December 13, 2024
In remembrance of A. Cornelius Baker — a pioneering HIV/AIDS advocate and LGBTQ+ civil rights leader — Jeffrey S. Crowley, Lawrence O. Gostin, Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin, and Matthew M. Kavanagh from the O’Neill Institute share this tribute.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
We join with many people in the United States and around the world to mourn the passing of A. Cornelius Baker.
Cornelius had a large personality and made a large impact on the world as a person living with HIV who played numerous roles in advocacy, HIV services delivery, and governmental policymaking. He is a prior executive director of Whitman Walker Clinic (now Whitman Walker Health) in Washington, D.C., the region’s largest provider of HIV and LGBTQ health services. He first served as an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, as confidential special assistant to HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan. During the Obama Administration, he served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), and across the last few administrations he served as a senior policy advisor to successive Ambassadors charged with leading the U.S. global AIDS program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and also the Director of the Office for AIDS Research (OAR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
From Jeffrey S. Crowley, director of the Center for HIV and Infectious Disease Policy
“For me, Cornelius was more than a colleague, he was a mentor and dear friend,” said Jeffrey S. Crowley, director of the Center for HIV and Infectious Disease Policy. “I met Cornelius thirty years ago when he was the Policy Director of the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA). I started as his intern working on health reform when President Clinton was trying to enact reform in 1993-1994. This led to me being hired as an assistant to the Executive Director. Within two years, Cornelius assumed the role of Executive Director and I became Deputy Executive Director for Programs, where I functioned much like the Chief Operating Officer. I always tell people how much I learned from him. We fought all the time and I learned to be comfortable with conflict and it was never personal. We would debate the best policies for the community and how to meet the organization’s needs. And many evenings, we would end the day with cocktails at the St. Regis Hotel and I would hear his raucous laugh. It was there in 1995 when we launched the National HIV Testing Day campaign. At a time before we had effective treatment, this was a hopeful message from people with HIV that the benefits of diagnosis outweighed the burdens of stigma and discrimination. We held an annual Staying Alive Conference bringing together people with HIV from across the country, and we worked with Jeanne White Ginder to hold the Ryan White National Youth Conference over several years for young people with HIV and those working in HIV prevention. Cornelius’ vision was a critical part of all of these activities.
Fast forward to 2024. While we had stayed close friends, we had not formally worked together. He approached me to discuss a convening on U.S. progress toward the domestic 2030 Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) goals and the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goals. This led to a series of three convenings in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta and we ultimately produced a series of briefs called, HIV at an Inflection Point. We recognize that despite consistent public and political support for HIV, continued support is at risk. We need to refocus the public on the progress we have made and the risk of increased cases of HIV and worse outcomes in the U.S. and globally if the U.S. and global community retrench from the domestic and global HIV commitments. This was a special collaboration, and it reflected a shared concern that sustaining the HIV response requires new approaches and re-invigorated leadership.
Thank you for your love, your commitment to people with HIV, your commitment to mentoring young Black gay men, your support Black people and LGBTQ+ people, and for bringing so much laughter with you everywhere you went. Rest in Power, Cornelius.”
From Lawrence O.Gostin, O’Neill Institute Faculty Co-Director, Co-faculty director of the O’Neill Institute, and founding O’Neill chair in global health law
O’Neill Institute Faculty Co-faculty Director Professor Lawrence O. Gostin has known Cornelius from the earliest days of the epidemic. “Cornelius and I first met at the beginning of the AIDS Pandemic, as we served together on multiple NIH and CDC advisory committees to develop strategies for the pandemic response. His early passing makes me heartbroken. This was a man not only of enormous intellect and passion for health and justice. He was also a person with such a big heart, and his compassion and generosity showed through. In 1997, at a moment of great peril for stigmatization and discrimination against persons living with HIV, we wrote a New England Journal of Medicine article on National HIV Reporting, that became a standard for policy and practice. Cornelius showed vision and courage in joining me because, at the time, the HIV community was fighting the idea of named HIV reporting. He recounted to me just recently at the O’Neill Colloquium how much pushback he received from his friends. And the last time I saw him was just weeks ago when he came to my Festschrift at Georgetown Law. His loss is unimaginable.
From Michele Bratcher Goodwin, O’Neill Institute Faculty Co-Director and Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy
“Cornelius Baker was an indefatigable and undefeated changemaker. He rose to prominence during a time in which tremendous suffering occurred and governments turned their backs or were slow to respond, including in the United States. He shed light not only on the tragedy of HIV/AIDS, but also what could be done about it from an inclusive lens. He recognized that the fight was not only to combat the virus but also heal across the United States and world. Cornelius realized that policy and even medicine could go only so far. To truly heal meant reaching hearts and minds. His was a journey that made—indeed demanded—space for voices and experiences that traditionally had been excluded. This was not easy given the depth of stigmatization targeting gay men of color. However, he was successful across multiple presidential administrations and throughout communities that came to see him as the champion he truly was. Cornelius truly was the hero that did not wear a cape. We honor and celebrate his important legacy. May the torch that lit his path cast a light for all who work for health justice.”
From Matthew M. Kavanagh, director of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics
Matthew M. Kavanagh, director of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, first met Cornelius when he moved to Washington, D.C., and Cornelius was serving as the executive director of the Whitman Walker Clinic. “Cornelius was a fierce, brilliant, and creative warrior against the HIV virus and the racial and economic justice that drove it. From helping so many people access care in D.C. to pushing the U.S. government to do ever more for the people made most vulnerable around the world, Cornelius’s impact on the world can be measured in the many people alive today because of his work. In the years ahead, I hope we can live up to the example he set in demanding justice and also for spreading joy.”