At 13, all-American kid and honors student Ryan White learned he had a deadly disease with no cure. AIDS. He had contracted it through the blood products he received for his hemophilia. His home town of Kokomo, Indiana, responded-not with compassion, but with fear and hate. When Ryan White was told he couldn't return to school, he decided to fight back. He went to court and won. But that was only the beginning of his fight to educate the public about AIDS. This young teenager dared to speak out when others kept silent. And the whole world listened.

Ryan White (1971–1990) was a courageous young man whose autobiography, Ryan White: My Own Story, recounts his HIV/AIDS diagnosis at age 13 and his fight against AIDS-related discrimination in his Indiana community. White and his mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, gained national attention and became the face of public education about HIV/AIDS when they rallied for his right to attend school. The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program is the biggest federal program dedicated explicitly to providing HIV treatment and care services to people with HIV/AIDS. 

Ann Marie Cunningham is the co-author of the bestseller, Ryan White: My Own Story, about the Indiana teen with AIDS who was barred from school, sued for the right to return, and won. Cunningham is a veteran science writer and producer. She is a regular correspondent for Women’s eNews and producer of the Long Island Sound Science Festival. She is based in New York.

Jeanne White-Ginder is the mother of Ryan White, a courageous young man whose autobiography, Ryan White: My Own Story, recounts his HIV/AIDS diagnosis at age 13 and his fight against AIDS-related discrimination in his Indiana community. She catapulted from obscurity to being a media regular when Ryan was not allowed to return to school in their Indiana town. After her son's death, she continued her son’s legacy of education and empathy by working on getting his book—written by him for other children—published. She wrote the afterword for the book and later had a bill passed that called for federal funding of AIDS education, research, and medical care in her son’s name.