Helene D. Gayle

Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of CARE USA, a leading

international humanitarian organization with approximately 10,000 staff

whose poverty fighting programs reached 122 million people last year in

84 countries. Since joining CARE in 2006, Dr. Gayle has led efforts to

reinforce CARE’s commitment to empowering girls and women to bring

lasting change to poor communities. Under her leadership, CARE has

strengthened its focus on long term impact, increased policy and advocacy

efforts and deepened connections between poverty and the environment.

Gayle has leveraged the power of CARE’s corporate and NGO partners to

significantly expand CARE’s reach across the globe.

An expert on health, global development and humanitarian issues, she spent 20 years with the

Centers for Disease Control (CDC), focused primarily on combating HIV/AIDS. She was

appointed as 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. Dr. Gayle also served as the AIDS coordinator and chief of the HIV/AIDS division for

the U.S. Agency for International Development. Dr. Gayle then directed the HIV, TB and

Reproductive Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, directing programs on

HIV/AIDS and other global health issues.

Dr. Gayle serves on several boards, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies,

the Rockefeller Foundation, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Harvard Business School Social

Enterprise Initiative, and ONE. In addition, she currently serves on the President's Commission

on White House Fellowships and the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Public Health Association,

the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Named one of Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women,” Foreign Policy magazine's "Top 100

Global Thinkers," and Newsweek's top 10 "Women in Leadership," she has been featured by

media outlets as diverse as the New York Times, Washington Post, ForbesWoman, Glamour, O

Magazine, National Public Radio, CNN and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Dr. Gayle was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. She earned a B.A. in psychology at Barnard

College, an M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University.

She is board certified in pediatrics.

Her contributions have been honored with awards from Columbia University, Barnard College,

Spelman College, Bryn Mawr College, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, the U.S.

Public Health Service and AARP, among others. She has received numerous honorary degrees

and holds faculty appointments at the University of Washington and Emory University.