Elaine Abrams, MD, is a professor of epidemiology and pediatrics at Columbia University and the senior director for research at ICAP.  At ICAP Dr Abrams leads a large and varied research portfolio that addresses critical scientific questions in HIV prevention, care and treatment. She is also responsible for the development and implementation of pediatric and perinatal prevention initiatives within ICAP supported programs in Sub Saharan Africa.  Dr Abrams has been an active investigator in the field of maternal-infant HIV transmission and the natural history of HIV disease in infants, children and youth since the recognition of the epidemic in the United States. She developed a comprehensive research and care program for woman and children with HIV infection in Central Harlem, the Family Care Center; has been actively involved in the development of international, national and local guidelines and policies for care and treatment; has conducted multiple studies, clinical trials and implementation science studies in the area of maternal and child HIV. She is currently the chair of the HIV treatment scientific committee of the NIH funded IMPAACT clinical trials and co-chair of the clinical guidelines group for World Health Organization 2015 HIV guidelines. 

Paul Drain, MD, MPH, is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Global Health and Medicine (Infectious Diseases). His research focuses on diagnostic point-of-care tests and clinic-based screening for Tuberculosis and HIV in resource-limited settings. He completed his infectious disease training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He received a Faculty Teaching Award from Harvard Medical School, where he co-teaches "Introduction to Social Medicine and Global Health" to first-year medical students. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, Harvard Global Health Institute, Harvard University, Infectious Disease Society of America, and AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Dr. Kambugu is the Director of the Research Program at the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) at the Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS), and is an honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at MakCHS. He is also an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota (UMN), USA. He received his basic medical training as well as his residency in Internal Medicine at Makerere University in Uganda and undertook specialist training in Infectious Diseases in the USA and Canada. He has over 12 years of clinical experience in HIV medicine and is a member of 2 National HIV Subcommittees (Adult Antiretroviral Therapy and HIV Drug Resistance) of the Ugandan Ministry of Health. He directed the HIV Clinic at the IDI for seven years. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), London, UK.

Dr. Kambugu' s research interests include HIV treatment outcomes in resource limited settings, as well as the diagnosis and management of opportunistic infections in these settings with a focus on cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculosis. He has accrued considerable experience in assembling clinical cohorts as well as conducting fairly large clinical trials in Uganda. He is a principal investigator on a number of clinical trials spanning the fields of HIV therapeutics, HIV treatment strategies and implementation science in Uganda.

Sandile Buthelezi is a seasoned medical practitioner with more than 15 years' experience in health governance and policy environment in both the public and the non-profit sector environment. After serving as a Clinician as well as the Medical Superintendent in a number of hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, Sandile served as the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Head of the HIV, TB and Maternal and Child Health programs for 10 years, during which tenure he led the implementation of the KZN Antiretroviral program which todate has registered more than 1 million patients ever initiated on ART since 2004.

In 2010, Sandile joined ICAP at Columbia University as the Director of Programs for the Multi-Country Columbia AIDS program in South Africa. This was a followed by a stint as the Senior Technical Lead for the DFID funded SARRAH programme managed by HLSP, a division of the Mott MacDonald group. In this portfolio, he provided technical oversight to the work that was aimed at supporting the health reforms in South Africa. In 2014, Sandile was re-appointed by ICAP at Columbia University as the Country Director for South Africa. In this portfolio, Sandile provides strategic leadership to the ICAP's diverse portfolio in the country which includes research, academic work as well as technical support to the ministry of health. In addition, the ICAP South Africa office, under Sandile's leadership, provides support to select programs implemented by ICAP in the Africa region.

Dr Francesca Conradie is a joint appointee of Right to Care and the Clinical HIV Research Unit (CHRU). She is appointed as Right to Care's Clinical Advisor to Sizwe Hospital, a hospital for the treatment of multidrug resistant TB. She is charged with the integration of HIV and TB services at this site.

Francesca obtained her MBBCh from Wits University in 1988. She was involved in general practice until she joined CHRU in 2000. Since then she has obtained a Diploma in HIV Management; a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; and a Higher Diploma in Epidemiology (from the University of London). She is currently studying for her MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Dr Conradie joined CHRU as a sub-investigator. She has since been the principal investigator on a number of trials. She worked in the HIV clinic at Helen Joseph Hospital from 2001 until 2005. In that time, she participated in the start of the ARV rollout. She has gained extensive experience in ARV therapy and its complications, and in opportunistic infections.

