

Mr. Vellequette currently serves as the Secretary for the Board of Directors for the Samburu Project, an NGO dedicated to drilling deep-water wells in the Samburu region of Kenya.  Mr. Vellequette volunteers with the AIDS LifeCycle fundraising bike ride every June that travels 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles.  Mr. Vellequette is one of 43 mangaing Captains responsible for coordinating 2500 Riders and 500 volunteer 'Roadies' down the state of California.

Previously, Mr. Vellequette lived in South Africa, where he volunteered with the Treatment Action Campaign and with the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust.  Mr. Vellequette also volunteered in Tomsk and Kalpashevo, Siberia, under a grant from UNAIDS, as a representative of the Peer Education Program/International.  Mr. Vellequette was a member of the Board of Directors and the Board Development Executive Committee for AIDS Project Los Angeles.  He has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Peer Education Program of Los Angeles, and volunteered in Asia as an educational consultant to the Government of Guam.

Mr. Vellequette holds a Bachelors degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in International Development Studies/Poverty Reduction in Developing Nations with a focus on Central America and sub-Saharan Africa.