Rae Lewis Thornton

Rae Lewis-Thornton is an Emmy Award winning AIDS activist and renown social justice advocate. Rae received national acclaim for her story of living with HIV/AIDS in the Essence magazine December 1994 issue. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has requested to catalogue her groundbreaking Essence magazine cover.

As the face of HIV/AIDS, she has been featured in Glamour, O The Oprah Magazine, Woman’s Day, Essence, Jet, Ebony, Emerge, Heart and Soul, The Washington Post, and The Chicago Tribune. Rae appeared on television and streaming shows including, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Nightline, Dateline, BET, CNN, Vice News, HLN News, Huffington Post Live, and TV One.

She is an ordained minister, award-winning blogger, author, and a tea connoisseur with a handmade knitting and jewelry accessory line, RLT Collection. Rae received an Emmy Award for her television series, Living with AIDS, a first-person chronicle on WBBM, CBS in Chicago.

Rae earned a Master of Divinity Degree from McCormick Theological Seminary. She received a distinguished alumnae award from Northeastern Illinois University, and the Scroll of Merit Award from the National Medical Association.