Lorraine Teel, executive director of the Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP), will step down this month after 20 years at the state’s largest AIDS service organization. Kathleen Corley, who has served as interim executive director at the Bloomington Theatre and Art Center and at Women’s Advocates, will serve as interim director.

“Lorraine Teel’s leadership and vision have been central to the growth and stability of this agency and she will be dearly missed. She leaves behind an incredible legacy and it is the goal of this board to find a new leader of her caliber to guide MAP into the future,” Patrick Troska, MAP board chair, said in a statement. “In order to select our next executive director, the Board believes that it is critical to take the time to carefully understand the needs of both the communities served and the inner operations of the agency. We believe Kathleen Corley is the right person to lead this analysis and manage MAP during this transition.”

Teel did an interview with Minnesota Public Radio last week explaining her decision to move on from MAP and how the HIV epidemic in Minnesota is impacted by apathy.

Tom Crann: Why step away from this work now?

Lorraine Teel: I’ve been at it for a long period of time, and, frankly, I think it’s time for the Minnesota AIDS Project to have a new look, a new focus and some new thinking.

Crann: I was looking at the numbers from the Minnesota Department of Health from 2003 to 2009. The numbers show an uptick in the HIV infection rate from 280 cases per 100,000 people in 2003 to 370 for 100,000 in 2009, the most recent data available. As we sit here in 2011, what do you think is contributing to that uptick?

Teel: I think it’s a number of things. I think it’s a sense of apathy that this disease is very treatable, a sense of complacency and, frankly, a sense that people could be educated about AIDS once in their life and that message would stick. And we know with all other public health efforts that’s not the case. That’s why we do smoking prevention 365 days a year or caution people about diet and exercise. And yet when it comes to HIV, there’s this mistaken belief that if you heard about it once in your life, you basically have a virtual vaccine.