President & CEO
CARE USA
Helene Gayle joined the Rockefeller Foundation board of trustees in 2009.
Since 2006, Dr. Gayle has been president and CEO of CARE USA, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty by empowering women. In more than 70 countries, CARE works with communities to improve health, education and economic development. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives.
Dr. Gayle spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), focused primarily on combating HIV/AIDS, in a variety of roles involving research, programs and policy. She was named the first director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention and achieved the rank of Rear Admiral and Assistant Surgeon General in the U.S. Public Health Service. On assignment from the CDC, Dr. Gayle also served as the AIDS coordinator and chief of the HIV/AIDS division for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
She then directed the HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she was responsible for programs related to HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, reproductive health issues and tuberculosis.
Dr. Gayle has been appointed by the Obama Administration to serve as chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, and on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. She was named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers, Newsweek’s top 10 “Women in Leadership” and the Wall Street Journal’s “50 Women to Watch.” Dr. Gayle has published numerous scientific articles and has been featured in media outlets as diverse as The New York Times, Washington Post, ForbesWoman, Glamour, O magazine, Ebony, Essence, the Financial Times, National Public Radio and CNN.
A Buffalo, New York native, she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Barnard College, an MD from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University. She is board certified in pediatrics, completing a residency in pediatric medicine at the Children’s Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Dr. Gayle has worked extensively in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Her contributions have been honored with awards from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Spelman College, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health and the U.S. Public Health Service, among others. She has received 10 honorary degrees and holds faculty appointments at the University of Washington School of Public Health, the Emory University School of Medicine, and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.
Dr. Gayle serves on several boards, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, ONE, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Institute of Medicine. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bretton Woods Committee and the American Public Health Association.