History

Today’s Global Strategies was born in the 2014 merger of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention and the International Pediatric Outreach Project. Its history goes back decades.

founders

Arthur Ammann & Theodore Ruel

Arthur Ammann, MD
Founder
Dr. Arthur Ammann’s career has spanned many fields including physician, researcher, activist, artist, philanthropist and clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.

Early in his 40-year medical career, Dr. Ammann discovered several new diseases and performed the clinical trials that resulted in FDA approval of the first pneumococcal vaccine which prevented bacterial pneumonia and meningitis. That discovery has saved millions of lives, especially of children and the elderly.

In 1982, Dr. Ammann described two of the three ways that HIV is transmitted, including the first cases of transmission of AIDS from mother to infant and the first blood transfusion associated with AIDS patients.

Dr. Ammann has been featured in media outlets from Time Magazine to Frontline. He has authored over 450 scientific papers and book chapters. In addition to delivering national lectures and courses on immunology and HIV/AIDS, Dr. Ammann has taught in Africa, Asia, and South America. He has served with many organizations including the National Institutes of Health Advisory Committees, Congressional Testimony on AIDS and children, AIDS Planning Committee of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Ammann has received honors from more than 60 national and international organizations including the U.S. Surgeon General Award for Research, the U.S. Public Health Service Fellowship Award and the Heroes in Medicine Award by the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care.

He holds a BS in biology from Wheaton College and an MD from New Jersey College of Medicine. Dr. Ammann completed his residency at UCSF and a fellowship in immunology at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and the University of Wisconsin Medical Center.

View Dr. Ammann’s publications
Founder
Dr. Ruel has devoted his career to the study of infectious disease in children and to the improvement of child health in limited-resource settings. Dr. Ruel completed his undergraduate study at Dartmouth College and received his medical doctorate from the Yale University School of Medicine.

During pediatric residency training at UCSF, Dr. Ruel co-founded a nonprofit organization with Dr. Sadath Sayeed (International Pediatric Outreach Project) in partnership with providers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and India to improve pediatric healthcare. As the activities of his nonprofit organization grew, Dr. Ruel became increasingly interested in the care of HIV-infected children.

After serving as chief resident of pediatrics at San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. Ruel went on to complete the HIV Clinical Scholar’s program in 2005 and then to pursue a pediatric infectious disease fellowship at UCSF. In that time, he built interest and skills in clinical research through collaboration with Ugandan colleagues, working on studies that investigated interactions between HIV and malaria in children. He joined the faculty at UCSF in 2009 as an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Disease and in the Department of Pediatrics at San Francisco General Hospital.

Dr. Ruel is committed to expanding and optimizing the care of HIV-infected children in Africa through both the collaborative translational research he performs in Uganda and the training and material support provided by his nonprofit organization. In addition, he is committed to delivering high-quality clinical care to pediatric infectious disease patients at UCSF.

Dr. Ruel attends on the inpatient consult service and in the outpatient clinic of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. He also serves as a hospitalist and infectious disease consultant in the Department of Pediatrics at San Francisco General Hospital, where his research team is based. Dr. Ruel is also committed to mentoring medical students and residents with interests in global health and international research.

View Dr. Ruel’s publications
Timeline
  • 1982
    Dr. Arthur J. Ammann, while caring for infants with a new immunodeficiency disease that the world would come to know as AIDS, describes two of the three ways that HIV is transmitted. This discovery would be a critical first step in understanding how children get HIV and most importantly, would lead scientists to discover how to prevent the transmission of the virus.
  • 1999
    Dr. Ammann founds Global Strategies for HIV Prevention to address the inequity of HIV prevention services provided around the world.
  • 2002
    Dr. Theodore Ruel founds the International Pediatric Outreach Project (IPOP) to improve the health of children in under-resourced communities across the globe.
  • 2000s
    Global Strategies for HIV Prevention co-initiates model HIV programs and trainings with implementing partners in the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Liberia. In addition, Global Strategies for HIV Prevention engages American communities through Hope Walks events to rally support for programs addressing the health and educational needs of orphans and vulnerable children in seven different countries.
    IPOP establishes hospital newborn care projects, rehabilitation initiatives, and mentorships and scholarships for healthcare professionals in low-resource settings. In many instances, the groups team up to care for individual children. This partnership leads to a greater understanding of the complex problems that affect our implementing partners.
  • 2014
    Global Strategies for HIV Prevention and IPOP merge and form Global Strategies.
It is uncommon for two non-profit organizations to merge. It is even more rare to find two organizations so committed to the same purpose.
Dr. Joshua Bress, President Global Strategies

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