An open letter from your AIDS 2020 Conference Coordinating Committee

We are proud of the communities we are – people living with HIV; men who have sex with men, transgender people, and other LGBTQI people; racial and ethnic minorities, indigenous people, immigrants and refugees; sex workers and people who inject drugs. We are scientists, clinicians and community advocates. We represent an international community, a United States and other countries around the globe that are resisting divisive politics and united in this historic and collective fight to end the HIV epidemic. Read the full letter here.

Conference Coordinating Committee

Co-Chairs

AIDS 2020 International Chair
Anton Pozniak, United Kingdom
Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust
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AIDS 2020 Local Co-chair, Oakland
Cynthia Carey-Grant, United States
formerly Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Diseases
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AIDS 2020 Local Co-chair, San Francisco
Monica Gandhi, United States
University of California, San Francisco
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IAS Representatives

IAS President-Elect
Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Malaysia
University of Malaya
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IAS Regional Representative
Marina Klein, Canada
McGill University Health Care
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IAS Executive Director
Kevin Osborne, Switzerland
International AIDS Society
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UN Joint Programme Representatives

UN Joint Programme
Andrew Ball
World Health Organization
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UN Joint Programme
Mandeep Dhaliwal
United Nations Development Programme
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UN Joint Programme
Morten Ussing
The United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS
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Civil Society Partners

Erika Castellanos, The Netherlands
Global Action for Trans Equality
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Jessica Whitbread, Canada
International Community of Women with HIV/AIDS (ICW)
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Mary Ann Torres, Canada
International Council of AIDS Service Organizations
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Trevor Stratton, Canada
International Indigenous HIV and AIDS Community
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Local and Regional Partners

Local Scientific Partner
Judith Auerbach, United States
University of California, San Francisco
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Regional Scientific Partner
Chris Beyrer, United States
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
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Local Community Partner
Joe Hollendoner, United States
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
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Regional Community Partner
Kathie Hiers, United States
AIDS Alabama
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Local Leadership Partner
Hyman Maurice Scott, United States
San Francisco Department of Public Health
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Regional Leadership Partner
Bruce Richman, United States
Prevention Access Campaign
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Programme Committee Co-Chairs

Local/Regional CLPC Co-Chair
Carole Treston, United States
Association of Nurses in AIDS Care
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International CLPC Co-Chair
Phylesha Brown-Acton, New Zealand
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Leadership Co-Chair
Sophie Dilmitis, Zimbabwe
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Local/Regional SPC Co-Chair
Steffanie Strathdee, United States
University of California, San Diego
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International SPC Co-Chair
Annette Sohn, Thailand
TREAT Asia/amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research
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IAS SPC Co-Chair
Beatriz Grinsztejn, Brazil
Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Disease – Oswaldo Cruz Foundation
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Youth Representative

Manuel Venegas, United States
University of Washington
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Community and Leadership Programme Committee (CLPC)

Co-Chairs

Carole TrestonCarole Treston has been Executive Director of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) since 2017. ANAC supports development, engagement and leadership of nurses in HIV related issues. In Philadelphia in 1988, she co-developed one of the first comprehensive family-centred HIV/AIDS programmes in the US, which led to development of the Ryan White Title IV/Part D programmes. A registered nurse, Carole has served as study nurse/coordinator on numerous NIAID and NICHD protocols, including the PACTG076 study, the initial PMTCT effort. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Director of Operations for the PACTG/IMPAACT Group, where she contributed to expansion of clinical research sites in South Africa, Thailand and Zimbabwe, and facilitated collaboration with the Adolescent Trials Network. More recently, Carole was Executive Director of AIDS Alliance for Children Youth and Families, a policy and advocacy organization; here, she was principal investigator on CDC, HRSA and HVTN/NVREI projects focused on community education and involvement in health literacy and engagement. She has a Master’s in public health/health policy from Columbia University and is certified through the HIV/AIDS Nursing Certification Board. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and an appointed member of the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board.

Phylesha Brown-Acton,Phylesha Brown-Acton is a trans and community activist who has served LGBTQI and Pasifika communities for over 25 years, in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and the Pacific region. She is the founder and Director of F’INE Pasifika Aotearoa, which provides navigation support services to Pasifika LGBTQI peoples and their families in Auckland. Phylesha plays key roles in global leadership and governance and is a Harvard Business School graduate in Global Women’s Leadership. Phylesha’s governance roles consist of being a board member of ICASO, Auckland Pride Festival and Indigenous Maori & Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation. She is also the Co-Chairperson of the Asia Pacific Transgender Network.

Sophie Dilmitis,Sophie Dilmitis has lived with HIV for 25 years, and her work in HIV, grounded in human rights, has extended beyond founding an NGO in Zimbabwe to regional and international levels. In 2001, Sophie founded the youth-led Choose Life. She developed a comprehensive sexuality education and HIV training programme, implemented in 30 schools and reaching over 7,000 young people. Regionally, Sophie trained young people living with HIV to facilitate workshops on stigma and disclosure and built capacity to deliver prevention programmes. From 2006 to 2011, Sophie worked for the World YWCA and developed and implemented its global strategy on SRHR and HIV. Since 2012, her work has focused on the rights of women living with HIV and how funding supports progress toward gender equality. Sophie is the Global Coordinator for Women4GlobalFund, uniting diverse women’s rights advocates, women living with HIV and women directly affected by TB and malaria to advance gender equality through the Global Fund.

Members

Andrea WeddleAndrea Weddle, MSW, is the Executive Director of the HIV Medicine Association, which provides a professional home and advocacy voice within the Infectious Diseases Society of America for HIV medical providers and researchers who practice primarily in the US. In this position, she oversees the association’s education, membership and policy and advocacy activities. She has extensive experience in healthcare financing with a focus on Medicaid, the Ryan White HIV Program and the Affordable Care Act. Andrea has a Master’s in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Professional Writer’s Certificate from Georgetown University’s Professional Development Program.

