D.C. AIDS director resigns

UPDATED: After working to turn around a District agency that one city official described as “dysfunctional bordering on comical” before her arrival, Shannon L. Hader abruptly resigned as director of the HIV/AIDS Administration, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced.

Hader’s resignation is effective July 15, days after she is scheduled to return from personal leave to undergo unspecified surgery. The administration’s chief medical officer, Nnemdi Kamanu Elias, will serve as interim director, Fenty said. Hader’s three-year stint made her the longest-serving director in almost a decade, as other leaders came and went amid criticism for poor management and incompetence.

Original post:

Shannon Hader, director of the city's HIV/AIDS Administration, is expected to resign Tuesday, three years after taking over a beleaguered agency she is credited with turning around.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty called a 3 p.m. news conference to "make an announcement about leadership in the Department of Health."

Hader has been credited with improving the city's response to the epidemic. Under her leadership, D.C. last year produced its first-ever report documenting that 3 percent of the population had been tested and was known to have HIV/AIDS. That percentage was among the highest the nation, and Hader drew criticism by comparing the size of the epidemic to parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Critics say that before Hader took over, the administration was mired in dysfunction as directors rotated in and out of the leadership for a decade. Health care activists routinely gave the city low marks for its response to the crisis before Hader's arrival. After her arrival, the marks improved.

-- Darryl D. Fears