Jack Whitescarver retired as NIH Associate Director for AIDS Research and Director of the Office of AIDS Research (OAR), a component of the office of the director of NIH. He had served in the OAR since its establishment in 1988, first as deputy director, and as director from 2002 to 2015. He was the longest-serving director of the office. The OAR under his leadership played a unique role in using its authority to plan, budget, and coordinate the trans-NIH AIDS research program supported by all of the NIH institutes and centers. During his tenure, the OAR launched innovative international and domestic initiatives including projects to address HIV in minority communities. With Nobel laureate Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, he served as Co-Chair of the International AIDS Society (IAS) “Towards an HIV Cure” Initiative Advisory Board and as a founding member of the HIV Cure Public-Private Partnership Initiative Governing Board. He was awarded the first IAS Presidential Award for his “outstanding commitment to the global fight against HIV and his pioneering work in the field.”

From 1977 until l984, he served as the Special Assistant to the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. During that time he helped develop the initial federal response for research on AIDS. From 1984 to 1988, he held the positions of Associate Dean for Research Development and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Emory University School of Medicine. He received his doctorate in medical microbiology from the Rutgers University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and pursued his postdoctoral research at the Harvard School of Public Health.