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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 7, 1997

                   PRESIDENT NAMES SANDRA L. THURMAN
           AS DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF NATIONAL AIDS POLICY

     The President today announced his intention to appoint Sandra L.

Thurman as Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy.

For more than a decade, Ms. Thurman has been a leader and advocate for people with AIDS at the local, state, and federal levels.

From 1988 to 1993, Sandra L. Thurman, of Atlanta, Georgia, served as the Executive Director of AID Atlanta, a community based organization which provides health and support services to people with HIV/AIDS and offers an array of HIV prevention programs. Under her leadership, AID Atlanta, the largest and oldest AIDS service organization in the south, tripled in size and became a multi-million dollar, direct-service agency with 90 staff members and over 1000 volunteers.

From 1993 to 1996, Ms. Thurman was the Director of Advocacy Programs at The Task Force for Child Survival and Development at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. As Director, she focused on the global health concerns of children, including immunization and the eradication of polio. She is currently Director of Citizen Exchanges at the United States Information Agency.

Ms. Thurman is a Member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and of the Georgia State AIDS Task Force, the Fulton County HIV Planning Council and the Executive Committee of Cities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief (CAEAR). She has served on the Board of Directors of the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition, AID Atlanta, Sisterlove, Inc., and the Atlanta AIDS Interfaith Network, among others. She is a recognized expert on AIDS issues and has provided testimony before the United States Senate, the White House Conference on HIV/AIDS and the National Commission on AIDS. Ms. Thurman earned a Bachelor's degree from Mercer University.

The Office of National AIDS Policy is responsible for coordinating federal policy and programs on HIV/AIDS, and with building partnerships between Federal agencies, the AIDS community, AIDS service providers, state and local officials, and major business leaders. The objective of the Office of National AIDS Policy is to increase the rate of progress in treatment and education, and to maintain the focus on science and scientific research.

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