January 6, 1994 - THE WASHINGTON BLADE - 5 Mark Barnes wants AIDS Action Council to be a ‘tough presence’ by Kristina Campbell The AIDS Action Council announced this week that Mark Barnes, a former New York City and state public health official, will take over as the organization’s exec- utive director beginning February 1. Barnes replaces Daniel Bross, who resigned in Au- gust, as head of the nation’s largest organization dedi- cated to AIDS lobbying at the federal level. In an interview with the Blade on Wednesday, Barnes said his two primary focuses will be toughening AIDS Action’s Congressional lobbying presence and pursuing a “very aggressive fundraising strategy” for the organi- zation itself. Barnes, 34, is a 1984 graduate of Yale Law School who has spent most of his professional life working on AIDS policy and law. As a faculty member at the Co- lumbia University School of Law in 1988, Barnes founded the AIDS Law Clinic. In 1989, he started work as AIDS policy director for the New York State Depart- ment of Health; in 1992, Barnes became associate com- missioner for medical and legal policy at the New York City Department of Health. Over the years, Barnes has served as consultant to a number of organizations and panels, including the National Commission on AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Red Cross, and the National Minority Task Force on AIDS. Barnes said this week that federal AIDS funding faces an “immediate crisis” with several programs being threatened by budget reforms and Republican control. “We need to make sure the funding streams that have sustained the lives of people with AIDS and HIV ... are maintained,” he said. Among those programs at risk are the Ryan White CARE Act — which will expire this year if Congress does not reauthorize it — the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA) pro- gram, and general AIDS prevention and research efforts. Barnes predicted AIDS organizations will convince a tightfisted Congress to continue funding the fight against the disease. “] think we can,” he said. “The human need is com- pelling, and it’s not going to go away. Fighting AIDS has a peculiar kind of cost-efficiency” because reducing the rate of transmission will translate into less of a financial strain. Despite a conservative tidal wave washing over Congress, Barnes said, that body’s members will be reminded time and again that people with HIV and AIDS are a cross-section of the country. “They are the sons and daughters of janitors and college presidents,” he said. “They are the nephews and nieces, maybe even the sons and daughters, of Congressmen and Congress- women themselves.” AIDS Action hit financial troubles in recent years, experienc- ing a drop in Combined Federal Campaign fund donations in 1993 that triggered a $530,000 deficit. Barnes said the organi- zation is “in the black” again and operating with a $2 million budget. He said he will work hard to draw foundation and busi- ness contributors and try to expand AIDS Action’s staff — cur- rently at 20 people — in the coming years. “We're going to strengthen,” he said, “and we will grow.” Barnes said the board of AIDS Action called on him to take the top position in the organization. Although he stepped down from the state health department position because of “AIDS burnout,” Barnes said, he accepted the executive directorship at AIDS Action out of “a sense of duty.” “There is so much at stake in the next year,” Barnes said. “So much work is needed. I knew this job would protect the gains I made in New York — this is an extension and fulfillment of the work I’d done there.” . Mike Isbell, director of public policy for the New York City- based Gay Men’s Health Crisis, said Barnes “is extraordinarily talented, hardworking and extremely knowledgeable about AIDS. I think he’ll make an exceptional leader of AIDS Action Council.” Although Isbell said New York’s AIDS community “had many beefs” with the city’s department of health while Barnes “We’re going to strengthen,” said AIDS Action Council’s Mark Barnes, “and we will grow.” worked there, Barnes was a valuable part of the system. His du- ties there included direct administration of the Ryan White pro- gram for New York City. “] think that Mark did an excellent job of navigating very dif- ficult waters to improve services for people with AIDS,” Isbell said. “... He made some really stellar hires of people in senior positions at the health department. That bodes very well for the future of the Council.” Steve Michael, a D.C. AIDS activist and founder of ACT UP/Washington, weighed in with criticism for the selection of Barnes this week, saying the choice shows a “commitment to mediocrity” among the AIDS community. Michael, who said he wanted AIDS Action to hire Department of Interior official Bob Hattoy for the post, said the condition of the AIDS-infected community in New York City indicates that Barnes did not do enough in that city. Michael said Hattoy, who is HIV-infected, would have been a better representative of people with AIDS and would un- abashedly stand up to the administration when needed. Barnes, who is openly Gay, said he “completely under- stand[s] why” people would want a person with HIV-infection in the position. But, he said, “ultimately the test is whether one identifies with the risk groups” and that Barnes identifies “as more than just a Gay male.” Barnes also said he will not hesitate to push the AIDS com- munity’s agenda to the Clinton administration as well as Con- gress. Noting a handful of administration figures who have been a positive force in the fight against AIDS, Barnes said that list “doesn’t mean the administration has done everything we would have liked it to do.” “But a time of reformation gives us the opportunity to put forward our agenda to a new cast of characters,” said Barnes. “We've got to get the message out that AIDS is not over. AIDS has just begun in this country.”"W i x = a = x > 2