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Office of AIDS Research fills its director's chair
after a six-month search by Bob Roehr
r. Neal Nathanson has been
named director of the Office of
AIDS Research at the National
Institutes of Health. He thus
becomes the nation’s principal
overseer of all federal-government-sponsored
research pertaining to HIV and AIDS. He was
tapped May 15 to fill the post, which had been
vacant for nearly six
months.
“Dr. Nathanson brings a
powerful scientific intellect,
great compassion and long
administrative experience
to the task of leading the
NIH AIDS research pro
gram at this critical time,”
says Dr. Harold Varmus, the
NIH’s director.
The Office of AIDS
Research coordinates HIV
activities across institutes.
Its director reports directly
to Varmus.
Nathanson’s undergrad
uate and medical training
took place at Harvard
University, while his early career included stints
at the national Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and Johns Hopkins University.
For 15 years he chaired the Department of
Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania
Medical Center, and he served the last two as
vice dean for research and research training.
Nathanson is an acknowledged expert in the
epidemiology of polio and in the immune
responses that can lead to effective vaccines. His
experience with HIV is more limited but
D
includes NIH-sponsored research into the
mechanisms by which HIV causes disease.
He currently serves on the NIH AIDS
Vaccine Research Committee led by David
Baltimore.
Gregg Gonsalves is policy director of
Treatment Action Group, a New York-based
research advocacy think tank. He served on the
search committee that
recommended
hiring
Nathanson.
“His broad expertise on
viral diseases will serve him
well as the leader of the
U.S. research efforts on
AIDS,” says Gonsalves,
who is urging Nathanson to
“stand up and defend the
NIH AIDS research pro
grams against politically-
motivated
attacks
in
Congress.”
Philadelphia research
advocate Kiyoshi Kuromiya
has spent extended periods
of time at the University of
Pennsylvania
Medical
Center tending to friends. He has also served on
the Penn Consortium of HIV Clinicians and
Researchers. Kuromiya believes Nathanson was
chosen “for vaccine reasons.” (Last year,
President Clinton made a commitment to
develop an HIV vaccine within 10 years.)
Bill Snow, a vaccine advocate with ACT UP
Golden Gate, has worked with Nathanson on
the NIH AIDS Vaccine Research Committee.
He calls Nathanson “a sharp guy with a lot of
experience who is open-minded about things.”
"Dr. Nathanson brings a
powerful scientific intellect,
great compassion and long
administrative experience
to the task of leading the
NIH AIDS research program
at this critical time."
—National Institutes of Health
Director Dr. Harold Varmus
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SEC O verturns
‘C racker B arrel ’ R uling
other during his tenure on the commission,
which voted 4-0 to reverse the earlier ruling.
“It is a very bright day, a very exciting oppor
tunity,” says Diane Bratcher, co-chair of the
hareholders must be allowed to vote on
Wall
Street Project of the Community Lesbian
company employment policies that discrim
inate against gay men and lesbians—so says the and Gay Rights Institute of New York.
“With the repeal of ‘Cracker Barrel,’ now
Securities and Exchange Commission.
On May 20 the SEC reversed its controver shareholders can resume pressuring their com
sial 1992 decision that allowed management of panies for equal treatment for all of their
employees, including their lesbian and gay
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. to block
employees,” she says.
a shareholder vote on the employment policy.
Project participants have been leaders in this
The long-running saga began when Cheryl
Summerville, a cook for Cracker Barrel for four
fight. This fall, the Wall Street Project is going
to press forward with shareholder resolutions for
years, was fired after the company adopted a pol
about a dozen companies.
icy to terminate all employees “whose sexual
Shelley Alpem is a senior research analyst
preferences fail to demonstrate normal hetero
with Franklin Research and Development
sexual values.”
The state of Georgia, where Summerville Corp., a socially responsible investment firm
worked, does not have employment protections
that has been involved in this effort.
based on sexual orientation, but the incident
“Individuals can follow which companies are
sparked an organized effort to change the com getting proposals on this, and write letters and
pany policy with a stockholder resolution.
vote their proxies accordingly,” she says.
But Alpem cautions that getting support
Cracker Barrel management objected to the
from
many mainstream mutual funds will likely
resolution and was supported by the SEC. A fed
eral court in New York struck down the SEC rul
be an uphill battle.
ing, but an appeals court reversed that decision.
She says, “Management will often recom
mend against a proposal, and large institutional
Advocates for shareholder rights kept up the
pressure. Last fall, the SEC proposed changes
investors are generally reluctant to vote against
that would allow resolutions under what many
management.”
While the SEC decision gives the gay and
saw as a crippling set of conditions. That
brought only increased public furor.
lesbian community a tool to attack discrimina
"The public comment process yielded a lot of tion, it hands the same tool to all parties.
"We should be prepared for the anti-gay right
sentiment in favor of overturning it and we
heeded that call,” says SEC spokesman Chris
wing to use the same tactic, to try to disperse our
Ullman.
energies,” warns Alpem.
SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. confessed
the issue had “generated more passion” than any ■ Reported by B ob R oehr
S