Ida Starks, at Florida Department of Health

February 2024 - Thera Community Champion

Ida Maria Henson-Starks is a native of Orlando, and graduate of Jones High School. Ida attended Tuskegee University- Tuskegee, AL Ida’s former employers include AT&T, BellSouth, Orange County Clerk of Courts, Department of Children & Families, and the Orlando Police Department. After being diagnosed HIV positive in 2000, Ida has worked for various organizations in the HIV/AIDS community. Some of the agencies include: The Nehemiah Educational and Economic Development Program (NEED), Haven of Hope Ministries, Miracle of Love, Inc., Abbott and Merck Pharmaceutical Companies and CAN Community Health, as well as for the Florida Department of Health in Orange & Lake Counties. She has held positions as a Psychosocial Support Administrator, Ryan White & HOPWA (Housing Opportunity for People with AIDS) Case Manager, Outreach Specialist and Program Manager. Currently Ida serves as an Intensive Case Manager for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County where she assesses and link clients to various resources throughout the community. Though Ida has held many leadership roles, she accepted this position so that she could return to her passion which is hands on patient care. This position affords her the opportunity to ensure clients get the care they need, deserve, and are entitled. Having had the opportunity to share her story, Ida has sat on many panels and forums across the United States. Engagements include: Townhall meetings in New Orleans, La., striving to assist persons affected by Hurricane Katrina (2005); The National Coalition of 100 Black Women of Central Florida; The Faith and HIV Conference, Orlando, Fl.; Walker Bower Presbyterian Church Conference, Woodruff, S.C.; Female Empowerment Symposium, Savannah, Ga.; NAACP and The Black Church & HIV Initiative, Jackson, Ms.; I am a Queen Bee HIV/AIDS Symposium for Women & Girls and the Central Florida Women’s Health Initiative to name a few. Ida has also had the opportunity to interview on several occasions with radio personality Monica May of Star 94.5 on her Community Forum as well as well as she has sat on Monica’s ‘Spill the Tea’ panel at the Tom Joyner Family Reunion, promoting and encouraging young people to be educated regarding healthy relationships. Ida was the Unsung Hero recipient (2014) for the National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Consortia and received the Public Health Hero Award (April 2016) presented by the Florida Department of Health in Orange County. December 2023, Ida received the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Central Florida HIV Planning Council. Ida is a current member of the Central Florida Planning Counsel where she serves as the Patient Care Consumer Representative for the Ryan White Community. Ida was selected to sit on the Statewide Consumer Advisory Group that represents Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, and Brevard Counties and she is the State of Florida Representative for the Center of Disease Control Medical Monitoring Project. Not only is Ida a pivotal person in the HIV community she is also a proud mother of one son, Wyndell Maurice Starks, II, and a woman who stands on the word of God. Encouraging and educating people about healthy living as well as helping people to get a fresh start in life after a diagnosis is what she enjoys doing the most. Her motto is “There is Life after a Positive test result”.