She assisted with the writing CIPRA protocol and was involved in the implementation of this project at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU). In 2005, she was appointed Project Leader of CIPRA Project 1. She also led other ACTG trials (5208 and 5207). She is the site leader for HPTN 052. In 2005, Francesca was promoted to Deputy Director of CHRU.
Francesca frequently lectures for Right to Care, the Foundation for Professional Development, and other institutions. She has authored and co-authored many journal articles and abstracts. She assisted with the writing of the Southern African HIV Clinicians' Society guidelines for antiretroviral therapy in adults in 2008, and is leading the Society's development of guidelines for antiretroviral drug resistance testing.

Francesca is a member of the Human Research and Ethics Committee of Wits University.

Glenda Gray is President of the Medical Research Council. She is a Professor of Paediatrics in the Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is also a Professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute. She was the Executive Director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit before joining the MRC to lead their Office of AIDS Research. She is the Co-PI of the NIH funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network and the Director of HVTN International Programs. In 2002, she was awarded the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award for pioneering work done in the field of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV-1. She is a member of the Academy of Science in South Africa, and chairs their standing committee on health. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine, of the National Academies, serves on their Global Health Board.

Gray has also been awarded the IAPAC "Hero of Medicine" award for work done in the field of HIV treatment in children and adults. In 2009, James McIntyre and Gray received the N'Galy-Mann lectureship in recognition of their HIV research contribution in South Africa. In June 2012 she received a DSc honoris causa from the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. She has also been admitted into the American Academy of Microbiology in 2012. In 2013 she received the EDCTP's outstanding Africa Scientist Award as well as South Africa's highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe, granted by the president of SA for achievements in the international area which have served South Africa's interest.

He has been involved in guideline development for the management of HIV and tuberculosis for the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He serves on the Tuberculosis Transformative Science Group of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, NIAID.

Graeme Meintjes is an Associate Professor of Medicine, an Infectious Diseases Physician and a clinician scientist based at the University of Cape Town. He obtained his medical degree and PhD from UCT, and a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. He is a fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa, and the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow, and member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

He has been awarded two Wellcome Trust fellowships, and holds the DST/NRF SARChI Chair of Lung Infection and Immunity in Poverty-related Diseases at UCT. His research focuses on improving understanding of pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of the clinical complications that affect patients with advanced HIV disease, including HIV-associated tuberculosis, immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome and cryptococcal meningitis.

Professor Marc Mendelson studied Medicine at St Mary's Hospital, London. He specialized in Infectious Diseases at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, where he attained his PhD before moving to The Rockefeller University, New York, to work on tuberculosis and innate immunity. Marc moved to University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2001 to continue his research and in 2007, was appointed as Principal Specialist and Head of Division of Infectious Diseases & HIV Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital, UCT.

Marc is the current President of the Federation of Infectious Diseases Societies of Southern Africa. His main focus is on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). He is co-chair of the South African Antibiotic Stewardship Programme (SAASP), co-author of the South African AMR Strategy Framework and is the South African lead for AMR on the Global Health Security Agenda. He has worked with national government and WHO to support the development of the Global Action Plan for antimicrobial resistance.

Thumbi Ndung'u is an Investigator and Max Planck Group Leader at the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH). He is a Professor and Victor Daitz Chair in HIV/TB Research and Director of the HIV Pathogenesis Programme (HPP) at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal. He holds the South African Research Chair in Systems Biology of HIV/AIDS. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Early Career Scientist. He graduated with a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and obtained a PhD in Biological Sciences in Public Health from Harvard University, United States. His research interests are host-pathogen interactions, especially antiviral immune responses. He is leading a multidisciplinary team of researchers working in the fields of HIV and TB pathogenesis and vaccine development. He has special interest in capacity building for biomedical research in Africa.

