Washington Blade - August 26, 2005
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

"Ms. Martin brings with her a wealth of knowledge and considerable expertise in the field of HIV/AIDS," Williams said after introducing Martin at his weekly news conference on Aug. 24. "She has the skills to move the agency forward."

Martin's appointment came less than two weeks after D.C. Department of Health Director Gregg Pane fired Lydia Watts from her post as HAA director, saying Watts had failed to provide the leadership needed to fulfill the agency's objectives. Watts' departure came just 11 months after she started at HAA in September 2004.

Ronald Lewis, Watts' predecessor at HAA, was dismissed from his post as an assistant director of the Department of Health after being transferred out of his HAA position while retaining control over HAA's operations.

Pane said he was "delighted" to have Martin take on the HAA director's position, saying he and Williams have pledged to give her the support she needs from the mayor's office and the Health Department.

"I found someone here who was a great leader with great experience and was willing to take the job," Pane said after Williams' news conference.

"We will have a seamless transition and hit the ground running and take on all these priorities we have to take on," Pane said. "She'll do a great job."

Catania backs Martin

Gay D.C. Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large), who chairs the Council's Committee on Health, which oversees HAA, said his staff conducted its own review of Martin's background and came to the conclusion that she is well suited for the post.

"She is a class act," said Catania, who added that he was "thrilled" over her appointment.

Williams said Martin would begin work Sept. 7. She will hold the title of senior deputy director of the Department of Health for the HIV/AIDS Administration.

AIDS activists who know Martin say she has a wide range of experience in public health and AIDS-related programs on the national and local levels and has worked well with officials in both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

"I've always viewed her as a good bridge builder," said Jim Driscoll, a consultant for the AIDS Health Care Foundation and former member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS under President Bush.

Martin, who holds a doctorate degree in social work, has served as head of AIDS Action since 2002. The group lobbies Congress and the White House on AIDS policies deemed important to local and statewide AIDS organizations.

Driscoll and Carl Schmid, a gay Republican activist who specializes in AIDS issues, said Martin is well known among Capitol Hill and White House staffers who work on AIDS issues. In the months before her appointment to head HAA, Martin has worked closely on the pending congressional reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides millions of dollars in federal AIDS funds to cities and states.

She served from 1997 to 2001 as special assistant on HIV/AIDS policy to Health & Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala during the second term of the Clinton administration. Before taking her post at HHS, Martin served as coordinator for homeless veterans' initiatives at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She also served as executive director of the Federal Interagency Council on the Homeless at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development.

A biography of Martin released by the mayor's office says she wrote the first comprehensive report and resource directory concerning homelessness programs run by the Veterans Affairs Department. From 1991 to 1993, Martin served as director of then New York City Mayor David Dinkins' Office on Homelessness, where she is credited with developing plans to redesign New York City's shelter system and services for homeless adults and families.

She worked as an associate professor at New York's Hunter College School of Social Work from 1985 to 1993, and served during that period as a consultant on homelessness issues for the National Institute for Mental Health. She received a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in social work from the University of Iowa. She received her doctorate degree in social work from New York's Columbia University in 1982.

In an interview following the mayor's announcement of her appointment, Martin said her experience working in the Clinton administration and for Mayor Dinkins in New York has provided her with the experience and skills needed to run an agency like HAA, which has a staff of more than 100 and a budget of about $80 million. Martin noted that as director of Dinkins' Office on Homelessness, she oversaw a budget of $750 million and coordinated a shelter system that housed as many as 35,000 people each night.

Martin said her first task would be to fill more than 35 vacant staff positions at HAA. Some of the vacant positions are for HIV surveillance experts who are needed to gather data linked to the approval of federal AIDS funds for the city.

She said she is also committed to carrying out the recommendations of a report released earlier this month by the Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, a non-profit group specializing in health care issues. The foundation's report criticized HAA for failing to carry out critical tasks needed to address the AIDS epidemic in the city. Williams and Pane cited the report as playing a role in their decision to fire Watts.

"There is a team of people in the HIV/AIDS Administration who are working very hard every day," Martin said. "We're going to provide them with some resources and we're going to keep them working. I'm going to learn what they need to have to improve their job."

In 2003, one year after Martin assumed the executive director's post at AIDS Action, a member of the group's board of directors prepared an internal report saying that AIDS Action appeared to be losing the respect and influence it had in past years among AIDS groups and AIDS policy makers in government. The report noted that some of the problems were due a rapid turnover of AIDS Action staff and executive directors prior to Martin's arrival the previous year. But it said the problems appeared to be continuing under Martin's leadership.

Martin responded by saying she was working hard to rebuild the group following a series of problems she inherited the previous year. Since that time, AIDS Action has boosted its presence in Washington.

"In her tenure with AIDS Action, Marsha has built a strong and capable team to which members of Congress, federal agency officials, and the White House look for reliable information and sound analyses of HIV-related issues," said Craig E. Thompson, chair of the AIDS Action board, in an Aug. 24 news release.

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