Duane Morrisseau-BeckDuane Morrisseau-Beck brings his background in health, social policy, programme development and human rights  to the fight against the HIV/AIDS fight epidemic. As a Métis citizen living with HIV for 27 years, Duane has been involved in HIV education, policy, programme and advocacy initiatives for Indigenous peoples in Canada. In 2016, Duane received the HIV Exceptional Leadership Award for his dedication, passion, leadership and commitment to the Indigenous AIDS movement in Canada. On the international front, Duane became the first Métis citizen to be part of the Indigenous Fellowship Programme offered by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. Duane is the past President of the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy.

Ken MorrisonKen Morrison is an HIV advocate and policy expert, who also has worked extensively at the community level to understand and address social capital, stigma and discrimination. He has over 30 years of experience in international public health. He is a Senior Fellow at Iris Group and part-time professor at the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico. During 10 years at Futures Group (now Palladium), Ken served on the leadership team for USAID flagship health policy projects. He has also worked extensively in organizing HIV-related international and regional conferences. As a consultant working on gender equality and social inclusion, HIV, policy and advocacy and improved service delivery for key populations, he works globally and provides STTA in fluent English, French and Spanish. His expertise includes strategic planning, evidence-based policy development, translating research to programming, combination prevention, M&E, health and human rights, building social capital in marginalized communities and cultural responses to AIDS.

Marsha JonesMarsha Jones, a Texas native, is co-founder and Executive Director of The Afiya Center. She holds Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and is a graduate of the Black AIDS Institute’s African American HIV University (Science and Community Mobilizing Fellowship Program) and Tyndale Theology School. Marsha has served on various boards and capacities in service to and honour of black women. She is a national grassroots organizer, community mobilizer, professional speaker and health educator with a commitment to transforming women and girls’ lives. She is pledged to the development of leadership and engagement of activism among women by challenging harmful systemic and political constructs to advance the economic, health and safety of women and girls.

Midnight PoonkasetwattanaMidnight Poonkasetwattana has been Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) since 2011. With many years of experience in multi-sectorial partnerships with governments, donors and the United Nations, Midnight particularly enjoys working with community groups and civil society organizations to build their capacity to better promote the rights of gender and sexual minorities. His work as APCOM’s Executive Director has been globally recognized through various awards and honours, such as the Mark King’s MyFabulousDisease.com’s 16 HIV Advocates to Watch in 2016 and the “IAPAC 150” Pioneers in AIDS Response. Midnight is also a member of various advisory and steering committees, including the global IDAHOT committee, an international advisory group member on the Dignity Network, and a civil society International Steering Committee member of the Robert Carr Civil Society Networks Fund. Previously, Midnight worked for Purple Sky Network, where he engaged with men who have sex with men and transgender communities in the Greater Mekong areas. He previously supported the implementation of HIV and human rights programmes in various countries throughout Asia and Eastern Europe as part of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. Midnight completed his Masters in globalization and development in 2009 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Rosemary MburuRosemary Mburu, MPH, has been a champion for healthy communities for more than 15 years and currently serves as the Executive Director for WACI Health. A civil society leader, Ms Mburu’s contribution to building spaces that facilitate African civil society’s engagement and participation in global health include the Civil Society Platform on Health in Africa, Global Fund Advocates Network Africa Hub and Africa Free of New HIV Infections. She works to create political will towards improved health outcomes for all in Africa by engaging with governments and key multilateral and bilateral institutions, such as WHO, the Global Fund, UNAIDS, the Stop TB Partnership and the World Bank. She has served on governing structures of the UHC2030 Steering Committee and UNITAID Communities Advisory Group. She holds a Master in Public Health (Ohio University), a Master in Business Administration (Frostburg State University, Maryland) and a Bachelor of Education (Kenyatta University, Kenya).

Sudha BalakrishnanSudha is a physician and public health professional from India with over 20 years of experience in the development sector at the country, regional and global level. She has managed large and diverse public health portfolios, convened strategic partnerships and lead several projects and programmes in emergency health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS. She has been with UNICEF for thirteen years and is currently part of the global team reshaping UNICEF’s adolescent HIV strategy for programming at scale, with efficiency and equity, harnessing new technologies, products, solutions and novel analytics. She is passionate about combining youth power with the force of digital technologies to transform the way we work with and for adolescents and young people.

Tim SladdenTim Sladden is a technical advisor with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). He has an MPH and has worked as researcher, epidemiologist and disease prevention expert in the UK, Australia, the Pacific and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. His work within UNFPA covers support for key and other vulnerable populations, co-leading the Interagency Working Group on SRHR/HIV Linkages (to strengthen linkages between HIV and broader SRHR programmes) and the Interagency Working Group on HIV and Key Populations (to coordinate community-led programmes with and for key populations). His work focuses on developing human rights-based, people-centred services and community empowerment for reducing risk of HIV infection.

Scientific Programme Committee

Co-Chairs

Annette SohnDr Annette Sohn is a paediatric infectious diseases physician and the Director of TREAT Asia, a programme of amfAR in Bangkok, Thailand. She oversees the implementation of TREAT Asia’s portfolio of HIV research, education and training, as well as community advocacy and policy activities. Research is conducted in collaboration with a regional network of adult and paediatric clinical sites in 14 countries and territories that are part of the International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) Cohort Consortium. Her own research focuses on long-term treatment outcomes of children and adolescents, and transitions from paediatric to adult HIV care. She is a member of the World Health Organization’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee on HIV and Viral Hepatitis and Global Validation Advisory Committee on Elimination of Mother-to-Child transmission of HIV and Syphilis. She is also a member of the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the International AIDS Society.

