Ann Sheffer is an arts advocate and patron, and has been deeply involved in private, foundation and government funding for the arts, on the national, state, and local levels. She is currently the chair of the Arts for IE Fund at the Inland Empire Community Foundation.

She was previously a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by President Clinton, and was the founding c hair of the national Arts Action Fund PAC of Americans for the Arts, on which she continues to serve.

In the 1990s, as an architect in Minneapolis, Dan designed the first HIV/AIDS clinic in the city - a social service/day center for persons with HIV/AIDS – and one of the first LGBT youth centers in the country.

He was also on the winning design team for the international Key West AIDS Memorial competition. The memorial was completed in 1997. In 2012, at World AIDS Day/Day without Art, Dan, then the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Architecture and Design Council chair, proposed, during his presentation “Memory and Memorials, that Palm Springs create its own AIDS memorial. And thus, the task force was born.

Dan, and his husband Joaquin Galeano, PsyD., have lived in Palm Springs full time since 2008. Dan is also vice president of the Palm Springs Unified School District Foundation Board, president of the American Institute of Architects, California Desert Chapter (AIACDC) and is a founder and performer with Modern Men: Coachella Valley Men’s Chorus.

Jeffrey Jurasky came to Palm Springs in 1979 from San Luis Obispo where he studied architecture and graphic design at California Polytechnic State University. His friend Joey Polk introduced him to Steve Chase in 1983 and after working at Steve Chase Associates for four years, he started Jeffrey Jurasky & Associates, Inc, specializing in great design for wonderful clients. Jeffrey is certain that his professional life would not have been as rewarding had it not been for his time at Steve Chase Associates. Both Steve and Joey died from AIDS. For Jeffrey, this is their memorial.

Married for 40 years to his wife Kathleen, he is the proud, father of daughter Aneka Brown, grandfather of two grandsons and great-grandfather to one great
granddaughter.

Shortly after moving to San Francisco from Toronto 30 years ago, Stuart got involved in volunteering to help clear trash and overgrown brush from the de Laveaga Dell in Golden Gate Park which would eventually become the National AIDS Memorial Grove. He did it primarily to honor his many friends lost to AIDS back in the mid to late ‘80s and early ‘90s. As he spent more time in the Dell, Stuart shared his story and developed connections to other similarly impacted residents.

Having moved to Palm Springs with his husband Mark in 2019, Stuart wanted to ensure that people had a place to go to reflect on the live lost or impacted by HIV/AIDS. Most people living here - and certainly all who are visitors - come from other towns and have stories of living alongside someone with AIDS either personally or via family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers. The AIDS Memorial Sculpture in the Downtown Park will give residents and visitors alike a place to gather and share stories, so no one is forgotten.