David Ernesto Munar

Appointed president/CEO in February 2011, David Ernesto Munar brings to his work more than two decades of accomplishments fighting HIV/AIDS.

Munar has worked at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) since 1991. He most recently served as the organization’s Vice President, with oversight and management of a $16 million portfolio of care, prevention, and policy programs and services. Throughout his career, Mr. Munar has worked in collaboration with colleagues locally and nationally to nurture innovative responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Under Munar’s leadership, AFC collaborated with CHAMP and SisterLove to develop the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance, which advocates for cross‐disciplinary responses to the social and structural factors fueling the spread of HIV. In 2007, Mr. Munar helped launch the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy, which lead to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy unveiled by President Obama in July 2010.

He has a long track record championing voluntary HIV testing expansion efforts that meet the highest standards of quality and patient protections. He collaborated with colleagues at Lambda Legal and the Center for HIV Law and Policy to develop Guiding Principles for HIV Testing Expansion, endorsed by more than 75 organizations across the country. He was one of three community advocates (and only 1 of 2 openly HIV‐positive speakers) invited to address the nearly 300 researchers and clinicians assembled for the 2006 Summit on Improving HIV Diagnosis, Prevention, and Access to Care. Clinical Infectious Diseases featured his analysis in a supplemental issue published in 2007.

To spur AIDS advocacy across the Midwest, Munar worked with colleagues at the Minnesota AIDS Project to launch AFC’s Midwest AIDS Policy Alliance, which is currently comprised of 15 partner organizations in 12 states. Working with the Southern REACH Initiative and the Treatment Access Expansion Project, Munar provides policy technical assistance to organizations across the southeastern U.S.

Mr. Munar has served on numerous advisory boards for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources Services Administration, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He has served on the governing boards of the Association of Latino Men in Action, Communities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief Coalition, the Harm Reduction Coalition, National Association of People with AIDS, and AIDS Action Council, where he chaired the Policy Committee from 2008-2010. He currently serves on the Illinois AIDS Drug Assistance Program Advisory Board, the Illinois Intergovernmental HIV/AIDS Task Force, and Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative’s Board of Directors.

At the 2010 International AIDS Conference, Mr. Munar represented the U.S. on a regional panel for Canada and the United States. He was a plenary speaker at the 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference, the 2009 Creating Change National Conference on LGBT Equality, the Global AIDS Alliance’s 2008 National Democratic Convention gathering, and co‐moderated with Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D‐CA) a session at the 2008 International AIDS Conference.

His original commentary and analysis has appeared on such media outlets as the Huffington Post, AIDS2008.com, PreventionJustice.com, POZ, LifeLube.org, RHRealityCheck.org, Windy City Times, Positively Aware, and the Chicago Free Press. He has been interviewed by CNN, CNN en Español, Telemundo Chicago, USA Today, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, XM Radio, HIV Plus, POZ Magazine, AIDS.gov, Housing Works Update, The Advocate, Washington Blade, Southern Voice, Bilerico Project, and others.

In 2010, the International AIDS Society selected Munar to serve on the 2012 International AIDS Conference Coordinating Committee, POZ Magazine named him one of its 100 most influential AIDS advocates, and Mayor Richard M. Daley inducted him into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

Beyond his professional experience, Munar draws on his perspectives as a bilingual Colombian‐American and gay man living with HIV. He is an avid runner and graduate of Northwestern University.

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