Lance Toma, the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center's deputy director, has been named the agency's new executive director.

The API Wellness Center's board officially announced Thursday, November 30 that it had selected Toma, who is openly gay, after conducting a national search to fill the position being vacated by John Manzon-Santos, who led the agency for 10 years. Toma, whose annual salary is $97,000, started in his new role on November 8. The agency delayed announcement of the hiring so as not to overshadow a send-off party for Manzon-Santos and fundraiser it held on November 18.

Toma, 38, first joined the center in 1999 as its director of programs and was promoted to deputy director in 2002. Prior to his move to San Francisco, Toma directed programs for the LGBT community in Chicago. He has served on the board of directors of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition.

"His background in clinical health, combined with his national leadership position within Asian Pacific communities, will allow us to meet the emerging challenges of the next decade," said Board of Directors Chair Jan Masaoka in a statement.

In the statement, Toma said, "As our organization enters its third decade, we must remain relevant and persist in fighting HIV-related stigma by engaging the youth and elders in our community."

In a phone interview, Toma said his focus in his new job will be divided between the agency's work in the Bay Area and nationally. The impact of AIDS on the API community is on the rise nationally but locally seems to be on the decline, mirroring other drops in the rate of HIV infection the city has seen over the last year.

According to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February, APIs had the greatest increase in HIV diagnosis rates between 2001 and 2004, with an increase of 8.1 percent among men and 14.3 percent among women. In San Francisco, the AIDS incidence rate among APIs is so low they are not listed as a separate category in the 2005 annual HIV/AIDS report, and are instead lumped in to the "other" category, which is shown on a declining trend since 2003.

As for persons living with AIDS, APIs have held steady at 4 percent since 2002 except for a bump up to 5 percent in 2004. Four years ago, 506 APIs in San Francisco had AIDS, in 2005 the number had gone up to 657.

"A few years ago we were seeing a spike. Most recently we are seeing some decrease. We are trying to wrap our collective data sets around that," said Toma. "We continue to see risk-taking for our high-risk communities. What we are really trying to do locally is ensure we have the easiest access to HIV testing for all APIs and really addressing HIV-related stigma that goes beyond the highest risk communities."

Toma will oversee an expanding agency that has not only taken a larger role nationally but in the Bay Area. API Wellness Center is now working in Alameda, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties.

"We are going beyond HIV and focusing on the intersection of HIV, hepatitis and substance abuse prevention throughout the Bay Area," he said.