Staff & Board of Directors

Dr. Melanie A. Thompson is founder and principal investigator of the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta (ARCA), one of the first non-profit community-based HIV/AIDS research centers in the United States and the primary resource for clinical research in Georgia. She is also a private practitioner in Atlanta and serves on the State of Georgia’s Task Force on AIDS. Dr. Thompson was recently appointed as a member of the National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council by Donna Shalala. In addition, she is a member of the steering committee for NIAID’s Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS (CPCRA).

Dr. Thompson is one of 13 members of the International AIDS Society USA’s Antiretroviral Therapy Guidelines Panel”. This panel has developed a set of recommendations for treatment that forms a basis on which antiretroviral treatment strategies can be made for patients with HIV/AIDS. The guidelines were initially published in the July 1996 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and were updated in its June 1997 issue. In addition, Dr. Thompson is one of 15 researchers in the United States to be named to the National Institutes of Health’s Office of AIDS Research “Panel to Define Principles of Therapy of HIV Infection”. This panel has also issued guidelines for medical doctors and their patients worldwide concerning the interpretation and application of new scientific advances in HIV pathogenesis and treatment.

Dr. Thompson has served as ARCA’s principal investigator for over 100 studies involving more than 9,000 patients. To date, ARCA’s studies have led to the FDA approval of 12 HIV/AIDS therapies.

Executive Director

T.E. Garner, Jr. brings to the Consortium over thirty years of healthcare management experience. Subsequent to receiving his graduate degree in health administration from Georgia State University, he spent fourteen years in Administration at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, moving to the position of Associate Executive Director. From Grady, he became the Executive Director at R. T. Jones Medical Center in Canton, GA. Mr. Garner was the C.O.O. of HMO Georgia, the wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, involved in its creation and moving it to profitability; HMO Georgia is now the largest managed care organization in the State. Subsequent to HMO Georgia, he was involved in creating two additional managed care organizations in the State and involved in the rehabilitation of another. From this he became CEO of Prime Living, Inc., which developed, owned and operated assisted living communities in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Colorado bringing health care services to the residents of these communities in addition to creating networks of health providers for the residents of independent living, senior communities linking the providers and the residents via telemedicine systems. Also, Mr. Garner has served on the State Health Planning Council and in various voluntary positions with the Georgia Hospital Association.

ARCA Board of Directors 2003