News :: GLBT
JRI’s Brooks appointed to Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS by Hannah Clay Wareham
Associate EditorThursday Feb 4, 2010 Douglas Brooks, vice president of health services for the Justice Resource Institute and longtime HIV/AIDS activist, has been appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).
In his new role, Brooks will work closely with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to provide advice, information, and recommendations to President Obama regarding the reduction of new instances of HIV, the increase in access to care and optimization of health outcomes, and the reduction of HIV-related health disparities.
"It is an honor to have been appointed to PACHA," Brooks said. "In a small but important way, I will have the opportunity to serve my country on an issue that is of great importance to me as a social worker, a public health practitioner and a black, gay man living with HIV for 20 years. In the United States, as in Massachusetts, there are few areas, if any, where health inequities are as pronounced as with HIV/AIDS among African Americans and other black people and among gay men of all colors. This issue affects communities of which I am part and for whom I care deeply."
Brooks was nominated for the position by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. "Douglas is one of those rare individuals who has been able to combine a deep sense of his own identity, a profound spirituality, an astute political sense and a practiced academic acumen with a commitment to creative, energetic, and ongoing grassroots community organizing and the advancement of social justice," Patrick said. "His vision of systemic change is concomitantly located in very specific experiences -- as gay, as black, as a man, as a faith-filled person, and as a person living with HIV -- while also being focused on the intersection of diverse community and structural mechanisms."
Brooks aims to advance what he calls a "long overdue" National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). "I firmly believe that working with community partners, government can accomplish the goals of the NHAS," Brooks said. "For more than two and a-half decades, Massachusetts has been a leader in HIV/AIDS, notably in the inclusion of people living with HIV in the development, implementation and oversight of policies and programs. It is right and good that we will be at the table to help lead the country in ending the pandemic."
Hannah can be reached at hclaywareham@baywindows.com.
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