Babbitt to Lead AIDS Action

On Sept. 17, Harriet C. "Hattie" Babbitt became executive director of AIDS Action, a national AIDS advocacy organization. She replaced Claudia French, who left to become executive director of the Denver-based Gill Foundation. Babbitt, 53, served for three years as deputy administrator for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Prior to that, she served for four years as US ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS). She is an attorney and has been affiliated with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Alan Guttmacher Institute and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

"Hattie Babbitt has spent much of her life trying to improve the conditions of America's underserved communities," said a statement released by AIDS Action. "She has also worked extensively on international human rights issues, strengthening the inter-American human rights system while ambassador to the OAS, and has traveled the globe to provide humanitarian relief on every continent, in areas ranging from Kosovo to East Timor. At USAID, Babbitt did HIV/AIDS work in Africa and South Asia and led numerous health-related strategic initiatives."

In her new position, Babbitt said she wants to focus on AIDS prevention, care and research. "There are 40,000 cases of new AIDS each year. One person under the age of 25 is infected every hour. I want to work until we have an AIDS-free generation," she said. "We know that prevention works. . . . There are prevention treatments that work." She said that access to care will remain a key agenda item for the organization, and she said she will "work with friends on [Capitol] Hill" to get continued funding for people with AIDS. "I am doing this because, like a lot of others, I lost friends to AIDS. . . . Also, one of our sons, TJ, is gay," Babbitt said.

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