Kenneth Cole Assumes amfAR Chairmanship

Kenneth Cole, chairman and ceo of Kenneth Cole Productions Inc. (New York) will become chairman of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). His first task as chairman will be to join amfAR in honoring outstanding contributions to the field of women and HIV/AIDS at a luncheon at the Time Inc. Conference Center, co-sponsored by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

At its annual World AIDS Day observance, amfAR will recognize individuals who have helped women fight HIV/AIDS through innovative research.

amfAR’s founding national chairman, Dr. Mathilde Krim, will join Cole and several honorees: Dr. Ruth Ruprecht, professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, credited with developing drug therapies to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV; Dr. Vickie Mays, clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, among the first to demonstrate that African-American and Latino women in the U.S. have disproportionately higher rates of HIV infection than white women; and Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Harlem Hospital and professor of clinical medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University, whose clinical expertise bridges her work with expectant mothers all over the world with her practice at Harlem Hospital.

Fashion designer and marketer Cole has been a member of amfAR’s board of directors since 1987 and has served as its vice chairman since 2002.