Jim Kim for Obama Administration-GlobalHealth Coordinator

I got the following through the grapevine, and I'd highly encourage everyone with an interest in addressing international health issues from a rights-based perspective and from the primary care level to sign the petition!


Dear all,

Around the globe, treatable illnesses like malaria, tuberculosis, and pneumonia each claim millions of lives every year. In deciding who will coordinate global health policy in the White House, President Obama has the opportunity to drastically change this reality. Click HERE to sign a letter a group of Obama campaign staff and global health advocates recently drafted.

We are trying to encourage President Obama and Secretary Clinton to consider appointing Harvard professor and Partners in Health co-founder Jim Kim to
coordinate White House global health policy. The letter outlines some of his qualifications, and for more you can check out his profile from TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2006 here.

Obama has many people to choose from, but among the leading candidates only Dr. Kim really knows how to reform foreign assistance so that, for instance, we spend more foreign assistance buying medicine for poor people rather than luxury accommodations for expatriate consultants. As in health care and energy, this is a policy area full of special interests and competing claims on limited resources. We need someone who will constantly fight alongside Obama to save lives and promote real development in the poorest parts of the planet. It's one more case of change versus more of the same, and we want to ensure that the pick is in line with Obama's vision for global health (see The Audacity of Hope, pages 317-320).

Our goal is to gather as many signatures as possible in the next day or two. We already have 740 names, but we should be able to clear 1,000 easily. We will send this out to members of Obama's foreign policy team, as well as some media sources to demonstrate the breadth of support for Dr. Kim.

If you agree with the letter, please add your name and any relevant organizational affiliations. Then, please invite anyone you know to add their names as well by forwarding this e-mail. If you have any questions, please shoot me an e-mail. Thank you so much for your help in this.

Sincerely,

Luke Messac
Campaign for Change Field Organizer, Georgia & Ohio;
Student Global AIDS Campaign
lukemessac (at) gmail (dot) com