The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
On Wednesday, February 24, the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) and the HHS Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) will host a meeting to allow the public to hear about the progress being made in developing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
This event has concluded. See a video of the event below.
On Wednesday, February 24th, from 2:00-3:45pm, the public will have an opportunity to hear more about our progress to date and the process that the interagency working group is following to develop the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, as well as meet the members of the interagency working group. The meeting is hosted by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) and the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The meeting is not a community discussion, but designed to give the public an opportunity to hear what has already taken place and our next steps in developing the strategy. (See an agenda of the meeting.)
Although the United States has among the worst HIV epidemics among industrialized nations, the US has never adopted a coordinated nationwide response to address the epidemic. President Obama is committed to addressing HIV in the United States and has tasked the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, under the direction of Jeffrey Crowley, to develop a National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The President articulated three goals for the strategy:
- Reduce the number of new HIV infections (HIV incidence);
- Increase access to care for people living with HIV and optimize health outcomes; and
- Reduce HIV-related disparities.
The strategy will not be a comprehensive catalog of all of the things we need to respond to the HIV epidemic. Rather, the strategy is an opportunity to identify a small number of high payoff action steps that can shift and improve our nation’s response to HIV/AIDS in order to achieve the President’s goals.
In order to develop the strategy, we first solicited feedback from community partners across the country last August through December. In the second phase of developing the strategy, we completed formation of a federal interagency working group at the beginning of this year. The group includes influential leaders from Departments and Agencies across the US government, and includes subcommittees devoted to each of the President’s three goals for the strategy. HIV and AIDS require a medical response and the Assistant Secretary for Health (Dr. Howard Koh) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) serves on the interagency working group, as well as other crucial HHS employees and representative from HHS agencies. But one thing that has become abundantly clear over the course of the epidemic is that tackling HIV and AIDS requires more than a medical response. That is why the interagency working group also includes members from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, the Social Security Administration and other government entities. Moreover, ONAP is consulting with key officials at additional Departments and Agencies that could not formally participate on existing interagency committees to address gaps on topics critical to the development of a successful National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
We understand the importance of community feedback. From the beginning, we opened up the strategy development process in an unprecedented manner by holding 14 community discussions across the country, as well as soliciting recommendations from the White House website to hear directly from you. In order to keep the community engaged in the process, we also decided to hold a public meeting with our interagency working group members this week.
As we realize not everyone will be able to attend the February 24th meeting, we will have meeting notes available on AIDS.gov. This is one of many steps taken to ensure the public’s voice is heard throughout this process and we look forward to seeing many of our community partners, as well as other partners during the meeting and hope that you are able to welcome our interagency members in person.
Gregorio Millett is a Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of National AIDS Policy
List of Interagency Members by Committee
Overarching Committee
Jeffrey Crowley (committee chair)
White House Office of National AIDS Policy
Gregorio Millett (committee staff lead)
White House Office of National AIDS Policy
James Albino
White House Office of National AIDS Policy
Adelle Simmons
White House Office of National AIDS Policy
Gannet Tseggai
White House Office of National AIDS Policy
Christopher Bates
Department of Health & Human Services
CAPT Chris Bina
Department of Justice
Brian Bond
White House Office of Public Engagement
Judith Chesser
Social Security Administration
Carl Dieffenbach
National Institutes of Health
Barbara Edwards
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Kevin Fenton
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
CAPT Scott Giberson
Indian Health Services
Jim Golden
Social Security Administration
Keith Humphreys
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Bob Kocher
National Economic Council
Howard Koh
Department of Health & Human Services
Noelle Lee
Department of Labor
Aaron Lopata
White House Office of Management and Budget
Ann Gavaghan
Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, State Department
Mercedes Marquez
Department of Housing and Urban Development
A. Thomas McLellan
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Jonathan Mermin
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Allison Nichol
Department of Justice
John O'Brien
Office of Personnel Management
Deborah Parham-Hopson
Health Resources Services Administration
Angela R. Powell
Health Resources and Services Administration
Christopher Pratt
National Security Council
Thomas Reilly
White House Office of Management and Budget
Tricia Schmitt
White House Office of Management and Budget
Julia Spencer
Department of Health & Human Services
Adam Taylor
White House Office of Cabinet Affairs
Ron Valdiserri
Department of Veterans Affairs
David Vos
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Beverly Watts Davis
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association
John Wodatch
Department of Justice
Wendy Wertheimer
NIH Office of AIDS Research
Jack Whitescarver
NIH Office of AIDS Research
HIV Incidence Subcommittee
Gregorio Millett, co-chair
Office of National AIDS Policy
Jonathan Mermin, co-chair
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Jeremy Bishop
Department of Labor
Kevin Fenton
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Irene Hall
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Warren Hewitt
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association
Keith Humphreys
Office of National Drug Control Policy
James Kirk
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association
Katharine Kripke
National Institutes of Health
Anish Mahajan
Office of Management and Budget
Paolo Miotti
National Institutes of Health
Jacques Normand
National Institutes of Health
Amy Palilonis
Department of Housing and Urban Development
John Redd
Indian Health Services
Naomi Tomoyasu
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association
Vera Yakovchenko
Department of Health and Human Services
Steven Young
Health Resources and Services Administration
Richard Wolitski
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Access to Care Subcommittee
Adelle Simmons, co-chair
Office of National AIDS Policy
Deborah Parham-Hopson, co-chair
Health Resources and Services Administration
Christopher Bates
Department of Health and Human Services
John Brooks
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Victoria Cargill
National Institutes of Health
Cindy Chen
Department of Labor
Lauren Deigh
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Sam Dooley
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Margarita Figueroa-Gonzalez
Health Resources and Services Administration
Terry Friend
Indian Health Service
Heather Huentelman
Indian Health Service
Gary Marks
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Stephen McGraw
Social Security Administration
Douglas Morgan
Health Resources and Services Administration
Angela R. Powell
Health Resources and Services Administration
Peggy Quigg
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Joe Razes
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Dale Stratford
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Sylvia Trent-Adams
Health Resources and Services Administration
Ron Valdiserri
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Jack Stein
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Kathleen Wolfe
Department of Justice
Disparities Subcommittee
James Albino, co-chair
Office of National AIDS Policy
Beverly Watts Davis, co-chair
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Terri Bramel
Indian Health Service
Karen Braxton
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Gina Brown
National Institutes of Health
Janet Cleveland
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Valerie Darden
Health Services and Resource Administration
Dr. Garth Graham
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health
Timothy Harrison
Department of Health and Human Services
Warren Hewitt
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
Donna Hubbard McCree
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Val Jordan
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
David Knight
Department of Justice
Amy Lansky
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Gabriela D. Lemus
US Department of Labor
Faye Malitz
Health Resources and Services Administration
Allison Nichol
Department of Justice
Dylan Orr
Department of Labor
Amy Palilonis
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Ruth Roman
Health Services and Resource Administration
Gretchen Stiers
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Adam Taylor
Office of Cabinet Affairs at The White House
David Thompson
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
Jo Valentine
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
David Vos
Housing and Urban Development
Lauren Wood
National Institutes of Health
