Jesse Milan, Jr., JD, is President & CEO of AIDS United, a leading national organization to end the HIV epidemic in the United States. He leads a team of public health professionals in strategic grantmaking, capacity building and technical assistance, and policy and advocacy with Congress and the Administration. Over the years, AIDS United has granted over $120 million, and its current grantees and Public Policy Council member organizations number over 250 in 40 states and territories. During his long career, Milan has directed multi-million-dollar budgets and programs for public health agencies including CDC, HRSA, NIH, SAMHSA, USDA, and the WHO and leading foundation and corporate funders including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Ford Foundation, Gilead Sciences. ViiV, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck. Milan currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for PEPFAR and the Infectious Disease Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is an officer of the board of directors of Funders Concerned About AIDS and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and on the board of AVAC (AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition). In 2007 he was designated a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Global HIV/AIDS and conducted three speaking tours as an American HIV expert to seven African nations on behalf of the U.S. State Department. He has addressed millions nationally and globally with passion and knowledge as a keynote speaker and subject matter expert. A lawyer and trusted advisor, Milan chaired for five years the CDC/HRSA Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention and Treatment, was named chair emeritus of the board of the Black AIDS Institute, and is past president of the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition. Milan is former AIDS Director for the City of Philadelphia, was a Deputy City Solicitor for Philadelphia, and served six years as chief of staff to the president of Temple University. He is a graduate of Princeton University and the NYU School of Law and holds an honorary Doctorate in Human Letters from Virginia Theological Seminary. He’s received numerous awards for his HIV work, including from the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, the American Bar Association, and the HRSA for “leading the national and international fight against HIV disease.” Milan has been living with HIV for nearly four decades.