Beatriz GrinsztejnBeatriz Grinsztejn is an infectious diseases physician and researcher at the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases-Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the Director of the STD/AIDS Clinical Research Laboratory and principal investigator of the FIOCRUZ HIV Prevention and Therapeutic Clinical Trials Unit at FIOCRUZ. The unit is affiliated to the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the ANRS, and implements prevention and therapeutic clinical trials and cohort studies. Dr Grinsztejn is the Brazilian principal investigator for the Caribbean, Central and South America network for HIV epidemiology of the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS. She is a member of the Brazilian Ministry of Health ART and PrEP Advisory Committees, PAHO Technical Advisory Committee and PrEP Task Force, and the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel. Dr Grinsztejn is a faculty member of the Masters and PhD Degree Program on Clinical Research in Infectious Diseases at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

Steffanie StrathdeeSteffanie A Strathdee is Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences and Harold Simon Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. A Canadian-American, she is also an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins and Simon Fraser universities. She co-directs UCSD’s International Core of the Center for AIDS Research and the new Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH). An infectious disease epidemiologist, she has spent the past two decades focusing on HIV prevention in marginalized populations in developing countries and has published more than 600 peer reviewed articles. Currently, she leads a multidisciplinary team of research on HIV risk behaviours among people who inject drugs on the Mexico-US border; in this team, she developed one of the first interventions for female sex workers who inject drugs. In 2009, Dr Strathdee and her team were awarded the Leadership Award in International Collaboration from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which also granted her a merit award for her research in Tijuana.

Track A: Basic and translational research

Track Leads

Denise HsuDr Denise Hsu is a Research Physician at the U.S. Military HIV Research Program at the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangkok, Thailand. Dr Hsu received her medical degree from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, with first-class honours. She completed fellowships in clinical immunology and allergy and in immunopathology. She received her PhD from UNSW, Sydney, and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Her current research involves both laboratory bench work and clinical trials, focusing on assessing potential HIV cure interventions and investigating the impact of HIV on the central nervous system. Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Melanie OttDr Melanie Ott obtained an MD degree from the University of Frankfurt  in Germany and a PhD from the Picower Graduate School of Molecular  Medicine in New York. In 1998, she started her own research group at  the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, under the leadership of Nobel laureate Harald zur Hausen to study HIV
pathogenesis and a new emerging pathogen at the time, hepatitis C virus (HCV). In 2002, she moved her lab to the Gladstone Institutes, where she continued to work on HIV and HCV pathogenesis and more broadly on the host-virus interface. She has focused much of her work on the role of reversible protein acetylation in HIV transcription, especially the viral Tat protein, and identifying molecular mechanisms controlling viral latency. Dr Ott is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Members

Asier Saez-CirionDr Asier Saez-Cirion received his PhD from the University of the Basque Country in Spain. In 2003, he joined the Pasteur Institute, where he is now Associate Professor and Team Leader. Dr Saez-Cirion is the Co-ordinator of the ANRS RHIVIERA (Remission of HIV Infection Era) consortium. He is also Chair of the scientific and medical committee of Sidaction. His work is currently focused on understanding natural mechanisms associated with HIV and SIV control. In particular, he studies viral reservoirs and the role of intrinsic and adaptive immunity in different models of spontaneous or post-treatment control of viremia.

Galit AlterDr Galit Alter is a Professor of Medicine at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard. She leads a laboratory that works towards the single goal of developing novel vaccine approaches aimed at recruiting and directing the antiviral activity of the innate immune system to kill virally infected cells. Dr Alter received her PhD in experimental medicine from McGill University and performed her postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Her current research interests lie at the intersection of the innate immune response and the adaptive humoral immune response, with a focus on defining the role of innate immune recruiting antibodies in providing specificity to the innate immune system to kill virally infected cells. Specifically, Dr Alter’s work focuses on developing high-throughput assays aimed at dissecting the “protective profiles” and functional activity of polyclonal pools of antiviral antibodies induced via vaccination or during natural infection.

Awaiting bio.

Lindi MassonDr Lindi Masson is a senior lecturer in Medical Virology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She is an associate member of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, honorary scientist of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research (CAPRISA) in South Africa and adjunct senior lecturer at Monash University in Australia. She has been involved in HIV research for over 10 years, investigating the immunological factors associated with HIV acquisition and disease progression in women. In 2020, Dr Masson will join the Burnet Institute in Australia, where she will continue studying risk factors for HIV infection.

Roger ParedesDr Roger Paredes, MD, PhD, is Section Chief at the Infectious Diseases Service, Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol and Head of the Microbial Genomics Group at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute in Badalona, Catalonia, Spain. His research team has made seminal contributions in understanding the clinical utility of HIV-1 deep sequencing for HIV management in high- and low-income countries. He is presently leading pioneering research into the role of the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of HIV infection and chronic inflammation. Dr Paredes is a member of the WHO HIV Drug Resistance Strategy (ResNet) Steering Committee and the HIV Drug Resistance group at the International Antiviral Society-USA.

Susana ValenteDr Susana Valente is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at The Scripps Research Institute. Her research focuses on mechanisms that regulate HIV-1 latency in CD4+T memory T cells and development of antiviral molecules that suppress the reservoir of latently infected cells. Specifically, her laboratory has pioneered the “block-and-lock” approach for a functional HIV cure. Dr Valente has received numerous awards for her creative work in science, including the prestigious American Foundation for AIDS Research fellowship, NIH Career Development Award and Landenberger Foundation early-career award. Her laboratory is currently funded with grants from NIH NIAID.

