Deborah Birx, former COVID response coordinator for the White House, joins the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas

Deborah Birx, who served as COVID’s response coordinator at the White House under former President Donald Trump, is joining the Dallas-based George W. Bush Institute as a senior member, the organization announced on Friday.

At the Institute, Birx will contribute to policy initiatives to better prepare the country for another pandemic. This is one of her most recent moves after she was criticized by many as an apologist for Trump’s widely criticized response to the coronavirus. She retired from the White House task force during the transition to President Joe Biden’s administration.

Birx spent four decades as a public health officer, with much of her career focused on fighting the HIV and AIDS epidemic, including overseeing the implementation of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program created by Bush. She had previously worked with the institute on her “Go Beyond” initiative to reduce cervical cancer among women with HIV living in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The President and Mrs. Bush witnessed the impact of the global HIV / AIDS epidemic 20 years ago and responded by founding the Global Fund and PEPFAR,” said Birx in a press release. “They believed that the crisis could be faced with people, funding and compassion for others. We can do the same today, facing pandemics with empathy and unity in action ”.

Holly Kuzmich, the Institute’s executive director, called Birx “an exemplary public servant and renowned specialist in the medical field” in a press release.

“We are grateful that she brought her experience, her commitment to saving lives, her compassionate heart and her brilliant mind to the Bush Institute,” said Kuzmich.

Birx will also join Dallas-based air purifier manufacturer ActivePure Technologies as a medical and scientific consultant, according to Reuters, and she was appointed to serve as an independent director of Innoviva Inc., a health-oriented asset management company based in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Business Times.

Birx was a colonel in the U.S. Army and previously served as an ambassador as the U.S.’s global AIDS coordinator before being placed nationally as the White House’s COVID response coordinator under Trump.

She described the behind-the-scenes experience of working at the Trump White House during the pandemic in an interview with CBS News’ Face the Nation, noting the rare use of masks in the White House and cases in which he saw Trump presenting graphs and data that she had not done.

“I’m not looking to be justified,” said Birx in the interview.

Although Birx originally won favor with the former president – and criticism from Democrats – for publicly supporting Trump’s efforts at the start of the pandemic, she opposed him when he later asked the country to reopen as his presidential campaign began to accelerate. in the summer. She said she always considered giving up that position.

“I understood that going to the White House and trying to support a comprehensive response to coronavirus using the strength of the federal government would be a terminal event for my federal career, which is part of the reason I didn’t want to do that,” said Birx in the interview. .