Clinton Names AIDS Policy Coordinator

President Clinton on Friday named Kristine M. Gebbie, a former nurse, state health administrator and member of government panels on AIDS prevention, as the nation’s first AIDS policy coordinator.

The action carried out his campaign pledge to create a top-level post to develop and coordinate an enhanced federal campaign to combat AIDS.

Gebbie “brings to the position a long history of working to implement positive health programs to combat the transmission of HIV and to serve the AIDS community,” said Daniel T. Bross, executive director of the AIDS Action Council, a coordinating group for organizations working on AIDS issues.

But Wayne Turner, who identified himself as a spokesman for the activist group ACT UP of Seattle, said his organization “is very fearful of her based on her record on AIDS in the Northwest, involving such issues as mandatory names-reporting and rationing of health care.”

The National Commission on AIDS, a government-sponsored body, is expected to issue a report next week underscoring failings in past efforts, but David Rogers, vice chairman of the commission, called the President’s choice of Gebbie “a fine appointment.”