Thumb iNdung'uProf Thumbi Ndung’u is the Deputy Director (Science) and a Max Planck Research Group Leader at the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) in Durban, South Africa. He is Professor and Victor Daitz Chair in HIV/TB Research at the HIV Pathogenesis Programme of the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal. He holds the South African Research Chair in Systems Biology of HIV/AIDS. His research interests are host-pathogen interactions, particularly immune mechanisms of HIV control. He leads a multidisciplinary team working on HIV and TB immunopathogenesis with the ultimate goal of developing effective vaccines and immune-based cure strategies.

Track B: Clinical research

Track Leads

Francois VenterProf Willem Daniel Francois Venter, FCP (SA), PhD (Wits), Dip HIV Man (SA), DTM&H (Wits) is based at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He leads multiple antiretroviral treatment optimization studies and has an active interest in public sector access to HIV services. He is working on new first- and second-line antiretroviral options, patient linkage to care interventions and HIV self-testing projects. He has led large PEPFAR-funded HIV programmes in South Africa and has been represented on South African and regional HIV guidelines for over a decade, having done almost all his training within South Africa. He has been involved in several human rights cases involving HIV within the southern African region.

Roy GulickDr Roy Gulick is Rochelle Belfer Professor in Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Attending Physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. His research interests include designing, conducting and analysing clinical trials to refine antiretroviral therapy strategies for HIV treatment and prevention and assessing antiretroviral agents with new mechanisms of action. He serves as principal investigator of the Cornell-New Jersey HIV Clinical Trials Unit of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the HIV Prevention Trials Network, sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). He also serves as the Co-Chair of the Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Clinical Practices for Treatment of HIV Infection, a member of the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Committee and a board member of the International Antiviral Society-USA. He has presented at national and international meetings and published widely.

Members

James McMahonDr James McMahon is an infectious diseases physician and Head of Clinical Research at the Alfred Hospital and Monash University, and infectious diseases physician at Monash Medical Centre, both in Melbourne, Australia. Dr McMahon also chairs the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine Antiretroviral Guidelines Committee. His main research interests include antiretroviral therapy trials and HIV cure, specifically clinical trials to image tissue sites of persistent HIV and trials of interventions to target the HIV reservoir.

Laura WatersDr Laura Waters is a genitourinary/HIV consultant and HIV and hepatitis lead at the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust’s Mortimer Market Centre, London. She works predominantly in HIV outpatient facilities. She previously worked in clinical trials at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Brighton and Sussex Clinical Trials Unit, gaining an MD on ART switch. Dr Waters is principal or chief investigator on several antiretroviral trials. She is Chair of the British HIV Association and its treatment guidelines, and previous Chair of its conferences. She was Chair of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) HIV Special Interest Group and sits on its board; she is Chair of the national sexual and reproductive health guidelines for people living with HIV. Dr Waters is on the HIV Clinical Reference Group and trials management group of IMPACT and is a trustee of the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Meg DohertyDr Meg Doherty is the Coordinator of Treatment and Care in the Department of HIV/AIDS and Global Hepatitis Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. She provides overall technical and managerial support to treatment and care for adults, adolescents, children and pregnant women, as well as the development of consolidated global antiretroviral treatment guidelines and all technical updates related to HIV treatment and care. She leads a team of technical experts in the fields of adult, adolescent and paediatric HIV, elimination of mother-to-child transmission, TB/HIV collaborative activities, HIV service delivery, and laboratory and diagnostics for HIV. Dr Doherty received her MD from Harvard Medical School and her MPH and PhD in infectious disease epidemiology from JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases.

Michelle MoorhouseDr Michelle Moorhouse is Head of Treatment Strategies at Ezintsha in the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, where she is actively engaged in clinical work, research, teaching, policy and guideline development. She holds a joint appointment as a researcher in the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.The main thrust of her work currently is HIV treatment optimization and she is co-principal investigator on the large ADVANCE study. Dr Moorhouse sits on various national committees, including guideline committees, the Third-line ART Committee, the National HIV Drug Resistance Strategy Steering Committee and the WHO HIV Resistance Network.

Sandra Wagner CardosoDr Sandra Wagner Cardoso graduated in medicine in 1986. She is an infectious diseases specialist with a broad background in HIV/AIDS care as a clinician. She is currently a researcher and one of the core members of the Clinical Trials Unit of the HIV/AIDS Clinical Research Laboratory of the National Institute of Infectology (INI) of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). Dr Wagner Cardoso is a permanent teaching member of the clinical research post-graduate programme (lato e stricto senso) of INI/Fiocruz. Dr Wagner Cardoso is a member of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and the International Aids Society.

Thanyawee PuthanakitAssociate Professor Thanyawee Puthanakit is Division Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Over the past two decades, she has led several NIH-funded multicentre studies on paediatric and adolescent HIV treatment in Thailand and other Asian countries, including Cambodia and Indonesia. Her research expertise includes prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, optimization of antiretroviral treatment in resource-limited settings, HIV co-morbidities and pre-exposure prophylaxis among adolescents. She has served as a committee member for WHO treatment guidelines, on CIPHER at the International AIDS Society, and on the steering committee of TREATAsia. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles on paediatric HIV.

Turner OvertonDr Turner Overton is a Professor of Medicine in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Infectious Diseases Faculty. He serves as the PI of the NIH-funded Alabama HIV Clinical Trials Unit, as Medical Director of the UAB 1917 HIV Clinic and PrEP Clinic, and as Co-Director of the Clinical Core for the UAB Center for AIDS Research. He is committed to improving the lives of people living with and affected by HIV through advancements in clinical research. He also enjoys hiking and eating fruit.

Track C: Epidemiology and prevention research

Track Leads

Andrew GrulichProf Andrew Grulich leads the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is Past President of the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine, a past board member of the International AIDS Society and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. Prof Grulich leads research on the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in gay men. He was principal investigator of the Opposites Attract study, one of the cornerstones of the U=U campaign, and co-PI of the EPIC-NSW study of population-based PrEP roll out.

