Bay Area Reporter - February 26, 2009
Lisa Keen

Jeffrey Crowley, a former officer at the National Association of People with AIDS and a current research scholar at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, will head up the Obama administration's efforts to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The position will also now be linked to efforts to help all people with disabilities - an expansion applauded by AIDS activists.

"It's exactly the kind of integration that folks in HIV community have been talking about for a while," said Earnest Hopkins, federal policy official for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Hopkins said the choice of Crowley for the position is "really good news."

"He's a good friend, he's smart, he goes very deep, as far as his knowledge base," said Hopkins. "He's been one of the external consultants to all the national AIDS folks who do AIDS work day to day. He's really an expert. We can be pretty assured the administration is going to support something that is supporting the needs of people with HIV."

Crowley, a former Peace Corps worker, earned a master's in public health from Johns Hopkins University and served as deputy executive director for programs at NAPWA. While at NAPWA, he helped with both the National HIV Testing Day campaign and the Ryan White National Youth Conference.

A spokesperson for the White House said Crowley starts work today.

In announcing Crowley's appointment, the White House also made clear that, despite some confusion over a recent executive order projected, the Office of National AIDS Policy "is part of the executive office of the President's Domestic Policy Council."

A February 5 executive order indicated that the position of AIDS policy coordinator - the head of the Office of National AIDS Policy - was to be struck from the membership of the White House Domestic Policy Council.

Carl Schmid, director of federal affairs for the AIDS Institute, said he hopes Crowley will be able to get to work immediately on developing a national AIDS strategy - a strategy that Obama said would be a goal for his first year in office.

"We'll hope he makes sure that gets off the ground, and we hope he'll be able to make sure there are increases for HIV prevention and Ryan White in the president's budget," Schmid said. The White House is releasing today a summary of its federal budget for FY 2010, but details are not expected until April.

Schmid said he hopes Crowley will also be able to advocate for directing some money from the stimulus package to go to HIV work. A specific earmark for some $400 million to go to HIV prevention efforts was lost after some Republicans claimed it amounted to spending millions of dollars on condoms.

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