Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bay Area Reporter - April 30, 2009
Bob Roehr
The official title is ambassador at large and global AIDS coordinator. The position requires Senate confirmation.
PEPFAR stands for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Congress passed a five-year reauthorization last year that more than triples the financial commitment to $48 billion. However most observers believe the program will see little or none of that increase because of the recession.
Goosby, 56, has made his career in HIV. The San Francisco native began treating HIV patients at San Francisco General Hospital in the early days of the epidemic. While openly gay, his work focused on the substance abuse community.
He served as the first director of the Ryan White CARE Act programs in the Department of Health and Human Services and moved over to the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy during the Clinton administration.
Goosby returned home to found the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation in 2001, which is affiliated with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Pangaea focuses primarily upon education, training, and capacity building in Africa, China, and Eastern Europe. Its largest benefactor has been the Clinton Foundation.
Mark Cloutier, who serves as president of Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation as well as CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, praised the nomination.
"All of us at Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation and San Francisco AIDS Foundation are very pleased and proud that Eric Goosby has been nominated as global AIDS coordinator," Cloutier said in a statement. "Dr. Goosby's medical experience in treating and caring for AIDS patients dates back to the earliest days of the epidemic in the United States and, more recently, he has played a key role in developing and implementing HIV treatment and prevention strategies internationally."
Goosby's nomination is not without controversy. When speculation began circulating earlier in the year, some noted that Goosby had defended the Clinton administration's policy not to fund needle exchange programs, a decision that once he was out of office Clinton admitted was wrong and not in agreement with the evidence.
San Francisco activist Michael Petrelis looked at Pangaea's public records and saw the decline in funding - from a peak of $6 million to less than $2 million, even while grants for international capacity building were burgeoning - as evidence of his limited effectiveness.
Petrelis greeted announcement of the nomination by saying, "We desperately needed a bold, a once-in-a-lifetime leader. We needed a Barack Obama for global AIDS. In Eric Goosby, we got an AIDS Inc. hack who has paid his Democratic Party dues, but lacks the independence required to directly and immediately address the needs of millions of people living with HIV disease, and at-risk persons. May his tenure be short."
But most applauded the nomination.
"Dr. Goosby is an outstanding choice," said Kenneth Mayer, speaking for the HIV Medicine Association. "He's been on the front-lines of the AIDS epidemic as a clinician and in his distinguished previous government service."
AIDS Action also praised the nomination.
"The U.S. needs to continue its international leadership role. That is why we are so pleased that the position has been filled, and filled with a person of Dr. Goosby's caliber," said Ronald Johnson, AIDS Action deputy director.
International AIDS activist Gregg Gonsalves said Goosby faces a tough challenge in fighting for increased funding. He must protect PEFPAR "from those who seek to dilute or reverse our gains. We all will support him in this task and wish him well."
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