Professor Helen Rees is Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute of the University of Witwatersrand where she is a personal Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She is the chair of the South African Medicines Control Council. She is an Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an honorary Fellow of Cambridge University’s Murray Edwards College and an alumnus of Harvard Business School.  Prof Rees has received many awards for her work in HIV, reproductive health and vaccines. In 2001 she was made an Officer of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth for her contribution to global health. In 2015she received two prestigious science awards; the Oppenheimer award for Science and the National Science and Technology Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement award for science.   Prof Rees has served on many global scientific committees and currently chairs the WHO’s African Advisory Group on Immunisation, the WHO’s International Health Regulation Emergency Committee on Polio,  the WHO’s committee on Ebola vaccines and the WHO’s Expert Committee on maternal immunization.

Prof Theresa Rossouw, qualified as a medical doctor (MBChB) and completed an MPhil (Applied Ethics), MPH (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) and a PhD. She is a HIV clinician and was the Clinical Head of the Antiretroviral Clinic at Tshwane District Hospital from 2005 until 2010. She started a referral clinic for patients with HIV-associated drug resistance in 2010 and has since been working as HIV specialist mentor in the Tshwane / Metsweding district with the aim of improving HIV care and treatment at the primary care level. Her research focus has been on the mechanisms of development and consequences of HIV-1 drug resistance and HIV-associated chronic immune activation.

She is a consultant at the Department of Family Medicine and a Researcher at the Department of Immunology at the University of Pretoria. Her HIV work, specifically her HIV-associated resistance work, has culminated in membership of the Southern African Treatment and Resistance Network (SATuRN), the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society's (SAHIVCS) Guideline Committee, TUKS AIDS Reference group, the SAHIVCS Northern Gauteng HIV Resistance Group, and an international working group on the Social and Ethical Consequences of HIV Cure Research. She also serves on two institutional research ethics committees and a Data Safety Monitoring Board. She has published 31 articles in peer-reviewed journals and is a frequent reviewer of theses, protocols and manuscripts.

Dr Venter is the Deputy Executi ve Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. He leads multiple antiretroviral treatment optimisation studies, and has an active interest in public sector access to HIV services. He is currently working on new first and second line antiretroviral options, patient linkage to care interventions, and self-testing projects. Previously, he lead large PEPFAR-funded HIV programmes in South Africa, including one that focused on truckers and sex workers. He has been represented on South African and regional guidelines for over a decade, having done almost all his training within South Africa.

His major research currently focus on low dose stavudine, low dose darunavir in second line treatment, and combinations of newer drugs to improve the resistance and potency of first line, as well as using patient information to drive improved linkage to care after diagnosis.

Brian Williams is from South Africa. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics in 1971 at Cambridge University in England. After several years of research in solid state physics he moved into ecology in 1987 and worked on methods to control tsetse flies and trypanosomiasis in Tanzania and Kenya, and subsequently at Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He returned to South Africa in 1994 to work on the epidemiology of occupational diseases of mine workers, mainly silicosis and tuberculosis. He ran a major project to control HIV and AIDS in Carletonville, the biggest gold mining complex in the world, focussing on mine workers, sex workers and adolescents. He set up SACEMA, the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis, based in Stellenbosch, South Africa, whose aim is to develop analytical capacity in public health in Africa with a view to managing some of the many diseases that continue to ravage the continent. In 2001 he took up a position at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva working on TB and HIV. He was the senior author on two key modelling papers that demonstrated the impact that anti-retroviral therapy could have on the epidemic of HIV and on the epidemic of HIV-related TB in Africa. He is one of the founders of TTEA, Test-and-Treat to End AIDS, which is dedicated to promoting the use of anti-retroviral therapy to end the epidemic of HIV. After retiring from WHO he returned to South Africa where he continues to do consulting work for WHO, UNAIDS and SACEMA and works part-time for the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (WRHI).

Dr Archary is a Paediatric Infectious Disease Specialist in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at King Edward VIII Hospital affiliated to the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is actively involved with the management of children with HIV both locally and nationally within South Africa and is the Co-Chair of South African National AIDs Council (SANAC) Treatment and Care technical task team and the Paediatric ARV Treatment Guideline committee. His research interests include antiretroviral drug therapeutics, viral resistance and optimal timing of initiation of antiretroviral therapy in the developing world.

