Global Campaign for Microbicides names new director

Contact:
Amy MacIver, 206.788.2021, amaciver@path.org.

Washington, DC, May 28, 2009—The Global Campaign for Microbicides (GCM) announced today the appointment of Yasmin Halima, MPH, as its new director. Beginning June 15, Halima will lead GCM’s diverse network of more than 300 nongovernmental organizations to accelerate the development of microbicides, facilitate their widespread access and use, and protect the needs and interests of users, especially women.

Halima brings to GCM the right combination of clinical research expertise and advocacy experience for new HIV prevention options. She has extensive experience working in the fields of gender equity, health development, and HIV, most recently as a senior consultant to the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition. She has worked at the national policy level, in local government, and within communities. In addition, she brings a wealth of relationships developed through her consultancies with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US National Institutes of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, and the International AIDS Society.

“We are truly pleased that Yasmin will be taking the helm of this important and vital work to protect women from HIV,” said Dr. Christopher J. Elias, president and CEO of PATH, which houses the GCM secretariat.

“Yasmin’s appointment marks a new phase for the Global Campaign for Microbicides as we move into our second decade,” said Dazon Diallo, chair of the GCM Steering Committee. “We believe our new director’s passionate commitment for advancing new HIV prevention options will bring us even closer to making microbicides and other prevention technologies available for women most vulnerable to HIV.”

Halima holds a BA with honors from Lancaster University, United Kingdom, and an MPH in Global Health from Columbia University.

The Global Campaign for Microbicides is a broad-based, international effort to build support among policymakers, opinion leaders, and the general public for increased investment in microbicides and other user-initiated prevention methods. The campaign’s goals are to mobilize and sustain political will, promote stronger civil society involvement, and enable trials. The campaign secretariat is housed at PATH, an international nonprofit organization that improves the health of people around the world. For more information about the campaign, please visit www.global-campaign.org.