WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Association of People with AIDS ( NAPWA ) today announced the recipients of its 2010 Positive Leadership Awards. The Positive Leadership Award is NAPWA's highest recognition of service to people living with HIV and AIDS, honoring elected officials and advocates who have made major contributions to improving the lives of people living with HIV in the last year. We are pleased to announce that President Barack Obama is among the awardees. President Obama was chosen to receive the award in recognition of his unparalleled leadership in the United States Congress in support of comprehensive health care reform and contributions to ending the pandemic and human suffering caused by AIDS.

Also to receive the Positive Leadership Award for their leadership in Congress are Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Representatives Henry Waxman, Charles Rangel, and George Miller, and Senators Max Baucus and Tom Harkin.

Veteran HIV activists Randy Allgaier of San Francisco HIV Health Services Planning Council, Little Rock-based Diedra Levi, and the late Dennis deLeon ( posthumously ) will receive the Positive Leadership Award for their tireless advocacy for people living with HIV.

David Munar of AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Rebecca Haag of AIDS Action Council and AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Naina Khanna of WORLD ( Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease ) , and Chris Collins of amfAR will receive the Positive Leadership Award for their work as leaders of the Coalition for a National AIDS strategy.

Laura Hanen of the National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, Robert Greenwald and Dorothée Alsentzer of Harvard Law School's Legal Service Center, and Andrea Weddle and Kimberly Crumb of the HIV Medicine Association will receive the Positive Leadership Award as leaders of the HIV Health Care Access Working Group.

Positive Leadership Awards for 2010 will be presented Monday, April 26, at a reception for participants in NAPWA's annual AIDSWatch event and invited honorees and guests. The April 26-28 AIDS Watch event gives hundreds of persons living with HIV an opportunity to come to the nation's capital and advocate and educate members of Congress around issues of importance to the HIV community. The reception promises to be a major event, with elected officials and their staff, members of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, AIDSWatch attendees, and other major HIV advocates expected to attend.

Founded in 1983, NAPWA-US is the oldest coalition of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world as well as the oldest AIDS organization in the United States. NAPWA advocates on behalf of the one million people living with HIV and AIDS.

For more information on AIDSWatch and the 2010 Positive Leadership Awards, contact Peter Kronenberg, Senior Program Support Officer. For more information on NAPWA and to register for AIDSWatch, visit WWW.NAPWA.Org.