Featured speakers | IAS 2025
Andrew Grulich Kirby Institute, The University of New South Wales, Australia View Andrew GrulichAndrew Grulich is a medical epidemiologist and specialist public health physician with 30 years of experience in conducting HIV research and working for implementation of the results of that research. He is Theme Director, Populations and Prevention, and Head of the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program at the Kirby Institute, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He leads research on the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. Andriy Klepikov Alliance for Public Health, Ukraine View Andriy KlepikovAndriy Klepikov is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Public Health, one of the largest HIV- and TB-focused NGOs in Ukraine and the eastern Europe and central Asia region. As Founding Director, he manages over 100 staff members, implementing a complex and comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment and care programme, as well as programmes on TB, HCV and other diseases. Andriy supervises the regional portfolio, which includes over 20 countries in eastern Europe and central Asia and central Europe. Cissy Kityo Mutuluuza Joint Clinical Research Centre, Uganda View Cissy Kityo Mutuluuza Cissy Kityo Mutuluuza, the Executive Director of the Joint Clinical Research Centre, is a medical doctor, public health specialist and researcher with over 30 years’ experience in AIDS research and care for people living with HIV. She has a Master’s from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam. A pioneer of ART use in Africa and a mover in scaling up treatment in Uganda, Cissy has worked on more than 100 trials of treatment of HIV and related conditions. She has been closely involved in studies of prevention of HIV and preparation for vaccines, which have informed policy and practice in low- and middle-income countries. She is an executive member of scientific committees in HIV research, prevention and treatment. Cissy is leading the first long-acting ART trial in Africa and catalysed the alliance of experts in gene therapy to support bridging gaps in HIV cure research between high- and lower-income countries. She has published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Daniela Garone Médecins Sans Frontières, Belgium View Daniela GaroneDaniela Garone is a medical doctor from Argentina, specialized in infectious diseases, internal medicine and clinical and pharmacological research. Daniela has more than 30 years of experience in the clinical field and 16 years of experience managing medical programmes, especially HIV/TB programmes in resource-limited settings. She works with international organizations in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, India, Venezuela, Brazil, Malawi, South Sudan and South Africa. Daniela is the International Medical Coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières International and has served as the HIV Expert Member on the Technical Review Panel at the Global Fund. She is serving as Technical Advisory Panel for the Pandemic Fund and represents MSF in the Rome HIV Plan. Gad Murenzi Research for Development and Rwanda Military Referral and Teaching Hospital (RMRTH), Rwanda View Gad Murenzi Gad Murenzi is the Director of the Einstein-Rwanda Research and Capacity Building Program based at Research for Development and the Rwanda Military Referral and Teaching Hospital (RMRTH) in Kigali, Rwanda. He is responsible for leading scientific research and capacity-building activities of the programme, which focuses on HIV/HPV and co-morbidities. His research interests and expertise include HIV, cancer (mainly HPV-related cancers) and other NCDs. Previously, he served as the site investigator and primary colposcopist of a cervical cancer screening project among 5,000 women living with HIV and coordinator of research laboratory development at RMRTH. In addition, he leads studies on HPV vaccine effectiveness among women living with HIV, anal/penile HPV and anal squamous intraepithelial lesions and cancer. He is also a high-resolution anoscopy provider and an anatomic pathologist. Kathryn Anastos Albert Einstein College of Medicine, United States View Kathryn Anastos Kathryn Anastos, MD, is a physician executive, clinician and medical researcher who has provided clinical care and operational and clinical leadership in the South Bronx of New York City for more than 20 years. Kathryn trained and practices as a primary care internist with expertise in the comprehensive care of people living with HIV and HIV in women. A founder of WE-ACTx (Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment), a community-based organization devoted to developing high-quality ambulatory medical services for women living with HIV in Rwanda, she now serves as its Director of Clinical Systems and Scientific Programs. WE-ACTx collaborates with the Rwandan government and 24 NGOs to provide comprehensive HIV primary care to women survivors of genocidal rape. She has also developed and serves as principal investigator of the Rwandan Women's Cohort Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. She is a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Kevin Mendez National AIDS Commission, Belize View Kevin MendezKevin Mendez is a Belizean queer human rights advocate. He is the Primary Representative of Key Populations at the National AIDS Commission of Belize’s Country Coordinating Mechanism. At the commission, he works to combat stigma and discrimination and provide accessibility to sexual and reproductive health and HIV health services to populations in situations