AID Atlanta Taps Insider as New Director

Just over a month after former AID Atlanta Executive Director Tony Braswell left the post he held for six years, the board of the city's oldest and largest AIDS organization announced it unanimously voted to take the "interim" out of Kim Anderson's interim executive director title. "I'm excited and I'm honored," she said. "This agency has an amazing reputation, and I look forward to taking it in new directions, emphasizing more prevention and education."

In March, Braswell announced his resignation, effective June 15. Anderson was named interim director at that time, just a year after she joined the organization as chief operating officer. She was named executive director July 24, becoming the eighth person to lead the agency since it was founded in 1982. Prior to joining AID Atlanta, Anderson served more than a year as senior counsel for the Housing Authority of Atlanta, and two years with the legal firm Alston & Bird. She was vice president and assistant general counsel of Magellan Health Services from 1993 to 1998.

Anderson is the first African-American to head AID Atlanta, but neither the first female nor the first heterosexual. "Not that her race is the reason we hired her, but it certainly is an important criteria when you're dealing with the changing face of AIDS," said Ken Britt, board chair of AID Atlanta since 1995. Anderson agreed. "I would like to think the reason I was hired was because I inspired confidence in the board and because of how I led the staff," Anderson said. "But I do intend to reach out to the African-American community, as well as the Hispanic community and the gay community."

Anderson takes the helm after a rocky year for AID Atlanta, when the 2001 AIDS Walk fell short of fundraising goals. Within months of the walk, the agency lost another $740,000 in federal Ryan White funding for its health care clinic after failing to produce an eligible nonprofit service provider by the annual application deadline. A new Ryan White grant will enable the clinic to reopen in August. Anderson said that the group is working hard to prevent future pitfalls.

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