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National
Black Leadership Commission on AIDS
Debra Fraser-Howze is the President
Emerita
of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS
(NBLCA), which she founded in 1987. Under the leadership
of Ms. Fraser-Howze, the NBLCA has grown to become the
oldest and largest Black HIV/AIDS non-profit
organization of its kind in America.
In June
1995, Ms. Fraser-Howze was appointed by then President Bill
Clinton to his Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
(PACHA). The Council’s mission is to provide advice,
information and recommendations to the President
regarding programs and policies to promote effective
prevention of HIV, advance research on HIV
and AIDS, and promote quality services to persons living
with HIV and AIDS. The 30-member Council is
the first national body established to advise an
American President on this
issue. Ms. Fraser-Howze’s tenure on the PACHA ended on
July 31, 2001.
Prior to her founding presidency at the
NBLCA, Ms. Fraser-Howze served as the Director of Teenage
Services at the New York Urban League, specializing in
teenage pregnancy. During her tenure, she increased the
agency’s annual program portfolio for youth and families
at-risk by $5 million. The programs she developed and
implemented sent hundreds of young people back to work
or school and taught them to become responsible parents
and productive members of society. Ms. Fraser-Howze was
also a Legislative Assistant to The Honorable Charles B.
Rangel (D-NY), United States Member of Congress, from
1983-1984 while a National Urban League Fellow assigned
to Washington, D.C.
Ms. Fraser-Howze has been
recognized for more than two decades of local, national,
and international leadership to communities of color
regarding teenage pregnancy, social welfare, and HIV and
AIDS. Through her advocacy, African-Americans and other
people of color have gained greater inclusion in local
and national policy, planning, research, and clinical
trials. Her ability to develop solutions and build
effective coalitions to address major issues effecting
communities of African descent have been recognized
worldwide. Her counsel has been sought by governments
from around the globe, including Barbados, Bermuda,
Gabon, Jamaica, and Uganda.
She was the Vice
Chair of the HIV Human Services Planning Council during
the administration of New York City’s first
African-American Mayor, David N. Dinkins, and chaired
the National Institute of Health’s Public Education
Technology Committee.
Ms. Fraser-Howze is the proud mother of
four children and grandmother of two.
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Mission