Jared BaetenDr Jared Baeten is Vice Chair and Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. His research focuses on the prevention of HIV-1 and other sexually transmitted infections including clinical trials of novel prevention interventions, epidemiologic studies of risk factors for HIV-1 transmission and biobehavioural and implementation science research aimed at optimizing prevention delivery. He led the Partners PrEP Study and MTN-020/ASPIRE, randomized clinical trials that proved the efficacy of tenofovir-based pills and the dapivirine vaginal ring as pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV-1 acquisition.

Members

Albert LiuDr Albert Liu is the Clinical Research Director of Bridge HIV within the San Francisco Department of Public Health and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). His research focuses on the safety and effectiveness of PrEP agents, strategies to monitor and support PrEP adherence, and how best to implement PrEP and RAPID ART in real-world settings. He is an investigator within the HIV Prevention Trials Network and Microbicide Trials Network. He also serves as Co-Director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research Health Disparities Core and Co-chair of the PrEP Committee of the San Francisco Getting to Zero Consortium.

Ayden ScheimDr Ayden Scheim is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia, USA. He has 15 years of experience conducting community-engaged research on HIV prevention, health and human rights among key populations, particularly transgender people and people who inject drugs. Currently, Dr Scheim is leading the prospective cohort study evaluating supervised consumption sites in Toronto, Canada, and transgender health surveys in three countries. He is a member of the revision committee for the eighth edition of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care.

Elizabeth IrunguDr Elizabeth Irungu has worked for more than 10 years in the field of HIV prevention research, primarily among HIV-serodiscordant couples and also among young women. She was lead clinician for the Partners PrEP Study and the Partners Demonstration Project in Thika, Kenya. She currently leads the Partners Scale-Up Project, an implementation science project that aims to catalyse scale up of oral PrEP for HIV-serodiscordant couples in public HIV care clinics in Kenya; it is done in collaboration with the International Clinical Research Centre at the University of Washington. She works closely with the Kenya National AIDS and STI Control Programme, and is a member of the PrEP Technical Working Group.

Gregg GonsalvesDr Gregg Gonsalves is an Assistant Professor in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, as well as an Associate (Adjunct) Professor of Law and Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School, Co-Director of the Yale Law School/Yale School of Public Health Global Health Justice Partnership and the Yale Law School/Yale School of Public Health/Yale Medical School Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency. His research focuses on the use of quantitative models for improving the response to epidemic diseases. For more than 30 years, he worked on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues with organizations such as the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, the Treatment Action Group, Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa. He received his PhD from the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences/School of Public Health in 2017. He is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow.

Dr Mukta Sharma is a social scientist and epidemiologist. She started her career in academia and research with a focus on injecting drug use and HIV in low-income and post-conflict settings, and moved to technical assistance and intervention planning for harm reduction and HIV prevention among key populations. At WHO, she currently supports ministries of health in 11 Southeast Asian countries to eliminate HIV, TB and hepatitis B and C. Most recently, she has focused on the effective uptake of TB diagnosis and prevention among people living with HIV, children under five and adult contacts of bacteriologically confirmed TB patients.

Awaiting bio.

Rachel BaggaleyDr Rachel Baggaley is the HIV prevention and HIV testing coordinator for WHO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. She has more than 30 years of experience working on HIV programmes and policy in all regions and in a range of clinical and community settings. She coordinates the HIV testing work for WHO, including the development of new policy and guidance on HIV self-testing, partner notification and differentiated HIV testing approaches. She leads the biomedical prevention work for WHO, including work on medical male circumcision and PrEP and review of future prevention products. She also focuses on developing comprehensive guidance and integrated HIV, hepatitis and sexual reproductive services for key populations, ways to increase male engagement in HIV and broader health issues, and approaches to improve the coverage, impact and acceptability of HIV and sexual and reproductive health services for adolescent girls and young women in East and southern Africa.

Awaiting bio.

Track D: Social and behavioural research

Track Leads

Kenneth NgureProf Kenneth Ngure, MPH, MSc, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Global Health and the Chair of the Department of Community Health of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya. He is also an Affiliate Associate Professor of the Department of Global Health, University of Washington, and affiliated to the Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease of the Kenya Medical Research Institute and visiting scientist at Kenyatta National Hospital. Prof Ngure is a behavioural scientist and a member of the Behavioral Research Group of the Microbicides Trials Network and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network. Kenneth has been appointed to an expert committee on clinical trials of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board of Kenya. Kenneth has over 20 years’ public health leadership experience in diverse HIV/AIDS research settings in sub-Saharan Africa, including working as a Program Director for the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (Kenyan Chapter) and has consulted for organizations such as the World Health Organization.

Nabila El-BasselDr Nabila El-Bassel is a Professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work and Director of the Social Intervention Group, a multidisciplinary centre focused on developing and testing prevention and intervention approaches to reducing HIV, substance use and gender-based violence and disseminating evidence-based solutions to communities. Dr El-Bassel is also the Director of the Columbia University Global Health Research Center of Central Asia She has conducted social behavioural research on HIV, substance use and the opioid epidemic and gender-based violence in areas such as the US, Asia and the Middle East. Her research focuses on couples, families, communities and structural interventions, and targets key populations. She is a principal investigator of a T32 NIDA-funded pre- and post-doc training programme on HIV and substance use implementation science in the criminal justice system and is a PI on an NIMH national training programme on HIV prevention science for research scientists from underrepresented communities. She is the PI on the NIDA HEALing Communities Study.

Members

Ariane van der StratenDr Ariane van der Straten is the Director of the Women’s Global Health Imperative (WGHI) programme and a senior fellow at RTI International in San Francisco. She is also a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She conducts socio-behavioural and biomedical research to evaluate various HIV prevention and multi-purpose prevention technologies; she is also leading the development of a biodegradable implant, as an end-user-informed long-acting drug delivery platform. She also serves as the Chair of the Behavioral Research Working Groups for two of the NIH-funded HIV prevention networks: MTN and HPTN.

