Pangaea Completes Three-Year Strategic Plan
Expansion underway to meet demand for HIV/AIDS treatment services
San Francisco, May 21, 2007 — In early 2007 Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation completed a strategic planning process that reaffirmed the organization's commitment to providing high-level consulting services to organizations in the public and private sector charged with developing comprehensive and sustainable HIV/AIDS treatment programs. With long-term funding in place that provides a solid base for future growth, Pangaea is expanding its program and policy staff to provide additional capacity for its global consulting efforts.
Recent staffing additions and promotions have strengthened Pangaea's management and program capabilities. Michael Calhoun, who joined Pangaea in 2006 as Vice President for Planning & Development, is now Chief Operating Officer. Deborah von Zinkernagel, who has been with Pangaea since its inception, was recently named Vice President for Policy/Senior Clinical Expert, and will continue to be based in Washington, D.C. Michael Iskowitz, formerly the Director of UNAIDS/USA, has joined Pangaea as a Senior Program and Policy Consultant. Recruiting is currently underway for the positions of Vice President for Programs, Medical Officer and Vice President for Business Development.
As part of its longstanding commitment to increasing access to HIV/AIDS treatment and care in settings with insufficient treatment capacity, Pangaea is currently developing initiatives in four key areas of focus to augment its core program of supporting the national scale-up of treatment infrastructure:
- Treatment-based HIV prevention;
- Mid-level provider capacity development;
- Integrated HIV/AIDS and drug treatment programs for injection drug users; and
- High-level technical assistance to governments and funding agencies in the development of HIV/AIDS treatment capacity.
CEO and Chief Medical Officer Eric Goosby, MD commented: "Pangaea is poised to move ahead on a number of fronts that are central to the global response to HIV/AIDS. We are actively engaged in projects around the world that focus on helping our partners build sustainable treatment infrastructure at the national level, develop innovative programs to address epidemics in Asia and Eastern Europe fueled by injection drug use, and expand the capacity of mid-level providers to treat and care for HIV patients. The addition of key staff will allow us to better leverage and replicate the work that we're already doing, as well as to expand into important new areas like the intersection between prevention and treatment."
Michael Calhoun has over 16 years experience in the healthcare industry including roles as a consultant, senior hospital executive, and senior federal government policy executive. He previously served as Vice President for Strategic Planning and Marketing for the Stanford Hospital and Clinics at Stanford University. In his consulting capacity, Mr. Calhoun has been an adviser to the Division on AIDS, within the U.S. National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. In that role, he led an independent working group charged by the Director to help improve the international clinical trials program of the Division on AIDS and later assisted in implementing reforms and redesigns to improve the effectiveness of the agency's $350 million AIDS clinical research program. From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Calhoun was Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He acted as chief operating officer and was the principal policy adviser to Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, MD on social services and on health policy. Mr. Calhoun has a JD degree from Harvard Law School and a BA from Princeton University. He is on the Board of Directors of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
Michael Iskowitz is an attorney, clinical psychologist and policy/strategy/public relations specialist who has been engaged in the fight against AIDS for more than 20 years. Prior to joining Pangaea as a Senior Policy and Program Consultant, Mr. Iskowitz was the Director of UNAIDS/USA. He is the co-founder of the International AIDS Trust (IAT), a US non-profit organization created to mobilize the will, funding and action needed to effectively fight AIDS worldwide. He served for four years as Senior Policy Advisor to the White House Office of National AIDS Policy during the Clinton Administration, where he helped to enhance the US government's response to the global epidemic. In addition, Mr. Iskowitz served for a decade as Chief Counsel on Poverty, Disability and Family Policy to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. In this capacity, he was the lead Senate staff person on AIDS and authored most of the US government's AIDS legislation, including the Ryan White Care Act.
Deborah von Zinkernagel's work with Pangaea has been focused on the expansion of HIV/AIDS treatment capabilities in resource poor settings, including projects in Rwanda, South Africa, and China. Prior to joining Pangaea, Ms. von Zinkernagel was the deputy director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1997-2001. Before joining the Department of Health and Human Services in 1995, Ms. von Zinkernagel was a health policy analyst from 1990 to 1995 for the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources as a member of Senator Edward M. Kennedy's staff, working on HIV/AIDS and public health safety net programs, including the Ryan White Care Act. Ms. von Zinkernagel completed a 3 year fellowship in clinical epidemiology in 1985, and has continued her clinical practice in nursing throughout the years primarily in hematology/oncology. She received her nursing degree from the Cornell University-New York Hospital School of Nursing (BSN with Honors, 1975), and holds Master's degrees in Community Health from Boston College (1987) and in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health (1989).
The mission of Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation is to broaden access to HIV/AIDS antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and care around the world, with special emphasis on work in resource-limited settings. As a non-profit consulting organization, Pangaea provides assistance to in-country and international partners in the development of healthcare infrastructure for HIV/AIDS treatment efforts. Our partners include national health ministries, NGOs, universities, foundations and corporations. For more information visit www.pgaf.org.
Media Contact: Carl Whitaker 510-847-0599 cwhitaker@pgaf.org