White House will facilitate community access to panel drafting National HIV/AIDS Strategy

The interagency federal panel that will draft the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the U.S. will meet with community representatives, said Greg Millett of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) at a recent meeting sponsored by the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy.

The announcement is welcome news, as Jeff Crowley, ONAP director, has made clear that the interagency panel writing the nation’s first comprehensive HIV/AIDS plan would be comprised solely of officials from relevant federal agencies and departments. The Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy, which has advocated for a National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) since 2007, wrote Mr. Crowley earlier this year to urge the White House to create meaningful roles for community representatives to shape the plan. A coalition of women’s HIV/AIDS advocates also urged Crowley to make direct community involvement in shaping the plan a priority.  While short of the request to include community members among the plan's drafters, news that the panel will meeting with community representatives is a new and positive development.

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