Jirair Ratevosian

Jirair Ratevosian (born 1980) is an American policy advisor specializing in global health and human rights who served as the acting chief of staff to the United States Global AIDS Coordinator from 2022 to 2023. Ratevosian was previously a legislative director to U.S. representative Barbara Lee.

Jirair Ratevosian
Born	1980 (age 44–45) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	University of California, Los Angeles (BA) Boston University (MPH) Johns Hopkins University (DPH)
Political party	Democratic
Website	jirairforca.com

Early life

Ratevosian was born in 1980 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, to a Lebanese mother and Armenian father.^[1] His mother was born and raised in Lebanon until immigrating to the United States in 1976 due to the Lebanese Civil War.^[2] Ratevosian's father was born in Siberia as a result of his paternal grandfather being sent there due to his anti-communist activism in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.^[2] He was named after his paternal grandfather, Jirair, who was a shoe cobbler, community organizer, and small business owner.^[1][3] His parents met in Hollywood.^[2] His mother worked at McDonald's and his father was a banker.^[2]

Ratevosian was raised in Sun Valley, Los Angeles.^[1][4] At 15 years old, he started his first job scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robbins.^[3] He earned a bachelor's degree in physiology and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2003.^[1][2][5] Ratevosian completed a two-year medical postbaccalaureate program through University of California, San Francisco.^[2] Influenced by a 2004 trip to South Africa where he witnessed the HIV/AIDS epidemic, he decided to pursue public health. In 2007, he completed a M.P.H. at the Boston University School of Public Health.^[1][6]

Career

Following his graduation from Boston University, Ratevosian worked with the Boston Public Health Commission on HIV funding.^[6] He worked as a national field organizer for the health action AIDS campaign of the Physicians for Human Rights.^[6] He later became the deputy director of public policy of amfAR and worked on its syringe access programs.^[6]

In May 2011, Ratevosian joined the office of U.S. representative Barbara Lee as a legislative director.^[2][6] He led budget, appropriations, and the reauthorization of President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2013.^[7] In August 2014, Ratevosian joined Gilead Sciences as its government affairs director.^[2][6] He led corporate social responsibility and partnership relations.^[7]

During the presidential transition of Joe Biden, Ratevosian served as a policy advisor on national security, COVID-19, and global health.^[7][3] In August 2021, he joined the Office of the United States Global AIDS Coordinator (S/GAC) as a senior advisor for health equity policy.^[7][8] In 2022, he became the acting chief of staff to the Global AIDS Coordinator John Nkengasong.^[7] In that role, Ratevosian assisted Nkengasong with strategic planning, hiring, policy development, and other front office management issues.^[7] He departed PEPFAR in early 2023.^[8] In 2023, Ratevosian earned a DrPH with a concentration in public healthy policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.^[3]

Ratevosian was a Democratic candidate in the 2024 California's 30th congressional district election.^[9] He has noted that some in Los Angeles' Armenian community were unhappy about his being an openly gay Armenian. Ultimately, he finished 9th out of 15 candidates in the primary election.^[10]

Ratevosian has denounced Donald Trump's cuts to PEPFAR, noting that "Any prolonged pause in funding could disrupt H.I.V. treatment programs, leading to treatment interruptions, rise of drug-resistant H.I.V."^[11]

Ratevosian serves on the board of directors for AIDS United,^[12] Equality California^[13] and PrEP4All.^[14]

Political positions

Ratevosian has proposed an American Dream Act which contains aspects of Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and canceling student debt. He has also promised that 25% of all his earmark requests as a Member of Congress will go towards affordable housing.^[15]

Israel-Palestine

He supports the Ceasefire Now movement and has drawn parallels to his own lived experience as an Armenian American. ^[16]

LGBTQ+ rights

Ratevosian considers himself a progressive. He is pro-LGBTQ+ and has proposed a Gay Agenda for Congress to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals.^[17]

In a 2024 op-ed cowritten with Laura Friedman, Ratevosian noted that "LGBTQI individuals who also belong to ethnic minority communities, such as Black, Latino, Asian, or Armenian, face disproportionate systemic injustices. They often find themselves at the crossroads of multiple forms of discrimination."^[18]

Personal life

Ratevosian came out as gay in 2014.^[2] In January 2020, he met Micheal Ighodaro, the director of global Policy advocacy at the Prevention Access Campaign.^[2] Ighodaro is a gay Nigerian from Benin City who was granted asylum.^[2][5] They married on October 9, 2023 in a ceremony at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Manhattan.^[5] As of 2023^[update], Ratevosian resides in Burbank, California.^[2]