of vulnerability to HIV acquisition. He is also a talk show host for Sunup on 7, one of Belize's most popular morning shows, where, through LGBTQI+ visibility in the media, he advocates on such issues as the promotion of equal opportunities for disadvantaged communities, the protection of human rights and good governance. Linda-Gail Bekker Desmond Tutu HIV Centre Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town Faculty of Health Sciences, South Africa View Linda-Gail BekkerLinda-Gail Bekker is the Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, and Chief Executive Officer of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation. She is a physician-scientist and infectious disease specialist. Her research interests include programmatic and action research around antiretroviral roll out, tuberculosis integration and prevention of HIV in women, young people and men who have sex with men. Magda Lopes Queta ENDA Santé, Senegal View Magda Lopes QuetaMagda Lopes Queta, Executive Director of ENDA Santé in Senegal, brings over 20 years of expertise in social policy development, human rights advocacy and capacity building for civil society organizations in challenging and fragile contexts. In her leadership role at ENDA Santé, she coordinates and oversees the implementation of programmes across 12 countries in western and central Africa, ensuring impactful and sustainable outcomes in diverse and complex settings. Her work focuses on improving access to healthcare services, particularly for vulnerable populations, while addressing critical issues, such as education and social protection. Morkor Newman Owiredu World Health Organization, Switzerland View Morkor Newman Owiredu Morkor Newman Owiredu is a Medical Officer at the World Health Organization in Geneva, leading work on the elimination of vertical transmission and women’s health in HIV in the Treatment and Care team of the Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes. She is currently coordinating the implementation and assessments of responses to the WHO flagship “triple elimination initiative” to end vertical transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B. Mulugeta Gebregziabher Medical University of South Carolina, United States View Mulugeta GebregziabherMulugeta Gebregziabher is Professor and Vice Chair for Global Health at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Director of the Region IV Public Health Training Center for South Carolina, and a health research scientist at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. In 2022, he was recognized as a Peace Laureate of the American Public Health Association for his contributions to peacebuilding. Mulugeta was also selected to serve on the Nature Medicine Statistical Advisory Board for Neurology and Psychiatry. His research interests include design and implementation of health services research for such conditions as diabetes, liver disease, stroke, HIV and cancer and the impact of conflict on health outcomes. He serves on the Advisory Board of the MUSC Center for Global Health and is founding President of Gezana Building Better Tomorrow Foundation Inc. Nomonde Ngema Her Voice Fund, South Africa View Nomonde NgemaIbanomonde Ngema is a South African HIV advocate and Her Voice Fund Ambassador dedicated to amplifying the voices of girls and young women living with HIV. Her work creates stigma-free digital spaces, where she uses social media to normalize conversations around HIV and show that life with HIV can be unapologetically full. She is also the author of Heart to Heart, a book that offers hope and healing for young people navigating life with HIV, encouraging them to embrace their truth and rewrite the narrative. Paul Dietze Burnet Institute and National Drug Research Institute, Australia View Paul Dietze Paul Dietze, PhD, is the co-Director of the Disease Elimination Program at the Burnet Institute and Head of the Melbourne office of the National Drug Research Institute. He has over 25 years’ experience in research on alcohol and other drugs, focused on opioid overdose epidemiology and responses, as well as harms related to injecting drug use, methamphetamine smoking and risky alcohol consumption more broadly. He was a member of the Guidelines Development Group for the Community Management of Opioid Overdose Guidelines developed by WHO and led the WHO/UNODC Stop Overdose Safely study of take-home naloxone implementation in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine. He is the Executive Editor of Drug and Alcohol Review. Penny Moore Wits University and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa View Penny Moore Penny Moore is the South African Research Chair of Virus-Host Dynamics and Research Professor at Wits University and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa. She is the Director of the Antibody Immunity Research Unit, an extramural unit of the SA Medical Research Council, and holds a joint appointment as Honorary Senior Scientist in Virus-Host Dynamics at CAPRISA, University of KwaZulu-Natal. She directs a research group that works in the fields of HIV and SARS-CoV-2 vaccine discovery, combining virology, immunology and bioinformatics. More recently, the team has expanded to work on influenza, cytomegalovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, adenoviruses and Ebola. In the past 20 years, she has contributed towards more than 190 papers, focusing predominantly on neutralizing antibodies and their interplay with evolving viruses, a result of extensive collaborations. She has a very strong focus on mentorship and capacity development, and supervises several postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Placide Mbala Kingebeni University of Kinshasa and National Institute of Biomedical Research, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) View Placide Mbala Kingebeni Placide Mbala Kingebeni is an Associate Professor at the University of Kinshasa, School of Medicine, and Head of the Epidemiology and Global Health Division and Director of the Clinical Research Center at the National Institute of Biomedical Research in the DRC. With extensive experience in medical biology, his research focuses on viral zoonoses with risk factors for human contamination. As PI and co-investigator for university and US-funded grants, Placide Mbala laid the groundwork for research projects in remote DRC areas, where most outbreaks occur. He contributed to several study projects, such as clinical characterization of human mpox infection in the DRC, molecular identification and characterization of novel simian T cell lymphotropic viruses in DRC nonhuman primate bush meat, and investigations and characterization of zoonotic pathogens, such as Ebola and mpox. He has been involved in investigations of the COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola outbreaks in the DRC since 2014. Rosemary Mburu WACI Health, Kenya View Rosemary MburuRosemary W Mburu, MBA, MPH, DrPH candidate, is a public health and policy advocacy expert with nearly two decades of experience working with civil society in Africa. She is committed to promoting and accelerating equitable access to high-quality essential health and life-saving services. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director for WACI Health. Sabin Nsanzimana Ministry of Health, Rwanda View Sabin NsanzimanaSabin Nsanzimana is the Minister of Health of Rwanda, appointed in November 2022. A physician and epidemiologist, he previously led the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, the University Teaching Hospital of Butare, and Rwanda’s national HIV and hepatitis programmes. He holds a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Basel and has authored over 230 scientific publications. Sabin has led major clinical trials and multi-country research collaborations. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and lectures in clinical epidemiology at the University of Rwanda. Sameer Sah Medical Aid for Palestinians, United Kingdom View Sameer SahSameer Sah is the Director of Programmes at Medical Aid for Palestinians and has been at the forefront of the health sector response in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon since the conflict started. He has extensive experience in health sector programmes in over 35 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South and Central America. Between 2013 and 2021, he was the Programme Director at TB Alert, where he worked on tuberculosis and HIV/TB co-infection. He was a member of the first WHO Global Civil Society Task Force on tuberculosis and is the lead author of the groundbreaking publication, Psychosocial Counselling and Treatment Adherence Support for People with Tuberculosis, published by The Union. In December 2023, he led the first convoy of WHO emergency medical teams into Gaza. He was recently honoured by King Charles III with the Humanitarian Medal. Solange Baptiste International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), South Africa View Solange BaptisteSolange Baptiste is Executive Director of ITPC. She leads community activists and allies across the globe to deliver on ITPC’s mission to enable people in need to access optimal and affordable HIV treatment through education, demand creation, community-led monitoring and interventions to make medicines more affordable. Solange has over 15 years of global programme management and advocacy experience and specializes in monitoring and evaluation. She has a depth of knowledge in social epidemiology, health financing and community systems strengthening through her work on USAID and PEPFAR health and development and other bilateral and multi-country initiatives across Africa and Asia. She earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from Tuskegee University and her Master of Science in population and international health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Solange is committed to ensuring that the voice of affected communities contributes to and influences the decisions and policies that affect their lives. Xu Yu Harvard Medical School and the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT and Harvard, United States View Xu Yu Xu Yu is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Core Member at the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT and Harvard. Her laboratory focuses on understanding molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in viral immune control, with a focus on the interplay between innate and adaptive immune responses. Recently, her team pioneered the use of next-generation sequencing technologies for characterizing HIV-1 reservoir cells in people who achieve spontaneous, drug-free control of HIV (so-called “elite controllers”) and in people who receive long-term suppressive antiretroviral therapy. For her work on viral reservoir profiles in HIV elite controllers, Science magazine selected her as one of nine runners-up to the 2020 scientific breakthrough of the year. She is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
![«SWAN is Hiring!» [logo: SWAN]
• Social Enterprise Consultant.
• Apply by 22nd February 2026.
• Link in [post].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7p4pbes77hhseeifiozhobxl/bafkreigimsrlqhpq2yrvs3clnu2pw2z57dfqilagestflo7nkh5nydr2ni)
