The White House Blog

This week, Washington, DC is hosting the International AIDS Conference. To mark the occasion, we asked a group of White House officials to sit down and discuss the impact that HIV/AIDS has had in their own lives and how far we’ve come in the fight against the terrible disease.

Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Development and Democracy for the National Security Staff, described how she first heard about the disease and how the progress we've made in combating the illness has been built on a foundation of science, collaboration, and human dignity.

Watch a video on how far we've come on AIDS.

See additional accounts and testimonials videos from other Obama Administration officials:

• Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President
• John Berry, Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management
• Grant Colfax, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy 
• Brad Kiley, Director of the Office of Management and Administration   
• Cecilia Muñoz, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council
• Gayle Smith: Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Development and Democracy for the National Security Staff
• Tina Tchen, Chief of Staff to the First Lady

Learn more 

• President Obama welcomes 2012 International AIDS Conference attendees
• The AIDS Memorial Quilt in the White House