For Immediate Release

July 31, 2001
Contact: CDC Media Relations
(404) 639-3286

Press Release

CDC Names Acting Director for
National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention

CDC announced today that Dr. Harold Jaffe will be acting director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention (NCHSTP) while a national search is conducted for a permanent director. Dr. Jaffe, who current heads CDC's HIV, STD and TB laboratory, will take the post August 27.

Dr. Helene Gayle is leaving the post after six years to become senior advisor for HIV/AIDS programs at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"We are pleased that Dr. Jaffe has accepted the challenge of leading CDC's HIV, STD and TB prevention programs," said CDC Director Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan. "He is an outstanding leader who has dedicated his entire professional life to the understanding and prevention of these diseases and we look forward to his continued leadership in this arena."

Dr. Jaffe will oversee a multi-disciplinary staff and a budget of approximately $1 billion. The center is responsible for research and programs to prevent HIV, STDs and TB, including community-based HIV prevention activities, a new global HIV/AIDS initiative, and syphilis and tuberculosis elimination programs.

Dr. Jaffe was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley, and his M.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. He joined CDC in 1974 as a clinical research investigator with the venereal disease control program. He became an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in 1981 and played a major role in the first investigations of HIV, then an unknown virus. Since then, he has been the chief of CDC's AIDS epidemiology program, deputy director for science at the HIV/AIDS program, and director of the HIV/AIDS program.

Dr. Jaffe's leadership team will include Dr. Ronald O. Valdiserri, NCHSTP's current deputy director, and Ms. Thena Durham will become acting deputy director for policy, a new position at the center. Dr. Valdiserri has been deputy director for five years and has held several other public health leadership positions since joining CDC in 1989. Before that, Dr. Valdiserri was director of the Falk Clinic Laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh. Ms. Durham, who holds a B.S. in biology from Fisk University and an M.S. in developmental biology from Purdue University, is currently the director of CDC's Executive Secretariat. She began her career at CDC in 1968 as a microbiologist/virologist. From 1986-96, she served as associate director for program in the center that eventually became NCHSTP.

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