Washington Post Profiles CARE Head Helene Gayle

The Washington Post on Saturday profiled Helene Gayle, head of the nongovernmental organization CARE, which operates on a $545 million budget in 71 countries with 13,000 employees. Twenty-five years "after the emergence of AIDS," Gayle, a pediatrician and epidemiologist, has "cemented her place in an elite class of international decision makers who are shaping what the next quarter-century of the disease might look like," according to the Post. Having held major roles at CDC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and now CARE , Gayle is described as "a force of nature," by Aparajita Ramakrishnan of Avahan, a program launched by Gayle while at the Gates Foundation. While she's known for her reliance on research and numbers, Gayle told the Post, "We need the evidence, but we also ought to do the right thing. Sometimes we do things because we just know it's the right thing to do." Gayle in an interview said that she would not rule out returning to a role in government, adding that although CARE provides "in some ways my dream job," if a government post were offered to her, she would "have to weigh that seriously." Others speculate that Gayle might one day head UNAIDS, according to the Post (Roig-Franzia, Washington Post, 8/9).