2008 Woodie Awards
Still searching for AIDS answer
Shawn Gude - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: Metro
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Almost three decades after humans were first inflicted with AIDS, the global community has not yet been able to contain, much less eradicate, the widespread problem.
And some - including the UI's director of African Studies Program, Edward Miner - argue that in those three decades, the issue has fallen out of the public's eye.
"There was a lot of AIDS activism in the first 10-15 years of the pandemic," he said. "Now, there are real questions about if the right things are being done."
One of the main ways to increase this activism again, he said, is to increase awareness of the issue. Which is exactly why he and others spearheaded an effort to bring Ann Lion Coleman, the Global Fund technical support coordinator for the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, to the UI.
Coleman, who spoke Monday night at the UI Center of Human Rights' ongoing Careers for Change series, will also be present at today's Iowa City Foreign Relations Council's noon luncheon and in the evening at a public lecture.
"She represents a very important effort on the part of the government to address an epidemic," Human Rights Center Deputy Director Amy Weismann said. "She has a very important perspective on the issue."
That perspective comes from Coleman's experience with international health concerns, especially in her current occupation. The Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator is responsible for the implementation of President Bush's five-year, anti-AIDS initiative, the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS relief.
Monday night's talk - which dealt with Coleman's experiences in global health - was designed to, in Weismann's words, "show how students can get involved to address" AIDS and other human-rights issues or get involved in public health.
The talk had more of a give-and-take, fireside feel than a formal lecture, with the group of around 25 undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. students interacting with Coleman on various international and public-health issues.
And some - including the UI's director of African Studies Program, Edward Miner - argue that in those three decades, the issue has fallen out of the public's eye.
"There was a lot of AIDS activism in the first 10-15 years of the pandemic," he said. "Now, there are real questions about if the right things are being done."
One of the main ways to increase this activism again, he said, is to increase awareness of the issue. Which is exactly why he and others spearheaded an effort to bring Ann Lion Coleman, the Global Fund technical support coordinator for the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, to the UI.
Coleman, who spoke Monday night at the UI Center of Human Rights' ongoing Careers for Change series, will also be present at today's Iowa City Foreign Relations Council's noon luncheon and in the evening at a public lecture.
"She represents a very important effort on the part of the government to address an epidemic," Human Rights Center Deputy Director Amy Weismann said. "She has a very important perspective on the issue."
That perspective comes from Coleman's experience with international health concerns, especially in her current occupation. The Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator is responsible for the implementation of President Bush's five-year, anti-AIDS initiative, the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS relief.
Monday night's talk - which dealt with Coleman's experiences in global health - was designed to, in Weismann's words, "show how students can get involved to address" AIDS and other human-rights issues or get involved in public health.
The talk had more of a give-and-take, fireside feel than a formal lecture, with the group of around 25 undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. students interacting with Coleman on various international and public-health issues.
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