Prof Carol-Ann Benn is a Fellow of the College of Surgeons of South Africa with a special interest in Breast Disease. Her capacity as Head of the Breast Unit of Helen Joseph Hospital proves her long career and her commitment to clinical excellence in this field of Medical speciality. Prof Benn offers service to society and the greater medical community, both local and international, through her contributions, published and presented, and she is recognised internationally as a leader in Breast Disease. As lecturer in the Department of Surgery at the University of the Witwatersrand, she contributes towards the education of healthcare professionals.

Vivian Black is a medical doctor with her master’s in infectious diseases. She has extensive experience in the field of HIV, particularly with regards women’s health including PMTCT, safer conception, violence and sexually transmitted infections. She is well published and provides technical support to the NDoH on PMTCT and STIs.
She is currently the technical specialist of implementation sciences, Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute. Dr Black previously ran the maternal health and HIV programmes within the inner city of Johannesburg for over ten years. She developed and implemented interventions to improve HIV related pregnancy outcomes within antenatal clinics in the inner-city. Vivian has served on data safety monitoring boards for three vaccine studies conducted in pregnant women.

Andrew Black is a pulmonologist currently employed at Wits RHI where he is Technical Head of the Adult HIV and TB team. He has clinical experience in the public sector where he spent many years working as a physician and pulmonologist. His interests are TB and OI’s in HIV and is currently involved with a Health systems grant to strengthen HIV and TB care in the public sector.

Dr Sergio Carmona received his basic science degree and Medical degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He completed his fellowship in haematology at the Baragwanath Chris Hani Hospital in Soweto and the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the pathologist in-charge of one of the largest routine HIV virology laboratories in the region, providing Early Infant Diagnosis, HIV drug resistance testing among other relevant assays. He was the former pathologist at Executive Committee of the National Health Laboratory Service from 2012- 2015, an over 7000 employee organisation with 268 laboratories that provides diagnostic pathology to 80% of South Africans.

In 2010 Dr Carmona was seconded to the national priority programme to expand viral load testing in South Africa, which has successfully reached close to 2.8 million tests per annum.
He is interested in the areas of early infant diagnosis, HIV viral load monitoring, evaluation of POCT, HIV drug resistance and HIV related Monitoring and Evaluation studies. He is also member of the WHO HIV drug resistance working group and the WHO 2015 HIV clinical guidelines development group.

Professor MBChB, DCH (CMSA), Dip HIV Man (CMSA) FCP (Paed CMSA)

Ashraf is the Head of Department, Dept of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of the Witwatersrand (Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, Johannesburg). He completed his undergraduate training at the University of Zambia in 1990 and his paediatric postgraduate training at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1998. Since 1998 Ashraf has championed the cause of Paediatric HIV/AIDS and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT). Prof Coovadia is the Children Sector representative on SANAC (South African National AIDS Council) and is an expert on national Paediatric Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (of HIV) guidelines committees. He is actively involved with research projects involving women and children who are HIV-infected. Prof Coovadia was a previous executive member of the Resuscitation Council of Southern Africa and past representative on the Paediatric Task Force of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) 2001 -2010.His current area of interest includes  clinical trials involving HIV-infected pregnant women and children, with a view to optimising the PMTCT programme and paediatric treatment regimens.

On return to Tygerberg Academic Hospital, he completed a PhD on the role of apoptosis in paediatric HIV infection. He has been conducting a number of multicentre trials focusing on TB and HIV in children.

He has been a member of WHO technical task teams on HIV staging, ART and guidelines for Tuberculosis in children since 2004. He is a Specialist in Pediatric Infectious Diseases with extensive experience in managing HIV-infected children. Professor Cotton has been co-PI and investigator in a number of randomized clinical trials in children, both studies ART strategy and isoniazid prophylaxis and also ARV pharmacokinetics in HIV-infected children. The majority of studies are funded through the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trial Group (IMPAACT). He is also the director of the Children’s Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit (KID-CTU) (clinical trial unit).

