Deborah Parham Hopson was appointed associate administrator for HIV/AIDS in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on July 29, 2002.

HRSA works to fill in the health care gaps for people who live outside the economic and medical mainstream. The agency uses its $7 billion annual budget (FY 2007) to expand access to quality health care for all Americans through an array of grants to state and local governments, health care providers and health professions training programs.

As associate administrator for HRSA's HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB), Parham Hopson is responsible for managing the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 (Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program). The $2 billion program funds medical care, treatment, referrals and support services for uninsured and underserved people living with HIV disease as well as training for health care professionals. Grantees funded by the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program provide services to more than 530,000 people every year. In addition, as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Parham Hopson directs a multi-million dollar global HIV/AIDS program with training, care and treatment activities in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Parham Hopson served as acting associate administrator of the HIV/AIDS Bureau between January 2002 and her permanent appointment and as the bureau's deputy associate administrator for two years prior to that.

Parham Hopson holds the rank of assistant surgeon general and rear admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS), entering the Corps in 1984 with HRSA's Bureau of Community Health Services. She completed a variety of assignments in the HIV/AIDS Bureau, served as deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Surgeon General, and worked as a public health and budget analyst and chief nurse for the National Health Service Corps and other Bureau of Primary Health Care programs.

Prior to her USPHS career, Parham Hopson was a White House Intern, a Presidential Management Intern, and a research associate at the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine. Her clinical practice was in neonatal intensive care nursing.

She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the USPHS Meritorious Service Medal and Chief Nurse Officer Award, the Black Commissioned Officers' Hildrus A. Poindexter Award, the DHHS Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Exceptional Service Medal.

Parham Hopson received her undergraduate degree in nursing and health from the University of Cincinnati and her master of science and doctor of philosophy degrees in health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health.

Go to: Key Staff Directory | HRSA | HHS