Organizing Committee

Beatriz Grinsztejn

Beatriz Grinsztejn is an infectious diseases physician and researcher at the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases-Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro. She is the Director of the STD/AIDS Clinical Research Laboratory and principal investigator of the FIOCRUZ HIV Prevention and Therapeutic Clinical Trials Unit. The unit is affiliated with the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the ANRS, and implements prevention and therapeutic clinical trials and cohort studies. She is the Brazilian principal investigator for the Caribbean, Central and South America network for HIV epidemiology of the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS. Beatriz 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. She is a faculty member of the Master’s and PhD programme on clinical research in infectious diseases at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.

Draurio Barreira

Draurio Barreira is a public health physician and epidemiologist. He graduated from the Fluminense Federal University in 1987 and has postgraduate degrees in collective health from the State University of Rio de Janeiro and in epidemiology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of South Florida. Barreira was the first manager of the STI/AIDS Program in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the 1990s and the head of the Epidemiological Surveillance Unit of the former National STI/AIDS Program and Coordinator of the National Tuberculosis Control Program, both at Brazil’s Ministry of Health. Since 2015, he has served as Senior Technical Manager at Unitaid, the health innovation agency of the World Health Organization in Geneva. He is currently the Director of the Department of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Viral Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections of the Health and Environment Surveillance Secretariat at the Ministry of Health. 

Claudia Cortes

Claudia Cortes is an internal medicine physician and infectious diseases specialist. Since 2005, she has been dedicated to HIV and AIDS in client care and research. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the University of Chile. She has played a key leadership role in the Chilean Infectious Diseases Society (SOCHINF), where she previously served as Chair of the HIV Advisory Committee and Vice President of the Society. She remains an active member of the HIV Advisory Committee. Her work extends beyond clinical care to include extensive contributions to research in HIV, as well as the training and mentoring of new physicians in the field. She also serves as a consultant to the Chilean Ministry of Health, contributing to the development and revision of national HIV and AIDS clinical guidelines and participating in various national committees focused on HIV prevention, testing and treatment strategies. Since 2020, she has served on the IAS Governing Council.

Kenneth Ngure

Kenneth Ngure, MPH, MSc, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Global Health and the Chair Department of Community Health at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. He is an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Visiting Scientist at the Kenyatta National Hospital and Visiting Professor at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health. He is also a member of the Expert Committee on Clinical Trials of the Kenyan Pharmacy and Poisons Board. He 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 over 20 years’ public health leadership experience in diverse HIV and AIDS research settings in Africa and has consulted for such bodies as the World Health Organization.

Birgit Poniatowski

With more than 20 years of public health and international development experience, Birgit Poniatowski was appointed as IAS Executive Director in November 2020. This followed more than five years at the organization, leading an expanding team responsible for resource mobilization, sustainable partnerships across diverse sectors and key strategic initiatives. Before joining the IAS, Birgit was the Director for Investment and Partnerships at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. Earlier, she managed partnerships and supported the alliance’s multi-stakeholder governance processes at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Birgit was educated at Bonn and Heidelberg Universities in Germany and the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. She holds a PhD from Heidelberg University.

Darrell Tan

Darrell Tan is an infectious diseases physician and clinician-scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He earned his undergraduate degree at McGill University in Montreal and completed medical school and residency training (2007) and a PhD in clinical epidemiology (2012) at the University of Toronto. Darrell has dedicated himself to working on the HIV epidemic because of its impact on key historically marginalized communities, including sexual and gender minorities and racialized populations. His research programme is focused on optimizing strategies for effective HIV prevention and addressing the overlapping epidemics of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). He holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in HIV Prevention and STIs, and has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator in multi-centre clinical trials and cohort studies related to pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis, antiretroviral therapy, herpes simplex virus co-infection, syphilis screening and STI prophylaxis.

