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People on the Move and in the News
Michigan / Around the State
/ National / world
Spring 2009
Michigan
See also Winter 2009 Archives
Around the State
National
"University of California-San Francisco Nominee
Confirmed AIDS Chief"
San Francisco Chronicle , (06.20.2009) Jim Doyle CDC NPIN
Summary
On Friday, the Senate confirmed Dr. Eric Goosby as the new US global AIDS
coordinator, an ambassador-at-large post based in the State Department. Goosby,
a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California-San Francisco,
will be responsible for overseeing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief (PEPFAR).
As a young intern at San Francisco General Hospital, Goosby was among the first
physicians to see the devastating effect of AIDS at the start of the city’s
epidemic. In 1991, he was named the first director of the Ryan White AIDS CARE
Program, marshaling federal resources to fight the disease domestically.
During the Clinton administration, Goosby served as director of HIV/AIDS policy
in the Department of Health and Human Services and as a chief presidential
advisor on AIDS-related issues. Since 2001, Goosby has been CEO and chief
medical officer of the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, an international
non-profit founded by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF).
“What’s unusual about Eric is that he already comes into the arena with a lot of
global experience,” said Mark Cloutier, SFAF’s head. “He helped to write the
national AIDS plans in Rwanda, South Africa, and the Bahamas. He has been very
involved for the past three years in China, helping the government to develop a
system for the identification of people who are HIV-positive and to develop an
effective treatment strategy.”
In many places in sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe, the
epidemic is growing,” Cloutier said. “Eric has a special depth of knowledge
about working with the populations most at risk.”
Farmer Still Under Consideration for Obama
Administration Position, Takes Harvard Medical School Appointment
Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, May 28, 2009
While Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer is still being considered
for a senior role in the Obama administration, Farmer has been appointed chair
of Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine --
Jeffrey Flier, the medical school's dean, said on Wednesday -- the Boston Globe
reports. Flier said that Farmer will take a leave of absence from the medical
school if he is offered a position with the administration. For now, Farmer is
slated to succeed the current chair, Jim Kim, on July 1 (Smith, Boston Globe,
5/28).
Foreign Policy's "The Cable" reports that Farmer is "under consideration to
head" USAID or "serve in a top administration international assistance post that
would encompass it." An unnamed "international health activist" said that Farmer
might be appointed USAID administrator "as an interim thing" and that he might
go on to lead a new position focused on "global health in the process of foreign
assistance reform over the coming year." Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chair of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is organizing efforts to reform the Foreign
Assistance Act later this year. The act was originally written in 1961 (Rozen,
"The Cable," Foreign Policy, 5/26).
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/print_report.cfm?DR_ID=58614&dr_cat=1
See also Winter 2009 Archives
International
ROBIN GORNA TO HEAD INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETY
22 May 2009 (Geneva, Switzerland) - The International AIDS Society (IAS) today
announced the appointment of Robin Gorna as Executive Director. Ms Gorna will
succeed current Executive Director, Craig McClure, on 1 September this year.
In her role as executive director, Ms Gorna will head the IAS secretariat based
in Geneva , Switzerland . Responsible for the day-to-day management of the
activities of the organization, she is charged with implementing the
organization's strategic and operational plans under the direction of the IAS'
governance and membership.
"We are delighted to find a candidate of Robin's caliber and expertise for this
position," said IAS president Julio Montaner. "Robin has worked in all corners
of the globe across many diverse issues within HIV and healthcare generally. She
is a strong and respected leader, and I have no doubt she will make a
significant contribution to the IAS and to AIDS."
Ms. Gorna is currently based in South Africa where she is the Senior Regional
Health and AIDS Adviser for the UK Government's Department for International
Development (DFID). Before accepting this position, Ms. Gorna headed up a new
Global Policy Team on AIDS at DFID where she led many policy processes,
including delivering the first UK government strategy on AIDS in developing
countries and securing international agreement to "Universal Access", first at
the G8 in Gleneagles and then through the United Nations.
Her involvement with the IAS began in 1998, when she was the community co-chair
of the 12 th World AIDS Conference, a biennial event organized principally by
the IAS.
With over 20 years' experience in the response to HIV, Ms Gorna's previous roles
include executive director of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations;
co-chair of the 6 th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific;
and director of health promotion for the Terrence Higgins Trust; among others.
Ms Gorna is the author of many internationally-published works, including a book
entitled Vamps, Virgins and Victims: How can women fight AIDS? (Cassells, 1996).
The IAS is the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals,
with over 13,000 members in 188 countries working at all levels of the global
response to HIV/AIDS. IAS members represent scientists, clinicians, public
health, policy experts and community practitioners on the frontlines of the
epidemic. The IAS is the lead organizer of the International AIDS Conference and
the IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention.
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