MBChB, PhD, FCP

Joel is an endocrinologist in Private Practice in Cape Town.  He is also a part-time senior lecturer in the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetic Medicine, UCT and Groote Schuur Hospital where he is involved in research projects with Prof Levitt. Their main research focus is ‘The metabolic complications of anti-retroviral therapy’

MPH

Robyn Eakle is a Senior Research at Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute in South Africa, and a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Robyn has a Masters in Public Health from the University of Southern California, and a diverse background in business, philanthropy, and public health, having previously worked for corporations and law firms in the US as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has been focused on the development and delivery of new HIV prevention technologies for the past seven years, in particular pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention. She is currently leading a demonstration project offering PrEP and Immediate Treatment to female sex workers in South Africa. Robyn’s research interests lie in the implementation of new prevention technologies, and the factors influencing successful implementation.

Head of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit , Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital Associate Professor, School of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town

Brian Eley is head of the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital He is an associate professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town. His research interests include the outcome of children treated with antiretroviral therapy, the diagnosis of childhood TB, and bloodstream infection. He is the current chair of the Child and Adolescent Committee of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society.

Juliet Houghton is the Country Director for CHIVA South Africa, an NGO that works to build capacity and skills of health workers in South Africa to assist the government’s HIV response to children and adolescents. She is an HIV Nurse Specialist with experience in managing HIV-infected children and adolescents over the past 20 years. She is also a social anthropologist, having graduated with a distinction in the social anthropology of childhood and child development from Brunel University in London in 2005.   

John Joska is an associate professor of psychiatry, head of the division of neuropsychiatry at Groote Schuur Hospital and director of the HIV mental health research unit, in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. He has established a research program in neuroHIV in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The group has been funded by the NIMH, EDCTP, MRC and NRF. Projects include neurobiological investigations of the effects of HIV on brain structure and function, and neurobehavioral studies of adherence and psychological interventions. The group is interested in screening for neurocognitive disorders, as well as the combined effects of HIV and aging on the brain. 

FCDerm (SA); MBChB (Medunsa)

Dr. Rannakoe Lehloenya graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Fellowship of the College of Dermatology of South Africa in 2009. His training started at the University of Lesotho where he obtained a BSc degree, majoring in Organic Chemistry and Biology, and went on to graduate with MBChB in MEDUNSA.

Laura Lopez Gonzalez began covering HIV in 2003, when she completed an in-depth reporting project on HIV among men who have sex with men in Chicago and Cape Town as part of her undergraduate coursework at the Medill School of Journalism in Chicago. She later completed a master's thesis on counterintuitive links between conflict and HIV transmission in Mozambique as part of the University of Chicago’s Committee on International Relations before returning to South Africa.

She spent almost seven years as an HIV and health correspondent for the United Nations humanitarian news service, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) covering southern Africa. In 2010, she was awarded a Gender and Media in Southern Africa Award for best sustained reporting for her work on forced sterilizations among HIV-positive women in Namibia and pregnancy-related HIV stigma. She has also written on HIV and health for the InterPress Service and aidsmap, the official scientific news provider of the International AIDS Conference. Her feature, “Will the world pay to end AIDS” was the organisation’s cover story for the 2012 AIDS Conference in Washington, DC.

She has also partnered with organizations such as the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health and South Africa’s Aurum Institute to train fellow journalists in the reporting of clinical trials. Lopez joined Health-e in August 2013 as the news service’s print editor. Health-e News currently provides content for the Independent Newspapers, News24, the Daily Maverick as well as the SABC and eTV.

Mluleki Marongo is a human rights health activist and Legal Researcher working at a public interest law centre called SECTION27. SECTION27 is named after section 27 of the South African Constitution which state speaks about the right of access to health care services, the right to food, water, sanitation, social security and the right to not be refused emergency medical services.
His primary role is to assist and in some parts lead in advocating for access to health care services by health care users. He is involved in the following activities:
Strengthening of the Eastern Cape Health system with a specific focus on; curbing stock outs of essential medication such as medication for TB and ARVs; ensuring that emergency medical services and planned patient transport services are available and functional as well as facilitating that the necessary infrastructure, equipment, human resources and rehabilitation services exist at sufficient levels;
Mr Marongo is involved in strengthening, advocating, and securing justifiable working conditions for community health care workers and educating them about their rights. He also ensures medication for prisoners suffering from illnesses such as TB and HIV are distributed.

