Deborah L. Birx

Deborah L. Birx is an American physician and diplomat who currently serves as Ambassador-at-Large and as United States Global AIDS Coordinator. She was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate. She was sworn in April 4, 2014. In this role she is responsible for PEPFAR's US$6. 6 billion program in 65 countries supporting HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs.

Early life and education
Birx is the daughter of Dr. Donald and Adele Sparks Birx. Birx majored in chemistry at Houghton College in 1976 and then earned her medical degree from the Hershey School of Medicine at Pennsylvania State University. In 1980 she began in internal medicine and basic and clinical immunology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health.

Career
Birx served as a physician in the United States Army, rising to the rank of colonel before she retired from military service. She started her career with the United States Department of Defense as a clinician in immunology, focusing on HIV/AIDS vaccine research. She then served as an Assistant Chief of the Hospital Immunology Service at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from 1985 to 1989. In 1996, she became the Director of the United States Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, a role she held until 2005.

From 2005 to 2014, Ambassador Birx served as the director of CDC's Division of Global HIV/AIDS (DGHA), which is part of the agency's Center for Global Health.

In her role as ambassador she is leading the organization to meet the HIV prevention and treatment targets set by President Barack Obama in 2015 and achieving the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. She says that PEPFAR has cut pediatric HIV infection rates by 50 percent in several African countries.

Other activities

 * Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Member of the Board

Personal
Birx has two adult daughters, Devynn Birx-Raybuck and Danielle Birx-Raybuck.