Taking the National HIV/AIDS Strategy to Vienna

Last week, we released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy - a comprehensive plan to fight HIV in the United States. On Sunday, June 18, 2010, The Office of National AIDS Policy in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services sponsored a session at the International AIDS Conference entitled “A Discussion on the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy”. The purpose of the session was to describe the development of the recently released National HIV/AIDS Strategy to an international audience, as well as to introduce the audience to a few of the individuals responsible for the development and the implementation of the Strategy.

The session began with remarks by Jeffrey Crowley, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) and Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Mr. Crowley addressed ONAP’s year-long effort of community engagement and outreach to Federal agencies to solicit recommendations for the Strategy.  Dr. Koh discussed the interagency process in developing the Strategy and the duties of his office to oversee the Strategy’s implementation.

This was followed by two panel discussions.  The first panel, chaired by Dr. Ronald Valdiserri of HHS, included a range of Federal officials who discussed the implications of the Strategy to their respective agencies and coordination of effort across the Federal level.  The second panel, chaired by Dr Helene Gayle of CARE USA, included community members who shared their perspectives in the development of the Strategy and the role of community-based organizations and advocates in its implementation.  Notably, the community panel included recently appointed members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, as well as members of the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy.  The Coalition, which began in 1997, coalesced around a single idea: that the United States should have a concise, outcomes-based plan of action to address the domestic HIV epidemic.  The main impetus for the Coalition was the publication of a  document by Christopher Collins in 2007 entitled “Improving Outcomes: Blueprint for a National AIDS Plan for the United States.”

You can watch the full video here.

Presentation: Developing a National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States (00:00 - 11:32)
Jeffrey Crowley, Director, Office of National AIDS Policy

Presentation: Implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (11:32 - 26:06)
Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health and Human Services

Panel Discussion: Federal agency involvement in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (27:45 - 1:05:55)

Moderator: Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, Assistant Secretary for Health and Infectious Diseases, Department of Health and Human Services

Panelists:

• Dr. Deborah Parham-Hopson, Associate Administrator for HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
• Dr. Carl Dieffenbach, Director of the Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Panel Discussion: Community involvement in the development and implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (1:07:15 - 1:58:26)

Moderator:  Dr. Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE USA

Panelists:

• Chris Collins, Vice President and Director of Public Policy at the Foundation for AIDS Research
• David Munar, Vice President of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago
• Naina Khanna, Director of Policy & Community Organizing, Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease (WORLD), and Coordinator of the U.S. Positive Women's Network (PWN)
• Dawn Averitt-Bridge, Founder and Chair of The Well Project
• A. Cornelius Baker, National Policy Advisor for the National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition; Project Director for the NIH/NIAID National HIV Vaccine Research Education Initiative for the Academy for Educational Development (AED) Center on AIDS & Community Health
• Phill Wilson, President and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute

Gregorio Millett is a Senior Policy Advisor, Office of National AIDS Policy