[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 125 (Wednesday, October 6, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    TRIBUTE TO SAN FRANCISCO AIDS FOUNDATION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PAT 
                                CHRISTEN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 5, 2004

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, tonight in my district, community leaders 
will gather to pay tribute to the work of Pat Christen, Executive 
Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation for the past 15 years. I 
want to join in expressing my admiration and gratitude for Pat's 
outstanding leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS in San Francisco, 
across America, and around the world.
  Pat has effectively and enthusiastically led the San Francisco AIDS 
Foundation through some of the most difficult times of the epidemic. 
She is the longest serving Executive Director of an AIDS service 
organization in the nation and has established a remarkable legacy.
  In 1988, after returning from Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer and 
volunteering with the Foundation's hotline, Pat was named the 
Foundation's first director of public policy. Within a year, she 
gathered colleagues from across the nation to address the growing 
crisis of caring for the thousands of people with AIDS who were 
critically ill and had no means of support.
  Those initial discussions laid the foundation for the Ryan White CARE 
Act. I was an original co-sponsor of that legislation, and joined 
Congressman Henry Waxman, Senator Edward Kennedy and many of our 
colleagues who worked with Pat and community leaders from across the 
country to ensure swift passage. The CARE Act has proven to be one of 
the most significant public health achievements of the Congress in the 
past 15 years. Declines in AIDS deaths are a direct result of the 
therapies and services that have been made more widely available 
through the CARE Act to large numbers of uninsured and under-insured 
people with HIV and AIDS.
  Pat's courage and competence later drew San Francisco to the 
forefront of the fight for effective needle exchange programs. When 
most leaders were intimidated by this innovative and controversial 
approach, Pat led the charge to city hall and Sacramento to put needle 
exchange in our HIV prevention strategy. Pat and others in San 
Francisco were also early to see that mobilization against this 
pandemic had to be international. She founded Pangaea, the global 
affiliate of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, to apply San 
Francisco's experience as a leader in the domestic fight against HIV/
AIDS to the global crisis. Through Pat's vision and leadership, Pangaea 
has brought hope and care to thousands of Africans facing HIV/ADS.
  I have been proud to work with Pat and the San Francisco ADS 
Foundation over the years to ensure that HIV/ADS care, treatment, 
prevention, and research initiatives, domestically and internationally 
receive the funding they need, and to improve and strengthen those 
programs as the epidemic evolves.
  Pat Christen's leadership at the Foundation may be coming to an end, 
but her legacy will live on as the fight to end AIDS continues. Her 
success reminds us what community leadership can do. It inspires us to 
not only work effectively at the local level, but also to take 
responsibility to make change at the national and global level. I know 
I join many in saying that the world is a better place because Pat 
Christen graced it with her leadership, vision, and integrity.

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