Preceded by Eric Goosby | ||
 | ||
Similar Eric Goosby , Ambassador at Large , United States Global AIDS Coordinator | ||
Ambassador deborah l birx ending the aids epidemic by 2030 from vision to action
Deborah L. Birx (born April 4, 1956) is an American physician and diplomat who serves as the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force as of March 2020. Birx has served as Ambassador-at-Large and United States Global AIDS Coordinator since 2014, responsible for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program in 65 countries supporting HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs.She was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate. She was sworn in April 4, 2014. In this role she is responsible for PEPFAR's US$6. 6 billion program in 65 countries supporting HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs.
Contents
Early life and education
Birx is the daughter of Dr. Donald and Adele Sparks Birx. Birx majored in chemistry at Houghton College in 1976 and then earned her medical degree from the Hershey School of Medicine at Pennsylvania State University. In 1980 she began in internal medicine and basic and clinical immunology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health.
Career
Birx served as a physician in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of colonel before she retired from military service. She started her career with the Department of Defense (DoD) as a clinician in immunology, focusing on HIV/AIDS vaccine research. She then served as an Assistant Chief of the Hospital Immunology Service at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from 1985 to 1989. In 1996, she became the Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (USMHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, a role she held until 2005.
At the dawn of President Bush's President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, she ensured the U.S. Army was part of the initiative ensuring access to HIV prevention, care and treatment in all of communities where HIV research was being done. Under Mark Dybul and Bill Steiger she was Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Division of Global HIV/AIDS, a role she had filled from 2005 to 2014.
In her role as ambassador she is leading the organization to meet the HIV prevention and treatment targets set by President Obama in 2015 and achieving the goal of endng the AIDS epidemic by 2030. She says that PEPFAR has cut pediatric HIV infection rates by 50 percent in several African countries.
Personal
Birx has two adult daughters, Devynn Birx-Raybuck and Danielle Birx-Raybuck.