American Social Health Association

The American Social Health Association (ASHA) is an American non-profit organization established early 20th century, and currently active on issues concerning sexually transmitted diseases.

History
ASHA's roots stretch back to the Progressive-era social purity movement. In 1911 two major purity organizations the American Purity Alliance and the American Vigilance Committee joined to form the American Vigilance Association. Groups that were more medically-oriented elected in 1910 Prince A. Morrow as president of the American Federation for Sex Hygiene. After Morrow's death in 1913 both organizations (and tendencies) merged to form the American Social Hygiene Association, which was renamed in 1914 to the American Social Health Association.

Initial influential figures:


 * John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (initial financial contributor)
 * Charles William Eliot (president of Harvard University)
 * Jane Addams (Chicago's Hull House)
 * William Snow (Stanford University professor and secretary of the California State Board of Health)
 * Thomas Hepburn (leader of the Connecticut social hygiene movement)
 * David Starr Jordan (chancellor of Stanford University)
 * James Cardinal Gibbons (Baltimore, philanthropist)