Francisco Ruiz

Francisco Ruiz, DrPH, MS, is a public health leader, strategist, and practitioner-scholar with more than two decades of experience advancing health equity through policy, systems transformation, and cross-sector collaboration. His career spans community-based organizations, national nonprofit organizations, federal government, and academia, giving him a unique perspective on how institutions, communities, and leaders can work together to improve health outcomes and create lasting systems change.

 

Throughout his career, Dr. Ruiz has worked at the intersection of public policy, organizational strategy, community engagement, and implementation. He has advised senior government officials, built national partnerships, convened diverse stakeholders, and led collaborative initiatives designed to strengthen public health systems and improve coordination across sectors. His work has consistently focused on translating complex policy into practical action while centering the voices and experiences of the communities most affected.

 

Dr. Ruiz previously served as Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, where he led implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and coordinated policy development across federal agencies. In this role, he advised senior White House leadership on legislative, regulatory, and budget priorities while strengthening collaboration among government, philanthropy, healthcare organizations, advocates, and community leaders. Prior to his White House appointment, he held senior leadership positions at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he helped shape national HIV prevention strategy, led strategic communications and partnership initiatives, and supported federal responses to public health emergencies, including COVID-19 and Zika. Earlier in his career, he advanced national health equity initiatives at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) and worked directly with state and local health departments, LGBTQ+ organizations, youth-serving organizations, and community-based programs in the United States and Latin America.

 

Dr. Ruiz earned his Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where his research examined how public health systems can better align funding, policy, and partnerships to improve health outcomes and advance equity. His scholarship reflects a broader interest in adaptive leadership, governance, and how mature public health systems evolve to address increasingly complex challenges.

 

Combining scholarly rigor with executive leadership and lived experience, Dr. Ruiz brings a perspective that bridges community leadership, policy, and systems change. He is the Founder and Principal of Adelante Strategy Group, where he partners with mission-driven organizations to strengthen leadership, align systems, and move strategy into action.

Fellowship Project: Four decades of scientific innovation, community leadership, and public investment have transformed HIV from a fatal diagnosis into a manageable chronic condition. Yet persistent disparities, shifting political and funding landscapes, and increasingly complex health and social needs require the response to evolve once again.

 

The project is grounded in the idea that the U.S. HIV response has evolved over two phases: HIV 1.0 built a movement and HIV 2.0 built systems. The project explores the next phase, HIV 3.0. It asks a simple but urgent question: What must evolve for the HIV response to continue progress over the next generation?

 

Through a series of policy salons and a comparative analysis of other mature public health responses and social movements, the project will develop the HIV 3.0 Strategic Framework – a practical roadmap, supported by implementation resources, to strengthen leadership, governance, collaboration, and community partnership across the U.S. HIV response.