Thubelihle Mathole is a senior researcher at the School of Public Health at the University of Western Cape in South Africa. She holds a PhD in International health/Public Health from the University of Uppsala, Sweden.  She has worked in different areas such as Programme management, development of primary health care, health system strengthening, teaching and supervising students among others. She has been involved in a number of operational research projects in different countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Her areas of interest are health systems, global health, health economics, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health,

Dr Thabo Matsaseng is the Head of Reproductive Medicine Unit at Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Academic Hospital. Dr Matsaseng is a registered Reproductive medicine specialist. He recently submitted his PhD thesis on Cost Effective IVF strategies in assisted reproductive technologies (ART) since affordable IVF is his passion that he hopes one day will promote equal access to reproductive health.

Dr Mogambery Graduated MBChB in 2005 from University of KwaZulu Natal. She commenced training in internal medicine in 2009 and then completed infectious disease sub-specialty training in 2015 in Grey’s Hospital Infectious Disease Unit.
Dr Mogambery is currently working as a consultant in internal medicine and Infectious diseases in Grey’s Hospital and is involved in outreach work within the HIV clinics in the Umgungundlovu district.
Jade holds a CAPRISA/ACC grant with the aim to strengthen referral systems and improve the management of complex HIV clinical cases in KZN.  She involved in a number of research projects and clinical trials as well as teaches undergraduate and postgraduates training in internal medicine.

MBBCh (WITS), DA (CMSA)

Michelle Moorhouse graduated from Wits University in South Africa. In 1999 she became involved in the management of HIV-positive patients, and co-founded the first HIV clinical trial centers in Port Elizabeth. Michelle established an HIV journal club in PE, which became the local chapter of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society (SAHIVCS). In 2003 Michelle was awarded an Honorary Clinical Fellowship at the Royal Free Hospital in London. She also worked in the pharmaceutical industry, holding several senior HIV/virology posts in several large companies, which earned Michelle the respect of many leading international HIV clinicians.

Michelle returned to South Africa in 2007, re-establishing her general/HIV practice and setting up a research centre focusing on HIV clinical trials. Michelle consulted at an HIV clinic for an Eastern Cape based NPO, which signalled a change in her career. This branch of public health brought her closer to the other realities of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, providing an opportunity to play a greater part in tackling the disease that she has dedicated her career to so passionately.

MBBCh; DTM&H; MMed; FCPath; PhD

Prof Nicol is the Wernher and Beit Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) of South Africa. His joint appointment with UCT and NHLS, which provides diagnostic microbiology services to public sector health facilities in South Africa, positions him well to engage in and support research at the clinical/diagnostic microbiology interface. His research interests are in the evaluation and implementation of novel diagnostic tests for tuberculosis, the cascade of care for patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis, the pathogenesis and etiology of pneumonia in infants and in the human microbiome.

MB BCh (Wits) FCP (SA) Certificate in Medical Oncology (SA) Specialist Physician / Medical Oncologist

Dr Adam Nosworthy is a Specialist Physician and Medical Oncologist in private practice at the Wits University Donald Gordon Medical Centre. Dr Nosworthy spent all of his training at Wits, he graduated with his MB BCh is 1996 doing his internship at this hospital and a year of medical officer time in the Department of Internal Medicine. He commenced his registrar training in 1999 and was awarded his Fellowship of the College of Medicine (Physicians) in 2002. During his training as a physician he represented the department registrars for two years on the Medicines Advisory Committee of the hospital and was awarded the Jock Gear Award for the Registrar offering most to his colleagues. He went on to sub-specialise in Medical Oncology being awarded the Certificate of Medical Oncology in 2004. Since this time he worked in the Division of Medical Oncology as a specialist and senior specialist. He resigned in 2011 and has been in private practice. Dr Nosworthy has been a board member of the South African Oncology Consortium since 2009 and currently an executive member of the South African Society of Medical Oncology – having organised the National Oncology Conference in 2011 at Sun City. He currently chairs a non-profit cancer organisation aimed at providing quality cancer care to all members of society – The Innovative Cancer Care Foundation. His oncology interests are vast but has a specific interest in GIT pathology, lung malignancies as well as haematological malignancies. His passion is HIV associated malignancies due to the stigma associated with these conditions.

