State celebrates 2025 recipient of Suzanne Richmond-Crum Award on World AIDS Day

Hawai‘i Department of Health Harm Reduction Services Branch announced Kunane Dreier as recipient of the 2025 Suzanne Richmond-Crum Award.

The award will be presented during an event this evening as part of the annual World AIDS Day ceremony at Church of Crossroads in Honolulu. World AIDS Day is today, Dec. 1.

Dreier is being honored for his outstanding contributions to human immunodeficiency virus — or HIV — services in Hawai‘i.

He leads HIV and sexual health programs at Hawai‘i Health and Harm Reduction Center, the state’s largest HIV service organization.

Dreier started in the HIV field as an outreach worker and has mentored and coached many staff while advancing in his career path.

“Kunane embodies the quiet but powerful leadership that this award represents,” said Kumukahi Health + Wellness Chief Executive Officer Peter Silva in the announcement about Dreier’s award. “He is not the kind of leader who seeks the spotlight; rather, he is the one who shows up every single day, in the hardest moments, to stand alongside people who too often have been left behind.

Dreier also focused on homelessness, transgender health and smoking cessation efforts while working in HIV programs.

He has spent the past 23 years dedicated to ending the HIV epidemic.

Dreier has also been a passionate advocate for the communities he serves and worked to advance services rooted in cultural humility, grounded in harm reduction and protective of human dignity.

“His career reflects decades of steadfast dedication — expanding access to HIV prevention and treatment, building bridges between public health systems and community voices and fighting stigma with compassion,” Silva added.

The award was established in honor of Suzanne Richmond-Crum who died in 2004 after serving more than 10 years as director of the Hawai‘i Seropositivity and Medical Management Program of the Hawai‘i Department of Health Harm Reduction Services Branch.

It is presented each year to a person in Hawai‘i for their outstanding contributions in providing HIV services with competence and compassion just as Richmond-Crum demonstrated in her HIV work.

The World AIDS Day theme this year in Hawaiʻi is “Imua: Together We End AIDS.” Community members who can’t make it to O‘ahu for this year’s commemoration and see Dreier receive his award can watch via Zoom.

For more information on this and all statewide World AIDS Day events, Visit the Hawaiʻi World AIDS Day website for additional information about tonight’s event — including how to connect via Zoom — and all statewide World AIDS Day events.