NASTAD Applauds the Appointment of Francisco Ruiz to Director of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP)

NASTAD applauds the White House’s appointment of Francisco Ruiz to Director for the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). We also want to congratulate him on being the first Latino Director of ONAP. Francisco has a wealth of knowledge and experience pertaining to the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) Initiative, National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), and other national HIV efforts due to his role as Team Lead for the National Partnerships Team within the Division of HIV Prevention (DHP) in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We wish Francisco the very best in the role of Director of ONAP and know that he will be committed to achieving health equity for people living with and impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Francisco Ruiz has well over a decade of experience working in the HIV field and serving communities who are disproportionately impacted by the epidemic. NASTAD knows first-hand about Francisco’s passion and dedication, as he was a senior manager on the Health Equity team at NASTAD prior to joining the CDC. In his role at NASTAD, he provided technical assistance to state, territorial, and local health departments to strengthen their HIV services and programs. Francisco remains a close friend of NASTAD, and we congratulate him on this well-deserved appointment. 

NASTAD looks forward to Francisco supporting our efforts to serve health departments and community-based organizations. NASTAD believes that community leadership is essential to ending the epidemics. We are also eager to work closely with Francisco in utilizing syndemic approaches to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by addressing factors such as STIs, hepatitis, harm reduction, housing, and more. 

NASTAD wishes Francisco Ruiz the best of luck in this new role as Director of ONAP and we look forward to witnessing and contributing to all that he will achieve.