Dr Nuttall specialises in Paediatrician and Paediatric Infectious Diseases. He is a senior specialist and senior lecturer at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and the School of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town

Dr Nuttall’s current areas of interest include, infants, children and adolescents with HIV infection and HIV/TB co-infection including early infant diagnosis, performance of HIV rapid tests in young children, ARV & TB drug dosing and pharmacokinetics, treatment failure and drug resistance.

Dr Oni has a keen interest in urban health and population health transition; including the epidemiology of the interaction between HIV/TB and emerging non-communicable diseases. Having gained experience in the conduct of epidemiological studies from conception, initiation, and analysis to write up, dissemination and conclusion, I am conducting research into the interaction between HIV, TB, and emerging non communicable disease epidemics in high-burden settings and have raised grant funding to facilitate this goal. She is particularly interested in the spatio-temporal epidemiology of population health and the interaction with the environment.

Kevin Rebe is an Infectious Diseases physician working for Health4men in Cape Town, a project of the Anova Health Institute.  Anova Health Institute is an independent non-profit health research and technical assistance program which partners with the South African Department of Health.  Dr Rebe obtained his graduate medical degree at the University of Cape Town and then specialised in Internal Medicine and sub-specialised in Infectious Diseases.  He has obtained diplomas in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and HIV Management. 

Dr Rebe is an honorary senior lecturer in the Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town.  Dr Rebe has a particular interest in sexual health and wellbeing, especially among populations of men who have sex with men.  Aside from his clinical role, Dr Rebe undertakes MSM-related research particularly in the fields of HIV prevention in key populations and has published widely on diverse aspects of HIV.  Dr Rebe is a principle investigator at the Elton John Aids Foundation PrEP Demonstration Project currently running in the Western Cape and Gauteng.  He is also an investigator on a current BMS funded protocol investigating viral hepatitis C in South Africa.

Dr Elna Rudolph is a medical doctor working exclusively in the field of sexual medicine.  She is the clinical head of My Sexual Health – a multidisciplinary team of Sexual Health Professionals in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Witbank.  She is a part-time lecturer at the University of Pretoria, where she did her medical training.  She has a Higher Diploma in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine through the Colleges of Medicine in South Africa obtained a Master’s Degree in Sexual Health through the University of Sydney, Australia.  She is a Fellow of the European Committee for Sexual Medicine, an Honorary Fellow of the Council of Sex Education and Parenthood (International) as well as an Executive Board member of the South African Sexual Health Association (SASHA) and a member of the Advisory Committee for the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS).

Carmen Samb is a Professional Nurse with 22 years experience. She has been in various management positions in South Africa and Saudi Arabia since 2000. Carmen hails from Cape Town where she completed her Nursing Degree at the University of the Western Cape and her Management Post Graduate Diploma at the University of Stellenbosch in 2007. Carmen’s passion is ensuring Quality Patient Care. She has contributed to quality patient care through her involvement in Quality Standards Implementation that covers accreditations such as COHSASA, ISO 9001:2007 as well as the Core Standards compliance at Netcare. She currently holds a Nursing Services Manager position of 4 hospitals in the Krugersdorp area for Netcare.

Maria Sibanyoni is currently the Programme Manager for Sex Workers and Truckers project at Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute providing strategic development, oversight, stakeholder management and general management of the sex workers innovations and related truckers health, trucker stop communities and foreign sex work programmes.

She holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Witwatersrand, with expertise in programme implementation and quality improvement.

Dennis Sifris is acknowledged as a pioneer in the HIV field in South Africa, and has specialised in HIV management since the start of the epidemic over 30 years ago.
As far back as 1985, he started the very first HIV Clinic in South Africa at the Johannesburg Hospital, and was the head of the clinic for five years. 
He is a co-founder of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, and was recently awarded Honorary Life Membership of the Society.
At present he is Chief Medical Officer for LifeSense Disease Management, overseeing the management of over 12,000 HIV patients.
He also currently serves as the managing editor of HIV/AIDS for the New York based About.com.

