Who We Are

Our mission

The American Sexual Health Association (ASHA) empowers individuals, families, and communities to achieve sexually healthy lives through education and advocacy.

Our Vision and Values

The American Sexual Health Association envisions a world where sexual and reproductive health and rights are universally recognized, and where comprehensive sexual health information and services are accessible and available to all, free from coercion, violence, and discrimination across the lifespan.

ASHA believes that all people have the right to the information and services that will help them to have optimum sexual health. We envision a time when stigma is no longer associated with sexual health and our nation is united in its belief that sexuality is a normal, healthy, and positive aspect of human life.

Our History

ASHA is America’s authority for sexual health information. We are an award-winning and trusted 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has advocated on behalf of those at risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) since 1914.

ASHA was founded as the American Social Hygiene Association in 1914 by a group of public health reformers committed to attacking an undesirable social condition–venereal disease, or VD–that they believed could be improved through medical and educational means. The shame and reluctance to talk about sexuality was now weakened enough so that the public was at least generally aware of the dangers posed by VD. This was the first social marketing effort to mix physical and moral fitness for prevention of VD.

ASHA Today

ASHA specializes in communications outreach to the public, patients, press, providers, and policy makers by developing and delivering sensitive health information.

Public and college health clinics across the United States order ASHA’s educational pamphlets and books to give to clients and students. Community-based organizations depend on ASHA, too, to help communicate about sexual health information.

To learn more about ASHA today, check out our What We Do page.

ASHA Financial Reports

Audited Financial Statements and IRS Form 990

Click Here

Board of Directors

Asa Radix, MD, PhD, MPH | Chair
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
New York, NY

Eric R. Wright, PhD | Immediate Past Chair
Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA

Missy Orr | Secretary/ Treasurer
PPD
Morrisville, NC

Noor Abualnadi, MD
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Chapel Hill, NC

Pedro Botti Carneiro
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
New York, NY

Eric Garges, MD, MPH
Uniformed Services University
Bethesda, MD

Michael Ross, MD, PhD, MPH, MHPEd, MSt
University of Minnesota Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Minneapolis, MN

Maria Trent, MD, MPH
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD

Keith Walsh
BioScience Communications
New York, NY

Lynn Barclay
President and CEO

ASHA Executive Staff

Since June of 2006, Lynn Barclay has led ASHA as its 10th President and CEO. Working with experts from around the country from academia, federal government, researchers as well as corporate America, Barclay has led ASHA in the development of the framework for sexual health. She frequently represents ASHA with the media, funders and colleague organizations and speaking about sexual health across the lifespan.

Lynn BarclayPresident and CEO

With more than 40 years of experience in social policy and health policy issues, Deborah Arrindell develops and implements short-term and long-term strategies to influence policies that impact sexual health, with an emphasis on enhancing awareness of the burden and impact of sexually transmitted infections on adolescents, women and people of color.

Deborah ArrindellVP, Health Policy