Innocent Modisaotsile is the Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV Advisor for the UNFPA Regional Office for East and Southern Africa. He has more than three decades’ experience in public health, particularly in areas of HIV and AIDS and other communicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health, and gender and primary healthcare programmes at national and regional levels. Prior to joining UNFPA in 2016, he spent more than 13 years with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat, where he is credited for achievements in regional policy harmonization, cooperation in health and multi-country development management. He has worked for both UNDP and UNICEF and also for ministries of health in Botswana and South Africa. He has led regional multi-million dollar initiatives funded by the European Union and African Development Bank. He has a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Public Health.

Kawango AgotDr Kawango Agot obtained her PhD and MPH from the University of Washington, Seattle, and proceeded to coordinate the trial on medical male circumcision for HIV prevention at the Kisumu site, Kenya. Dr Agot has conducted multiple studies on various topics, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), multi-purpose technologies and HIV self-testing. She was part of the FEM-PrEP Clinical Trial and multiple follow-on studies on adherence to PrEP. She is currently implementing three studies to promote PrEP adherence among adolescent girls and young women and female sex workers.

Geoffrey SetsweProf Geoff Setswe is an Extraordinary Professor of HIV/AIDS management at the University of Stellenbosch and Managing Director of the Implementation Research Division at the Aurum Institute in Johannesburg. He has worked for the Human Sciences Research Council as Executive Director in the HIV/AIDS/STI/TB research programme. He has worked at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University as lecturer, senior lecturer and Professor of Public Health; he was also Head of the School of Health Sciences at Monash University, South Africa. He has a Doctor of Public Health from Sefako Makgatho University for Health Sciences and a Master of Public Health from Temple University in Philadelphia. Prof Setswe was founding Director of the AIDS Research Institute at Wits University. He served as Co-Chair of the Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Task Team of the South African National AIDS Council and on the Board of the Medical Research Council.

Renee Heffron Dr Renee Heffron is a member of the Faculty of Global Health and Epidemiology at the University of Washington. Her research, mentoring and teaching focuses on advancing HIV prevention, often through intersections with reproductive health. To do this work, she collaborates extensively with colleagues in sub-Saharan Africa and the United States to conduct research employing tools from clinical epidemiology, implementation science, behavioural science and qualitative research.

Sonia Lee

Dr Sonia Lee is a programme officer in the Maternal and Pediatric Infectious Disease Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Dr Lee works with investigators on adolescent HIV prevention/treatment to design and implement behavioural studies and behavioural components of biomedical studies. Her grant portfolio also includes global research on paediatric and adolescent HIV prevention and treatment, m-health for HIV/AIDS and assessment of neurodevelopmental outcomes. Dr Lee earned her BA in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD in clinical psychology from the American University in Washington DC.

Weiming TangDr Weiming Tang is the Deputy Director of the University of North Carolina Project-China. Dr Tang is an epidemiologist, with an emphasis on HIV epidemiology and implementation science. His research focuses mainly on promoting HIV testing and healthy behaviour change through innovative approaches. Specifically, he is interested in using crowdsourcing and other participatory methods to enhance health services among key populations. He has been engaged in the use and promotion of new intervention strategies for promoting HIV self-testing among men who have sex with men.

Track E: Implementation research, economics, systems and synergies with other health and development sectors

Track Leads

Khuat Thi Hai OanhKhuat Thi Hai Oanh is a medical doctor with a Master’s in Reproductive and Sexual Health SRH research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She founded the Center for Supporting Community Development Initiatives (SCDI) in 2010 and is its Executive Director. SCDI focuses on the well-being of the most marginalized populations, including sex workers, people who use drugs and people living with HIV, their children, LGBTQI and undocumented and indigenous people, through community empowerment, enabling environments and impactful programmes. Oanh chairs APCASO’s Council of Representatives and Global Fund Advocates Network Asia-Pacific (GFAN AP), and serves as Southern CSO alternate on the UHC2030 Steering Committee. In 2017, Forbes Vietnam listed her among the 50 most influential Vietnamese women.

Stefan BaralStefan Baral is a physician epidemiologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Stefan completed fellowship training in community medicine as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and family medicine with the Canadian Council of Family Physicians. In collaboration with others, Stefan has supported studies focused on characterizing the burden and determinants of HIV and effective HIV prevention and treatment strategies for gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender women and female sex workers across western, central and southern Africa.

Members

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Elvin GengDr Elvin Geng is an infectious disease physician who conducts epidemiological and implementation research to enhance the global public health response to HIV, in particular regarding engagement in HIV care. He directs the Center for Dissemination and Implementation in the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St Louis.

Irene MukuiDr Irene Mukui is a physician-epidemiologist with more than 15 years’ experience in HIV programming, most recently as the Deputy Head of the National AIDS & STI Control Programme and Programme Manager for PrEP in Kenya. Prior to that, she was the HIV Care and Treatment Manager for eight years. She co-chairs the WHO HIV Drug Resistance Steering Group and is a member of the Child Survival Working Group. Dr Mukui is the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Health’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Secretariat, responsible for coordinating UHC implementation. She is involved in multiple ongoing HIV implementation science and operational research projects.

Nittaya PhanuphakDr Nittaya Phanuphak is the Chief of Prevention at the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre (TRCARC) in Bangkok, Thailand. She joined the TRCARC in 2002 to lead a countrywide prevention of mother-to-child transmission operational study. She has a deep interest in HIV prevention and key populations, especially around the use of key population-led health service (KPLHS) approaches to enhance access to HIV testing, prevention and treatment among men who have sex with men and transgender women. She currently works actively with community and government partners to establish a national technical assistance platform to support the accreditation and legalization of key population lay providers to ensure sustainability of KPLHS approaches through domestic financing mechanisms.

