Chris Collins

Chris Collins is president and CEO of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He leads the organization’s efforts to engage U.S. decision makers on the lifesaving work of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the importance of expanding global health investment to bring these epidemics to an end and advance global health equity.

At Friends, Chris has played a central role in two major global health financing wins: in 2019, achieving the first increase in U.S. support to the Global Fund in six years in the face of opposition from the presidential administration; and, in 2021, approval of $3.5 billion in emergency COVID-19 funding for the Global Fund, the largest ever single U.S. appropriation to the organization. He also helped secure U.S. hosting of the 7th Replenishment of the Global Fund and the largest pledge to the organization in history.

Previously, as chief of the community mobilization division at UNAIDS, Chris helped make the case for investment in civil society as an essential part of the AIDS response. As vice president and director of public policy at amfAR, Chris defended global AIDS research and program funding and worked to advance domestic HIV policy and global key populations programming.

Chris authored the monograph that inspired the effort to create the first comprehensive US National HIV/AIDS Strategy, then coordinated the successful advocacy push to establish the Strategy, leading to important policy reforms. He helped develop and managed the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) Missing the Target series of reports on global HIV treatment scale up which received international attention. Chris co-founded and served as executive director at AVAC, an internationally recognized HIV research and prevention advocacy group.

As appropriations staff to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the late 1990s, Chris designed the first legislation to provide incentives for development and delivery of vaccines against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, a bill that helped advance the global dialogue on tackling major infectious diseases. He holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

A close-upu image of a nine-year-old boy's hands holding antiretroviral (ARV) pills prescribed for HIV infection at Nkosi's Haven, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Governance

Why Global Health Remains Bipartisan

by Chris Collins

It has proven to be "a good investment with astonishing results in saving lives"

Going out in a storm is a tough choice. Here a woman braves a sandstorm in Timbuktu, Mali, on July 29, 2013. Far worse is the decision many face today whether to brave COVID-19 for other health care. The photo shows a woman with a baby on her back walking through a desert. The wind is blowing strongly, as evidenced by the billowing cloth on their heads. REUTERS/Joe Penney
Aging

Mothers, Children, and the Terrible Choice Between COVID-19 and Other Infections

by Chip Lyons, Chris Collins

Decisive action is required now to protect the most vulnerable from HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during the pandemic

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks in Cape Town, South Africa on Feb 11, 2020 from the balcony where, 30 years before, Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after his release from prison. The images shows the president standing next to a life-sized statue of Nelson Mandela. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham
Poverty

Remembering America’s Global Connections in the Time of Coronavirus

by Sten H. Vermund, Chris Collins

Famous singer and social activist Bono attends a Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee hearing on foreign assistance in Washington D.C. on April 12, 2016. The photo shows Bono at a long table with several rows of chairs behind him. The chairs are filled with people who appear to be laughing. The REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
Governance

How to Tackle Global Problems in an Age of Populism

by Chris Collins, Mark P. Lagon

Appetites for investment do exist today to define achievable goals, apply effective tools, and solve global challenges