Bliss Cares executive director Juan Rodriguez. (Photo courtesy Bliss Cares)
ORLANDO | Juan Rodriguez, the executive director of Bliss Cares since 2016, has announced he is stepping down from his position.
Bliss Cares is a nonprofit organization established to help underserved patients obtain access to HIV, hepatitis and STD treatments and care.
“We strive to serve everyone who walks through our doors, regardless of their ability to pay,” Rodriguez says, echoing the organization’s mission statement.
Rodriguez came to Bliss Cares at the invite of Dr. Roberto Ortiz, the medical director of Bliss Health.
“After Dr. Ortiz put together Bliss Health in 2015, he wanted to make sure all his patients had all their obstacles removed,” Rodriguez says. “I had 25 years’ experience working in the nonprofit field, so Dr. Ortiz brought me in. I knew we could make a system better than what was out there already for our patients.”
Rodriguez says that while he has not yet decided what his next venture will be, he will be staying within the HIV field.
“I think we have done an amazing job with Bliss Cares but I think now we face other obstacles,” he says. “These obstacles involve access to care in rural areas. Right now I don’t have a set plan, but when I’m ready I will have some conversations and see what strategies we can come up with that will be beneficial to the community in those areas. Whatever I do, I want to be remembered in this area as someone who helped to bring the numbers down.”
During his time at Bliss Cares, Rodriguez and his team have created the Bridge Program, providing access to medical care for the uninsured and underinsured; the Bliss Health Insurance Subsidy Program, which provides medical care to those with an STD but have no insurance coverage; Sweet Dreams Emergency Housing, a program providing a safe place for transgender folks to sleep; and TRANSformation, an educational program for the trans community that has had more than 600 participants since it launched in 2017.
“I am so proud and happy to say that TRANSformation has been the starting point for so many leaders in the transgender movement,” Rodriguez says.
Under Rodriguez’s leadership, Bliss Cares has been recognized for its good works by many LGBTQ organizations including winning several Watermark WAVE Awards earlier this year.
Rodriguez will stay on until the board for Bliss Cares names a new executive director. According to Rodriguez, the board is currently looking for one.
Read more about Bliss Cares at BlissCares.org.
