A Race Worth Running: John Peller’s Path from Advocate to CEO

John Peller, MPP’00, set off on a run and ran right into destiny.

Peller, president and CEO of AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC), wanted to complete the 2003 Chicago Marathon, so joined AFC’s endurance training and fundraising program (now called Team to End AIDS). During those training runs Peller learned about AFC and its groundbreaking work to improve the lives of people with HIV and AIDS. 

“I thought, ‘Wow, this organization is kind of badass. I would love to work there,’” Peller said. He talked to the then-CEO, was hired as AFC’s lobbyist in 2005, and “20 years later, here I am leading the organization.”

Peller and AFC are also leading the conversation in Illinois about how to end the HIV epidemic here. He is credited with launching Getting to Zero Illinois, an initiative that he co-leads and that aims to get that done by 2030.

For his work at AFC, and at the stops before, including the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center and the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, Peller was honored with the Harris School of Public Policy 2025 Career Achievement Award. The award, delivered at a May 2 ceremony, honors an alumnus who “has served as a significant leader in the public, private, or nonprofit sector, creating meaningful positive change within their institution and society.”

“It's amazing to be recognized by my peers, who have also been through the Harris program and know its rigor and what it means to have the Harris degree conferred on you,” Peller said. “It’s a fantastic recognition of my career and impact not just in Chicago, but nationally on the public policy space.”

With an annual budget of nearly $40 million and a staff of about 180, AFC each year delivers services to about 8,000 people living with HIV and AIDS.

Ending the HIV epidemic in Illinois is one of AFC's two primary purposes; the other is ending homelessness for Illinoisans living with HIV. Both goals are achievable, said Peller, who is  “incredibly proud” that the nonprofit provides housing to more than 1,100 people living with HIV. Such housing, and the care services bundled with it, he added, “are truly life-changing for people living with HIV.” 

“We have very solid data to prove that when someone living with HIV gets the needed support to connect with medical care and stay housed, their markers of health improve dramatically,” Peller said. “Ultimately, that's cost savings to the public systems and the taxpayer, but most importantly also lifesaving to the individual who is living with HIV and can live their life and thrive.”

More than 40 years after the HIV/AIDS epidemic began, it remains a major global health issue. In 2022, nearly 43,000 people in Illinois were living with HIV, according to AFC data. That number worldwide is estimated at nearly 40 million.

“As a gay man, I of course knew that the HIV epidemic was a major health issue,” Peller said. “And the HIV epidemic comes with such challenging and infuriating paradoxes.”

“There are medications that are available and are amazing, but many of the people who need them the most aren't taking them. Why?” Peller said. “And what about these incredible disparities that we're seeing? Black and Latinx people, transgender people, gay men …  those are the populations most impacted by HIV. And at the same time, those are some of our most marginalized populations.”

Peller leads AFC during a dramatic change in policy at the federal level. The presidential administration has, for example, cancelled scores of grants, including for research on how to prevent new HIV infections, under the National Institutes of Health. 

The AFC is part of a lawsuit, joined by the National Urban League and the National Fair Housing Alliance, suing the Trump administration following three executive orders which could, they argue, cause them to lose federal funding. The AFC, and the other plaintiffs, ask that the court allow them to “continue their important, urgent, and mission-driven work of supporting and providing services to the marginalized and underserved communities” most affected by the orders.

“We sued because we cannot be prevented from talking about the impact of the HIV epidemic on transgender people, or other populations heavily impacted by HIV,” Peller said. “Racial health equity is the biggest single challenge that we face in the HIV epidemic. For example, there are eight times more Black men who are diagnosed with HIV than white gay men and six times more Latinx men than white men.”

Peller, originally a New Yorker, said he arrived at Harris as he sought to take his policy skills “to that next level.” He got his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins, where he studied history and political science.

“I knew that you're so likely to end up staying in the place you go for grad school,” Peller added. “And Chicago has such a rich policy environment, with so many opportunities — and so many challenges to solve with the public policy lens. What more fascinating place could there be to get involved in the world of politics and policy?”

While sure about Harris, Peller was not quite as sure about where his career journey would take him when left Harris with his MPP in 2000. Was leadership his destiny? 

As he looked back during a recent interview, he talked about how at Harris, students are “really primed for leadership.” 

“That Harris ethos is, ‘you're getting this great training, you're getting this incredible education, now, go out into the world and lead the change that you want to see,’” he said.

“So, yes, leadership really has been a goal of my career and absolutely a goal I see among my Harris peers, no matter what path they've taken.”

Whether at the local level or at the national level, Peller is bringing his leadership to bear with his work at AFC – and his Harris education, including the analytical tools he now uses to see and understand the world, have led to better care, housing, and understanding for those with HIV or AIDS.