ASHA Yesterday and Today

Donate today and support our programs


Organizations don’t get to be around for almost 100 years by doing a bad job. ASHA and our achievements are recognized by some of the world’s largest companies and governmental agencies as well as small companies and local governments, and many in between.

Our mission

The American Sexual Health Association promotes the sexual health of individuals, families and communities by advocating sound policies and practices and educating the public, professionals and policy makers, in order to foster healthy sexual behaviors and relationships and prevent adverse health outcomes.

ASHA's 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.

An early ASHA supporter was Thomas N. Hepburn, M.D., who joined after attending to a young woman who had died of acute gonorrheal peritonitis just months after her marriage to a man whose friends had put him to bed with a prostitute at his bachelor party. Additional founders include Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus, Harvard University, Jane Addams, Hull House, Chicago, Martha P. Falconer, a pioneering social worker, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and William F. Snow, M.D., Stanford University professor.


ASHA Milestones

1914 American Social Hygiene Association was founded.
1920s John D. Rockefeller, Jr. commits funds to support ASHA's mission.
1927 ASHA establishes the Valentine’s Day Committee to promote sexual responsibility.
1937 1937 ASHA collaborates with the Federal Council of Churches and the National Congress of Parents and Teachers to promote sex education programs. ASHA also establishes the Nation’s first Social Hygiene Day.
1940 ASHA, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the military agree to coordinate efforts to control venereal diseases in the event of war.
1945 Boxer Joe Louis joins ASHA for a major public awareness campaign.
1954 ASHA begins to monitor rates of venereal disease by collecting data that was then analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "Today's VD Control Problem" published by ASHA until 1975. ASHA testifies before Congress, as it continues to do today, to urge adequate federal appropriations for VD control.
1959 ASHA changes its name to the American Social Health Association.
1970s Dramatic rise in sexually transmitted infection rates because of international travel, the sexual revolution, gay liberation and increasing drug use. Scientists recognizing more and more sexually transmitted pathogens. Genital herpes, human Papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B identified.
1973 ASHA launches its first modern public awareness campaign, VD is for Everybody
1979 ASHA creates the National Herpes Resource Center, which includes the National Herpes Hotline.
1986 ASHA opens National AIDS Hotline, the largest health-related hotline in the world.
1998 ASHA establishes the National STD Action Plan, the HPV and Cervical Cancer Prevention Resource Center, and Stop the Spread of Herpes Campaign.
1999 ASHA opens the National HPV and Cervical Cancer Prevention Resource Center with hotline.
2012 ASHA changes its name to the American Sexual Health Association.

We have a long history of delivering the facts, the support, and the resources to answer your questions, find referrals, join support groups, and get access to in-depth information about sexually transmitted infections and sexual health. You can be assured that the information you find on this website is based upon well-researched and documented medical facts.

ASHA Today

Our services as well as our clients provide us the opportunity to make a difference in the health, economic standards and quality of life of people and communities nationwide.

ASHA specializes in communications outreach to the public, patients, press, providers, and policy makers by developing and delivering sensitive health information through many vehicles such as our websites, ashastd.orgiwannaknow.org (for teens and young adults) and quierosaber.org (in Spanish).

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.

Our staff are amazingly diverse in background and in skills. We can get a project off the ground quickly giving clients needed results. Our goal is to help you succeed by making sure you have professionals who are dedicated to meeting your needs and the skills to make that happen. Our charge is to satisfy our clients by building trust, emphasizing quality and the continuous pursuit of excellence.

ASHA has a solid 97-year history of financial stability and integrity. We have exceptional past performance records with our clients, and we are constantly striving to achieve 100% customer satisfaction ratings.

All of this is achieved while maintaining our commitment to our ethical principals and the highest quality performance.

Many times our clients need the small business structure alongside the skills that ASHA brings. To meet those client needs, we formed a for profit, Empatha, which is wholly owned by the nonprofit parent, ASHA. All proceeds from Empatha go to support the work of ASHA.

Empatha has supported organizations in the public, private, academic, and non-governmental sectors with a variety of services. Our client list includes:

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • National Institutes of Health
  • University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill
  • Research Triangle Institute
  • U.S. Department of Education
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • United Way of North Carolina