Professor Sifunda is a Chief Research Specialist in the HIV/AIDS, STIs and TB (HAST) research programme of the Human Science Research Council, Pretoria. He also holds an appointment as an Honorary Professor at Walter Sisulu University. Prior to joining the HSRC Professor Sifunda was a Chief Specialist Scientist at the Medical Research Council of South Africa (MRC). He obtained his MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatics, from the University of Cape Town in 2002 and later completed a PhD in Public Health from the Universiteit Maastricht, the Netherlands in 2005. He has worked as a public health researcher since 1999 and has worked in various projects in HIV/AIDS, STIs, TB, Epidemiology, Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences including large scale surveys such as the YRBS and community based interventions. Dr Sifunda has also worked as public health consultant and advisor in Botswana on a programme funded by the Gates Foundation. He was also a Co-PI in the Swaziland HIV/TB Prison Project (2010-2012) in a collaboration with Morehouse School of Medicine and the University of Swaziland He was also involved in a research capacity development Programme for tertiary institutions in Mozambique funded by the EU in partnership with MUNDO a Netherlands based development agency. He also serves as a scientific reviewer in several international public health journals such as Aids and Behavior, Health Education Research and the International Journal of Prisoner Health

LLB; LLM

Sasha Stevenson is an qualified attorney at SECTION27. She works primarily on the right of access to heath care services and on the right to food and basic nutrition. 

Sasha's work takes her between government department boardrooms and remote villages in the Eastern Cape, the North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. SECTION27’s use of the law to catalyse social change means that, far from maintaining a traditional legal practice, Sasha is just as likely to be found speaking about rights to nurses and patients in a remote rural clinic as doing policy research or drafting court papers.

Prior to joining SECTION27, Sasha worked at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, before going on to complete an LLM in International Human Rights Law at the University of Cambridge. In 2009 she worked as a clerk for the late former Chief Justice Pius Langa.

Dr. Sunpath is the chair of the organizing committee and one of the scientific advisors of AWACC 2015. He is a specialist family physician who has a wide range of research publications in the public health management of HIV, ART resistance and Tb co infection. He is an honorary senior lecturer at the NR Mandela School of medicine in the Infectious disease unit and a clinical fellow in the family medicine department. After working in the public health sector for the last 25 years, including about 15 years treating PLWHA at McCord hospital in Durban, he now holds a position in the Ethekwini DOH as district clinical specialist. His current work focuses on NHI reengineering projects in the Ethekwini health district, including the integrated clinical systems management programme. He is chair of the district task team for the MDRTB programme and quality improvement in the HAST services. His Current research project as co investigator is the NHI funded KZN ART drug resistance surveillance study.

Dr Technau work is focused around merging service delivery in the field of pediatric HIV and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV with operational research. During the period of high maternal HIV prevalence in Southern Africa this is especially relevant as HIV has led to the reversal of the gains made in reducing infant, child and maternal mortality over the last decades.
As the principal investigator at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital, Dr Technau assists in contributing to the International epidemiological Databases for the Evaluation of AIDS (IeDEA-Southern African region) contribution to the International epidemiological Databases for the Evaluation of AIDS (IeDEA-Southern African region). Apart from contributing data and participating in IeDEA projects he has led a project on understanding the virological outcomes in children as well as coordinated the “Finding Infants with HIV Disease: Evaluation of Resistance, PMTCT Failures and Linking Access to Care (The FInHDER Study).
He has developed and introduced data systems that enable the HIV clinical services to report their activities. These data systems have been engaged in his operational research which has involved introducing peripartum HIV testing for new mothers in the Maternity Ward and involved work on improving follow-up of HIV positive mothers and their exposed infants through the use of cell phone technology.

Dr van Vuuren is currently the Head of Department of Medicine at 3 Military Hospital in Bloemfontein. Cloete is also an Associate Lecturer in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine at the University of the Free State.
Dr van Vuuren main interests include HIV Resistance, Tuberculosis and HIV, antibiotic stewardship, cost effective medicine as well as disease prevention

Associate Professor, Division of Medical Virology, Stellenbosch University and Specialist Pathologist Tygerberg NHLS

Gert van Zyl is an associate professor Division of Medical Virology, Department Pathology, Stellenbosch University and NHLS Tygerberg Business Unit, Cape Town.  His research focuses on HIV therapy monitoring, HIV drug resistance and viral persistence on long term therapy, as relevant to resource limited settings and in particular the Southern African setting.

M.A. (PhD candidate) LMHC, LCAT, RPT-S, ATR