Erika Castellanos

Erika Castellanos is a trans woman living with HIV from Belize who lives in the Netherlands. A social worker by profession, Erika joined GATE as Director of Programs in April 2017 and has held the role of Interim Executive Director since February 2022. Erika plays an important role in the participation of trans people in global key decision-making platforms. This includes being part of the Communities Delegation on the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. On 1 June 2018, Erika became the first openly trans advocate to be appointed to the Board of the Global Fund.

Joseph Robert Linda

Joseph Robert Linda is a youth advocate with over five years of experience in HIV, TB and SRHR programming for young people. He focuses on ending the AIDS pandemic among young people by ensuring their meaningful engagement in local and regional platforms. He serves as the U=U Youth Strategist at the Prevention Access Campaign. In this role, he leads youth-centred campaigns to empower fellow young people living with HIV to champion the U=U message and lead in the U=U global movement. Currently, Linda is the AVAC Advocacy Navigator for 2024, creating awareness, accessibility and uptake of comprehensive HIV prevention methods among young people and key populations in selected low-income areas of Kampala, Uganda. He also serves as a youth advocate at AHF Uganda Cares. In 2023, he was selected as an IAS Youth Hub Seed Grantee with the Naguru Youth Health Network in Uganda.

Christian Gaebler

Christian Gaebler is a Professor at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, leading the Laboratory for Translational Immunology of Viral Infections and co-leading the Personalized Infectious Medicine programme at the Berlin Institute of Health. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor at Rockefeller University in New York. As a physician-scientist, his research ranges from basic immunology of viral infections to the clinical development of antibody immunotherapies for infectious diseases, with a focus on HIV. Christian’s contributions have earned him significant recognition, including the 2021 Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award and the 2023 German AIDS Award from the German AIDS Society.

Fernando Valiente-Echeverria

Fernando Valiente-Echeverria is a biochemist who holds a PhD in microbiology. He is a Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre for HIV and AIDS Integral Research Virology Program at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile. His work is focused mainly on evasion of the host response against acquisition of HIV-1, the impact of biomolecular condensates on viral replication, and characterizing emerging zoonotic pathogens. He is a past president of the Chilean Society of Microbiology and the current national representative in the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses and in COVIRED, a strategic initiative of the Ibero-American Program of Science and Technology for Development (CYTED).

Anton Pozniak

Anton Pozniak is a consultant physician in HIV Medicine at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and honorary  Professor in the Department of Clinical Research at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1996 and a life member of the British HIV Association (BHIVA) in 2014. As a former IAS President (2018-20), he has served on track and coordinating committees for multiple IAS-organized conferences. He  is executive member and past president of the European AIDS trial network, NEAT-ID, and serves on WHO, EACS and BHIVA anti-viral guidelines. He is DSMB Chair of the MRC PENTA studies and principal investigator for a  test-and-treat project in Tanzania, and a board member of the charity "Doctors for Africa" CUAMM UK. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers.

Sandra Wagner Cardoso

Sandra Wagner Cardoso is a public health researcher and research physician coordinating the Clinical Studies Unit of the HIV/STI Clinical Research Laboratory at INI-Fiocruz. At INI/Fiocruz, she is actively involved in the design, implementation and coordination of research studies aimed at improving healthcare outcomes. She collaborates with national and international research networks and participates regularly in major scientific conferences. She is an active member of the Advancing Clinical Therapeutics Globally for HIV/AIDS and Other Infections Group (ACTG), where she previously served on the Antiretroviral Therapy Strategies Subcommittee, the Viral Hepatitis Subcommittee and the HIV Cure Subcommittee. She is an investigator at-large on ACTG’s Scientific Agenda Steering Committee. Sandra is affiliated with the HIV Prevention Trials Network, HIV Vaccine Trials Network and Caribbean, Central and South America Network for HIV Research. She is a Professor in research-focused and professionally oriented graduate programmes and a medical residency preceptor at INI-Fiocruz.

