Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi Honored for her Leadership in HIV/AIDS and Global Health

On Oct. 30, 2023, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi received the Bay Area Global Health Alliance Leadership Award for decades of leadership in responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Francisco and around the world. Pelosi was also recognized for her contributions to advancing equity and access in domestic and global health.

The Bay Area award ceremony was hosted by the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences in collaboration with the Bay Area Global Alliance, Public Health Institute, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

PHI’s Dr. Mary Pittman joined multiple speakers at the event to present Pelosi’s award. Pittman reflected on the beginning of her career, when she was tasked with planning the anonymous testing for HIV for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. At this same time, Speaker Emerita Pelosi was first elected to the U.S. Congress and began her role to lead the nation’s response to the AIDS/HIV crisis.

“Successful public health efforts must include the individuals who are most impacted–and often stigmatized–not just as stakeholders, but as experts who know what works best for them and their communities. We also see the progress we have made in public health here in the U.S. and globally is threatened and we need to continue the fight together. That is why we are so grateful for leaders such as Speaker Emerita Pelosi,” said Dr. Pittman.

Over 40 years ago, on June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first cases of AIDS. The growing epidemic devastated Bay Area communities — particularly San Francisco — which had to figure out on its own how to combat a disease that spread rapidly and exposed huge inequities.

“One of the biggest lessons learned from that work, and the work PHI does across the globe with USAID and our partners in philanthropy is still very applicable today — successful public health efforts must include the individuals who are most impacted — and often stigmatized — not just as stakeholders, but as experts who know what works best for them and their communities,” Dr. Pittman explained.

“We also see the progress we have made in public health here in the U.S. and globally is threatened and we need to continue the fight together. That is why we are so grateful for leaders such as Speaker Emerita Pelosi,” Pittman added.

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