[Press Kit, International Conference on AIDS (16th: 2006: Toronto, Canada)]

Barbara Lee (United States), Member of Congress
Congresswoman Barbara Lee was first elected to represent California's ninth Congressional
District in 1998. She is the most senior Democratic woman on the House International
Relations Committee, where she serves on the African and the Western Hemisphere
Subcommittees. She also serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where she
sits on the Housing and Domestic and International Monetary Policy Subcommittees. She is
the Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Whip for the Congressional Black
Caucus (CBC), and a Senior Democratic Whip. She also serves as Chair of the CBC Task
Force on Global HIV/AIDS and Co-Chair of the CBC Haiti Task Force.
Congresswoman Lee's accomplishments in promoting effective, bipartisan legislation to stop
the spread of HIV/AIDS and bring treatment to the infected have earned her international
recognition as a leader in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. She led the fight to create the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and to bring affordable generic AIDS
treatments to impoverished regions. She also sponsored legislation to protect AIDS
orphans.
Congresswoman Lee graduated from Mills College in Oakland, California, and received her
Masters of Social Work from the University of California, Berkeley. Before being elected to
Congress, she served in the Califor-nia State Assembly from 1990-1996 and in the California
State Senate from 1996-1998.
Stephen Lewis (Canada), United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa
Stephen Lewis is Chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, author of the national bestseller
Race Against Time and UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. A lifelong social democrat
and diplomat, he has focused much of his humanitarian efforts on the African continent. Mr.
Lewis' career at the UN has spanned more than two decades. From 1984-1988, he served
as Canada's Ambassador to the UN. During his tenure, he chaired the committee that
drafted the Five-Year UN Programme on African Economic Recovery. From 1995-1999, Mr.
Lewis served as Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. In 1997, he was appointed by the
Organization of African Unity to the Panel of Eminent Personalities to Investigate the
Genocide in Rwanda. He is currently a Commissioner for the World Health Organization's
Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, a Senior Advisor to the Mailman School
of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City and also serves as a member of the
Board of Directors of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
Craig McClure (Canada), Executive Director, International AIDS Society (IAS)
Mr. McClure is the Executive Director of IAS, the world's professional society for scientists
and health workers in HIV/AIDS and the convener of the biennial International AIDS
Conference.
Mr. McClure has a background in political science, international relations, education and
counseling. He has worked in the HIV/AIDS field for 13 years, primarily in the areas of
policy, advocacy and education. In 2003-2004, he played a central role at the World Health
Organization (WHO) as a member of the coordination team for the development of the "3 by
5" strategy, the WHO and UNAIDS initiative to expand antiretroviral treatment access for
people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in resource-limited settings. Prior to working with
WHO, Mr. McClure worked for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. As a founding
partner of the consultancy Health Hounds, Mr. McClure led a number of HIV/AIDS policy and
programme development projects from 1997-2000. Prior to 1997, he worked for four years

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