Paula Mendes LuzDr Paula Mendes Luz, PhD, MPH, is a research scientist at the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases (INI) at the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases-Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She received her PhD from Yale University in 2009 and has since worked at the STD and AIDS laboratory within INI/FIOCRUZ. Her current research areas include individual, interpersonal and structural barriers to engagement in care and treatment adherence among people living with HIV, psychological factors influencing human perceived and actual behaviour, and the modelling and optimization of therapeutic and preventive strategies to address the HIV epidemic.

Rose CraigueRose Craigue is the Senior Adviser for Nutrition and HIV at the WFP regional office in South Africa, leading a team that provides technical oversight programmes in 12 country offices. Previously, as Senior Director for Health Programs at World Vision in Washington DC, she led a group that managed World Vision’s health projects in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. She served as the World Vision Director of Operations, overseeing monitoring of more than 350 development programmes in Africa. Previously, she was interim World Vision Senior Director for the Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs team. She has also served on the humanitarian and emergency team as a senior programme officer, coordinating emergency operations in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. She has worked in Ethiopia, DRC, South Sudan and Kenya, designing and managing large-scale nutrition and health programmes. She has a master’s from Tufts University in Boston.

Sharmistha MishraDr Sharmistha Mishra, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor and Clinician Scientist in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Mathematical Modeling and Program Science. She and her team develop and use mathematical models to disentangle the biological, behavioural and structural pathways that contribute to HIV/STI epidemic persistence across geo-social contexts, and to support the design, delivery and evaluation of HIV/STI public health programmes.

Track F: Political research, law, policy and human rights

Track Leads

Tshepo Ricki KgositauTshepo Ricki Kgositau’s academic background is in international human rights law and diplomacy from Monash University. Ricki is passionate about legal and policy reform in the Southern Africa region as a means to advancing socio-economic justice and accountability; in 2017, she won a constitutional case seeking legal gender recognition in the High Court of Botswana. She is the former Director of Gender DynamiX, the oldest trans-focused NGO in Africa, and a stalwart in movement building, having co-founded a sub-regional collective of trans organizations, the Southern Africa Trans Forum. Ricki is also a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow. She is the Executive Director of Accountability International, making her the first black, young African and transgender woman to head up an international NGO. Accountability International’s work focuses on holding leaders accountable for human rights, international and continental human rights law, and policy and developmental commitments they are signatories to; this is a way to increase accountability towards those still left behind or excluded.

Eric GoosbyEric Goosby is a Professor of Medicine and Director of Global Health Delivery and Diplomacy, Institute for Global Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco. In 2015, the UN Secretary-General appointed him the UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis. Previously, he served in the Obama Administration as Ambassador-at-Large and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, overseeing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the State Department’s Office of Global Health Diplomacy. As CEO and CMO of Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, he played a key role in the development and implementation of HIV/AIDS national treatment scale-up plans in China, Rwanda, South Africa, and Ukraine. During the Clinton Administration, Eric was Director of the Ryan White Care Act in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and served as Deputy Director of the White House National AIDS Policy Office and Director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy at HHS.

Members

Allan MalecheAllan Maleche is a leader in the field of human rights-based approaches to health planning, programming and service delivery and global health governance. He is Executive Director of Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN). In 2016, he was named Kenya’s Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year and is the 2018 recipient of the Elizabeth Taylor Human Rights Award, awarded to individuals who have achieved major breakthroughs or shown exceptional courage in their efforts to advocate for human rights in the field of HIV. He is a former member of the Board of the Developing Country NGO Delegation to the Global Fund Board, where he also served as Alternate Board Member. He is also a member of the Global Fund’s Audit and Finance Committee, and the former Chair of the Implementer Group of the Global Fund Board.

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Lucy Stackpool-MooreDr Lucy Stackpool-Moore is Director of HIV Programmes and Advocacy at the International AIDS Society. In 2016, she founded Watipa, a social enterprise that provides ethical consultancy services, and established a scholarship programme for young leaders in low-income countries. She has worked with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, International Planned Parenthood Federation and Panos London. Her consultancy work included facilitating healthcare workers’ capacity to provide stigma-free, human rights-based services for all. She is an associate of the Law School at the University of Melbourne and Birkbeck University of London, and the Global Health Policy distance learning programme with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her PhD is based on original and participatory action research about HIV, stigma and human rights in Malawi. She has an LLM in human rights (University of London), an MA in international education (Sussex) and a BA in history, psychology and literature (Harvard).

Marijke WijnroksDr Marijke Wijnroks became Chief of Staff at the Global Fund in 2013 and served as Interim Executive Director from June 2017 to February 2018. In her position, she has a broad responsibility and a particular focus on gender and human rights and on engaging with all partners in the cause of global health. Before joining the Global Fund, Dr Wijnroks was Ambassador for HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and also Deputy Director of the Social Development Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands. In that position, she has overseen policy and strategy development in areas related to HIV and AIDS, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender, education and civil society. She has a medical degree from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and a degree in tropical health and medicine from the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium.

Matthew KavanaghDr Matthew Kavanagh, PhD, is on the faculty at Georgetown University’s Law and Global Health Departments and is Director of the Global Health Policy and Governance Initiative at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. A political scientist by training, Dr Kavanagh’s research and writing focus on the political economy of health policy and the impact of human and constitutional rights on population health.

Sofia GruskinProf Sofia Gruskin directs the University of Southern California (USC) Institute on Inequalities in Global Health and holds professorial appointments at the USC Keck School of Medicine and Gould School of Law. Her work ranges from global policy to the grassroots level, and she is particularly recognized for her efforts to bring attention to the effects of law and legal frameworks on health outcomes for key and vulnerable populations. Much of her research focuses on the links between HIV and sexual and reproductive health, child and adolescent health, gender-based violence, non-communicable disease and health systems.

