U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby “was named to lead a new Office of Global Health Diplomacy on Friday, the State Department said,” the New York Times reports, noting, “Goosby will continue to head PEPFAR” (McNeil, 12/15). “The Global Health Diplomacy office was announced last July as the successor to President Obama’s Global Health Initiative,” the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog writes. “Goosby will be joined in creating the Global Health Diplomacy office by Leslie Rowe, previously U.S. ambassador to Mozambique, who will be in charge of its day to day operations,” the blog notes (Barton, 12/14).

“The new office will provide guidance to U.S. ambassadors to more effectively support countries, to strengthen the sustainability of health programs and to continue to promote a vision for shared responsibility and global solidarity,” according to a UNAIDS press release (12/14). “The task of the Office of Global Health Diplomacy is to guide diplomatic efforts to advance the United States’ global health mission to improve and save lives and foster sustainability through a shared global responsibility,” Goosby writes in the State Department’s “DipNote” blog. “The new office will bring the full force of U.S. diplomacy to advancing our global health goals,” he writes and discusses the specific goals (12/14). “Also on Friday, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, created a post in her department, assistant secretary for global affairs, and appointed Dr. Nils Daulaire to it,” the New York Times notes (12/15).