Biography of Director Joseph O’Neill

In July 2002, President Bush appointed Joseph O’Neill, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., to serve as the Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. Dr. O’Neill, who is also a member of the White House Domestic Policy Council, leads an expanded AIDS office that is responsible for both domestic and international HIV/AIDS issues. The Office of National AIDS Policy also serves as the Executive Secretariat for the President's Cabinet Task Force on HIV/AIDS, which is co-chaired by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. Prior to his appointment, Dr. O’Neill served as Acting Director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In this role, he was responsible for coordination of policy and management of the entire HHS HIV/AIDS portfolio.

From 1997 to the end of 2001, Dr. O’Neill served as Associate Administrator for HIV/AIDS in the Health Resources and Services Administration’s HIV/AIDS Bureau. In this capacity, he directed the national Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act program that provides medical care and treatment, social services and pharmaceuticals to people living with HIV/AIDS throughout the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories. He oversaw an annual budget of $1.7 billion and a staff that served more than 500,000 people a year.

Dr. O’Neill leads national health policies regarding HIV/AIDS care and treatment, health care financing and access for medically underserved populations, as well as the care and treatment components of several international HIV/AIDS efforts. He is an internationally recognized expert in clinical care, palliative care and symptom management for people living with HIV/AIDS. In addition, he serves on a number of advisory boards including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Promoting Excellence in End of Life Care program, and the Brazilian Association for Palliative Care.

Dr. O’Neill holds a faculty appointment at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and maintains a clinical practice in the Johns Hopkins Hospital HIV/AIDS Program. Before joining HRSA, he was on the medical staff of the Chase Brexton Clinic, a community-based AIDS clinic in Baltimore.

A graduate of the School of Medicine of the University of California at San Francisco, Dr. O’Neill also holds degrees in business administration, public health, health and medical sciences from the University of California at Berkeley. He is board certified in internal medicine.