FHI President Receives Award -- July 29, 2003

Research Triangle Park, NC — The American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association (ASTDA) has presented Dr. Willard Cates, Jr. — president of Family Health International's (FHI's) Institute for Family Health — with the 2003 Thomas Parran Award for distinguished contributions to the field of sexually transmitted disease (STD) control. This is the association's highest honor.

"Dr. Cates personifies the type of individual whom we wish to honor with the Thomas Parran Award," says Dr. Jonathan Zenilman, president of ASTDA, who presented the award on July 29, 2003, at the 15^th Biennial Congress of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research in Ottawa, Canada. "He has devoted more than 25 years in his career to the development of reproductive health and the prevention of genital tract infections, has been an incredible leader, and has also been a mentor, as evidenced by the large number of his former students, employees, and fellows who have achieved positions of leadership in the STD communities."

Dr. Cates is most highly esteemed for creating links between the field of reproductive health and the field of STDs, which includes sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. Like physician and former U.S. Surgeon General Thomas Parran, Jr., for whom the award was named, Dr. Cates has broken new ground in public health. In the 1930s, Dr. Parran was one of the first to make the study and even the public mention of STDs acceptable. Decades later, Dr. Cates was one of the first to begin weaving reproductive health research and programming into the context of STDs.

With early roots in reproductive health, Dr. Cates worked for nearly a decade as an epidemiology expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He was chief of CDC's Abortion Surveillance Branch in the Family Planning and Evaluation Division from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. Appointed to the Division of STD/HIV Prevention in 1982, just one year after AIDS had been recognized in the United States, he was thrust into a new environment in which he thrived, serving as division director for the next nine years.

"When he moved to the STD division from the reproductive health division, he brought with him a perspective that people who have grown up only in STDs did not have," says Dr. Sheila Lukehart, vice president of ASTDA and chair of the three-member committee that selected Dr. Cates as this year's award recipient.

Originally a group focused primarily on syphilis and gonorrhea, the STD division grew extensively under Dr. Cates' leadership. Among his many accomplishments there, Dr. Cates was pivotal in establishing a program to prevent infertility related to chlamydia and in developing guidelines for addressing pelvic inflammatory disease, antimicrobial-resistant gonorrhea, syphilis in HIV-positive individuals, and voluntary HIV counseling and testing. While the AIDS epidemic was evolving, he also guided the development of the HIV prevention program in this country.

"Dr. Cates played a major role in laying the foundation for HIV prevention activities, including the scale-up of voluntary counseling and testing, in the United States," says Gary West, senior vice president of FHI's Institute for Family Health and former colleague of Dr. Cates at CDC. "These programs have been very successful in providing services to millions of Americans, have made substantial contributions to containing the epidemic, and have created many innovative program models that other countries have studied and adapted."

After a 20-year career at CDC, in 1995 Dr. Cates joined FHI. Familiar with the organization's strong international research and services in HIV/AIDS and family planning, Dr. Cates worked to further expand HIV prevention efforts into family planning and other reproductive health services.

One of his most significant accomplishments at FHI came under his management of the HIV Prevention Trials Network, a project established by the National Institutes of Health's Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In 1999, the network published a groundbreaking study demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of the antiretroviral nevirapine for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Dr. Cates worked with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation to quickly launch a "Call to Action" to support implementation of the study finding in programs offering a full range of antenatal and postnatal services. This finding created a standard for preventing mother-to-child transmission in many parts of the developing world.

As this year's Thomas Parran Award recipient, Dr. Cates joins 29 other distinguished public health professionals who have received the award, including 1983 recipient Dr. King K. Holmes, currently director of the Center for AIDS and STD at the University of Washington, and formerly a board member at FHI.

"Dr. Cates brought a background of excellence in reproductive health and epidemiology to the STD program at CDC, and transformed it into a more comprehensive, scientifically rigorous program. His transition from domestic focus at CDC to FHI has been seamless, as his enthusiasm, energies, and honesty seem uniquely suited to the daunting international needs in reproductive health and HIV/AIDS," says Dr. Holmes. "He has become a national and international treasure in these fields."

ASTDA is an organization devoted to supporting the control and eradication of STDs through research, information dissemination, and recognizing outstanding contributions to the field. In addition to the Thomas Parran Award, an Achievement Award and a Young Investigators Award are presented each year to an individual in mid-career and an individual within five years of completing postdoctoral training, respectively, who have made a significant contribution to STD control. Dr. Laura A. Koutsky received the 2003 Achievement Award and Dr. Caroline E. Cameron the 2003 Young Investigators Award. Both are from the University of Washington.

FHI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving lives, knowledge, and understanding worldwide through a highly diversified program of research, education, and services in family health and HIV/AIDS prevention and care. Since its inception in 1971, FHI has formed partnerships with national governments and local communities in countries throughout the developing world to support lasting improvements in the health of individuals and the effectiveness of entire health systems. 

On the Internet

American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association: http://depts.washington.edu/astda/about/