February 2, 2009

NY Times Highlights Search for New PEPFAR Head

After Mark Dybul resigned from his post as George W. Bush’s appointed global AIDS coordinator and director of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) on January 22, it was unknown who President Barack Obama’s administration would choose to take his place. In a January 31 piece, The New York Times examines the search for a new AIDS czar and some of the names being discussed as possible candidates who would helm the multibillion dollar effort to fight the virus overseas.

According to the article, AIDS activists began to speculate just one day after Dybul’s resignation that Eric Goosby, MD—director of AIDS policy under President Bill Clinton—had been tapped for the position, while word also began circulating that Senator John Kerry (D–Mass.) had approached Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeking the job for Jim Yong Kim, MD, a Harvard medical school professor and former AIDS chief with the World Health Organization. Neither Goosby nor Kim has confirmed or denied that he has been offered the job.

Other names floated about include Nils Daulaire, MD, president of the Global Health Council; Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, an epidemiologist at the Columbia School of Public Health in New York City; and Warren W. Buckingham III, PEPFAR’s director in Kenya, who is HIV positive and openly gay.

On Monday, January 26, a coalition of 68 AIDS organizations sent a letter to Clinton urging that she put together a committee to carefully select the best possible candidate and to take multiple policy viewpoints into consideration.

Search: George W. Bush, PEPFAR, Barack Obama, Mark Dybul, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Eric Goosby, Jim Yong Kim, Wafaa El-Sadr, Warren W. Buckinghgam III, Nils Daulaire

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