Ambassador Mark Dybul to Discuss America's Response to Worldwide AIDS Crisis

Ambassador Mark R. Dybul

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In his State of the Union address on Jan. 28, 2003, President Bush announced the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The Emergency Plan is the largest commitment ever by any nation for an international health initiative dedicated to a single disease — a five-year, $15 billion, multifaceted approach to combating the disease around the world. The United States now leads the world in its level of support for the fight against HIV/AIDS.

On Aug. 11, 2006, Ambassador Mark R. Dybul was sworn in as the current U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. Ambassador Dybul will visit campus April 10 to deliver a lecture on “Saving Lives, Creating Hope: America’s Response to the Global HIV/AIDS Crisis” at 3:30 p.m. in Giffels Auditorium, Old Main.

His lecture, co-sponsored by the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education and Health Professions, is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Through the Emergency Plan, the U.S. government is working with international, national and local leaders worldwide to support integrated prevention, treatment and care programs. Through Sept. 30, 2007, the plan supported life-saving antiretroviral treatment for 1.45 million men, women and children.

Before being appointed coordinator, Ambassador Dybul served on the planning task force for the emergency plan, and led the effort by the Department of Health and Human Services for Bush’s International Prevention of Mother and Child HIV Initiative.

At Health and Human Services, he also served as the assistant director for medical affairs as well as co-executive secretary overseeing HIV therapy guidelines for adults and adolescents. He continues to be a staff clinician in the laboratory of immunoregulation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and maintains an active role as the principal investigator for clinical and basic research into U.S. and international protocols on HIV therapy, particularly those that may be useful in areas with poor resources.

Ambassador Dybul holds the rank of assistant surgeon general and rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the uniformed service of the Department of Health and Human Resources. He is also a former member of the World Health Organization's Writing Committee to develop global HIV therapy guidelines.

He received his medical degree in 1992 from Georgetown University before completing his residency in internal medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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Lynn Fisher, communications director
J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
(479) 575-7272, lfisher@uark.edu