Public health expert named AIDS adviser

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama selected a health policy expert to be the country's top AIDS adviser.

Jeffrey S. Crowley, a senior research scholar at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute will coordinate the federal government's efforts on HIV-AIDS policy as the director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, the White House said in a news release.

He also will help guide the administration's development of disability policies, the White House said.

"Jeffrey Crowley brings the experience and expertise that will help our nation address the ongoing HIV-AIDS crisis and help my administration develop policies that will serve Americans with disabilities," Obama said when announcing his selection Thursday. "In both of these key areas, we continue to face serious challenges and we must take bold steps to meet them."

Crowley spent 14 years working to improve access to health and social services for people with human immunodeficiency virus -- the cause of AIDS -- people with physical and mental disabilities, low-income individuals and others, the White House said.