At last week’s meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) in Atlanta, Georgia, Acting Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Karen DeSalvo swore-in 5 new members. The new members come from three states and the District of Columbia and bring diverse and valuable perspectives from academic medicine, community-based organizations, and faith communities as well as both domestic and global experience.

The PACHA provides advice, information, and recommendations to the HHS Secretary regarding programs and policies intended to promote effective prevention of HIV disease, and to advance research on HIV disease and AIDS. The White House asks PACHA to provide, on an ongoing basis, recommendations on how to effectively implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, as well as monitor the Strategy’s implementation. The Council may have up to 25 members, including the Chair. Members and the chair are selected by the Secretary of Health and Human Services from authorities with particular expertise in, or knowledge of, matters concerning HIV and AIDS. Council members are invited to serve for overlapping terms of up to four years.

“We are pleased to welcome these new members to the PACHA and look forward to their contributions of expertise and ideas to our deliberations,” remarked PACHA Chair Nancy Mahon, Senior Vice President, M·A·C Cosmetics and Global Executive Director, M·A·C AIDS Fund. “We are grateful to all the talented and committed members who serve PACHA – our new members, our continuing members, and the members whose terms just ended. They share a commitment to making a difference in our domestic as well as global responses to HIV by sharing their wisdom, creativity, and time.”

Read biographies of the new members. You can read the biographies of all the members of PACHA in the PACHA section of HIV.gov.