Global Village and Youth Programme Working Group

Co-Chairs

Ken Morrison

Ken Morrison is an internationally recognized HIV advocate and policy expert who has also worked extensively at the community level to understand and address social capital, stigma and discrimination. He is an independent contractor, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Iris Group and part-time professor at the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico. Over a 10-year period at Futures Group (now Palladium), Ken served on the leadership team for USAID flagship health policy projects. He has worked extensively in conference organizing related to HIV at the international and regional levels.  A master facilitator and trainer, Ken is based in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and is originally from Canada. As a consultant working on gender equality and social inclusion, HIV, policy and advocacy and improved service delivery for key populations (trans persons, male and female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and drug users), he works globally and provides STTA in fluent English, French and Spanish.

Manuel Venegas
Manuel Venegas is an HIV-positive, first-generation Mexican American and gay community advocate in the HIV field. His activity ranges from local community-level work to national-level ambassadorship in the field. He is a member of the Defeat HIV Community Advisory Board at Fred Hutch, a member of the National Martin Delaney Collaboratory Advisory Board at the National Institutes of Health, a member of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Clinical Research Site #1401 and a member of the Global Community Advisory Board of ACTG. He educates the community about HIV cure research, raises awareness of HIV criminalization and raises awareness of the special health needs of the elder community.

Members

Elena Serrano is a cultural strategist and community organizer. As Program Director for the EastSide Arts Alliance in Oakland, California, she coordinates community and cultural events and the annual Malcolm X JazzArts Festival (now in its 20th year). She is also overseeing the EastSide Arts Alliance’s fundraising efforts. Elena has over 35 years’ experience, working in all aspects of non-profit arts management, including work at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley and the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in downtown Oakland. She is currently helping coordinate efforts in East Oakland to develop a “Black Cultural Zone” as a way to honour and uplift Oakland’s rich African American culture and to offset displacement that has resulted in a 50% loss in Oakland’s black population.

Kathie HiersKathie M Hiers is the Chief Executive Officer of AIDS Alabama, a state-wide non-profit organization in Alabama, US, that provides housing, mental health and services to low-income people living with and vulnerable to acquiring HIV. Nationally, Kathie was the only resident of the Deep South selected in 2010 by US President Barack Obama to serve on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, where she was elected Co-Chair of the Disparities Committee. She serves as the elected Co-Chair of the Federal AIDS Policy Partnership and as Board Chair for the Southern AIDS Coalition. Kathie won the 2014 Research and Hope HIV/AIDS Community Champion Award from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) for her work in advocating for the needs of people living with HIV, as well as the 2015 UCLA School of Management/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive Leadership Community Innovation Project for her work in enrolling participants into the Affordable Healthcare Act in Alabama.

Luciana KamelLuciana is the Community Engagement Program Manager for HVTN. She has worked for several years at a major HIV/AIDS NGO in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she gained valuable experience in the fields of national health policies on HIV, sexuality programmes, gender rights, youth programmes and STI/AIDS prevention programmes.  Luciana was a community engagement coordinator and counsellor at the Laboratory of Clinical Research (LaPClin)/Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro. She supported HPTN 083 and HVTN 704/HPTN 085 (AMP) and was a community partners representative with the Office of HIV/AIDS Network Coordination. Luciana earned a Master of Science in psychology, sociology and community social ecology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and law.

Marie OdenyMerlene Marie Awour Odeny is 22 years old and living with HIV. She was born and raised in Kenya and moved to the United States when she was 16 years old. Currently a student, Marie is studying human development in addition to doing research on HIV.

Mo BarryMo Barry is a global health leader and entrepreneur from The Gambia. He is the youngest board member of the Medicines Patent Pool, a global health innovation to improve access to essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries. Additionally, he is an advisor to the World Health Organization on social participation for universal health coverage, Co-Chair of the UNAIDS PACT, Chairperson of the HIV Young Leaders Fund, and a United Nations ambassador for the Sustainable Development Goals. Mo studied at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa and at York University in Canada. He contributes to the Project Syndicate.

Ricki KgositauRicki is the Executive Director of Accountability International; she is the first black, young, African, transgender woman to head up an international NGO. Her professional background is in international human rights law and diplomacy, which she studied at Monash University. Mrs Kgositau-Kanza is the former Director of Gender DynamiX, the first and oldest trans-focused NGO in Africa. She is also a stalwart in building movements, having co-founded a sub-regional collective of trans organizations called the Southern Africa Trans Forum. Ricki is a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow.

Romesa Roy William is a transsexual woman living in Pakistan. A transgender rights activist, she has been working in the field of HIV since 2012 as an advocate for health and rights of sexual minorities. She has worked specifically among adolescents in order to improve their access to healthcare centres. She has served on the boards of several NGOs that undertake projects on HIV awareness and advocacy for the rights of sexual minorities. She also starred in a documentary on the challenges faced by transgender women in Pakistan, titled “Gender X”, which has been selected for screening at a number of film festivals worldwide.

Sandra AgolaSandra Agola from Houston, Texas, is a member of the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions’ National Community Advisory Board, called Youth Experts and Advocates for Health, also known as ATN-YEAH. Sandra joined the organization to become a voice for young African American women who are affected by HIV in the Houston community.

Stuart GaffneyStuart Gaffney has been an HIV activist since the 1980s, a filmmaker telling stories of HIV/AIDS since the 1990s, and a policy analyst at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies since the 2000s. Stuart and his husband, John Lewis, were one of the plaintiff couples in the historic marriage equality lawsuit that won their case at the California Supreme Court and brought marriage equality to California.

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