Please join us in congratulating Ms. Marcia Ellis on her upcoming retirement at the end of this year. There simply isn't enough space in the Weekly Update to thank Ms. Ellis for her numerous and significant contributions to the DC CFAR, the DC HIV community, and the national CFAR network.

Ms. Ellis's steadfast dedication to ensuring meaningful community engagement in research is evident throughout the DC CFAR and beyond. Ms. Ellis was a founding member of the DC CFAR Community Advisory Board (now the Community Partnership Council) and has served as its Chair since its inception. In 2017, Ms. Ellis joined the DC CFAR administrative staff as the first Community Coordinator, to facilitate and support community engagement and partnerships between CFAR investigators and the DC community. During her tenure, Ms. Ellis has overseen and expanded the role of community in virtually every DC CFAR initiative: from engaging CPC members as pilot award reviewers and advocating for community leads for SIGs and SWGs to helping develop the Academic-Community Partnership pilot awards and the forthcoming Best Practices Guide for Community Engagement. She has approached this work with passion, creativity, and good humor.

We encourage you to read Ms. Ellis's recent AJPH editorial, "Forty Years of Fighting for Equitable Partnering in HIV Research: We Are Not There Yet" and to view her interview on our website, part of a seminal community recognition project documenting the important contributions of the DC HIV community trailblazers.

Although we will miss working with Ms. Ellis, she leaves an enduring legacy and a crucial reminder for our work ahead: we are not there yet.