Jean-Michel Molina

Jean-Michel Molina is Professor of Medicine at the University of Paris Cité and Head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Saint-Louis and Lariboisière Hospitals in Paris. He has been involved in studies assessing new drugs or strategies for treatment of HIV; his department follows a cohort of more than 6,000 people living with HIV. He is a member of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) U1342 team investigating cell biology of viral infections, and is involved in the French National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS), where he chaired the clinical trial group for the past 12 years. He has broadened his field of interest to the prevention of HIV and STIs and led the ANRS IPERGAY PrEP trial in men who have sex with men, with his unit following more than 3,500 people on PrEP. Jean-Michel has authored many papers in a variety of scientific journals. 

Renee Heffron

Renee Heffron, Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama (UAB), is a clinical epidemiologist and HIV prevention researcher. Her experience includes execution of implementation science, clinical trials, behavioural science and qualitative research. She leads numerous research projects focused on biomedical HIV prevention using pre-exposure prophylaxis, including studies of novel products and optimizing delivery of efficacious products with close collaborations in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. At UAB, she is the Director of the Center for AIDS Research, which has a 35-year history of supporting HIV research across disciplines of basic, clinical, implementation and community sciences. Throughout her career, Renee has been a mentor to dozens of trainees, including doctoral students, fellows and early-career investigators at US and African institutions.

Benjamin Bavinton

Benjamin Bavinton has worked in the field of HIV prevention and research in Australia and internationally for 20 years. He is a Senior Research Fellow and Group Leader at the Kirby Institute, The University of New South Wales, focusing on the biomedical, behavioural and epidemiological aspects of HIV prevention among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men and trans women in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Thiago Torres

Thiago Torres is a scientist and Professor at INI-Fiocruz in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Thiago obtained his PhD in clinical research in infectious diseases from INI-Fiocruz and did postdoctoral training at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and San Francisco Public Health Department. He has been working in epidemiological, behavioural, prevention and PrEP implementation studies targeting sexual and gender minorities. He was part of the core team of ImPrEP, the largest PrEP implementation study in Latin America, and is part of the core team of the ImPrEP CAB-Brasil study, which is evaluating implementation of cabotegravir in the public health system. Thiago is the  Co-Chair of HPTN 113, which is evaluating the efficacy of a mHealth tool package to support PrEP uptake and adherence among Latino men who have sex with men. He is Co-Chair of the HPTN sexual and gender minorities scientific committee. 

Renata Arrington Sanders

Renata Arrington Sanders is the Division Chief of the Craig-Dalsimer Division of Adolescent Medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine. Previously, Renata was in the Division of Adolescent & Young Adult Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with a joint appointment in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Departments of Epidemiology and Health, Behavior and Society. She has spent over 20 years caring for people living with and vulnerable to HIV, cultivating research, practice and strategies that address the intersectional and multimodal needs of young people across their life course. Her current roles include serving on the Research Review Committee of the American Board of Pediatrics and Board of Directors of SIECUS, Sex Ed for Social Change and American Sexual Health Association. Renata has been an IAS Member since 2012 and on its Governing Council since 2020. 

Saiqa Mullick 

Saiqa Mullick is a Reader/Associate Professor and Director of Implementation Science at the Wits RHI, leading a team driving implementation science research, policy support, demand creation, market shaping and large-scale programme execution. She is a clinician and infectious disease epidemiologist specializing in implementation and evaluation of innovative interventions for HIV prevention, sexual and reproductive health, and climate and health. Saiqa is the principal investigator on studies focusing on generating real-world data on integrated service delivery for young women. She is PI on the Unitaid-funded Project PrEP, has served as Deputy Director for the USAID-funded OPTIONS Consortium, and has served as a strategic leader in the MOSAIC project. Saiqa serves on several national and international technical expert committees, including the national PrEP and STI technical working groups and the WHO STI Guidelines Development Group. She is a frequent speaker at global conferences on HIV prevention and adolescent health and has published extensively.

Jirair Ratevosian

Jirair Ratevosian is a Hock Fellow at the Duke Global Health Institute and an Associate Research Scientist at Yale University. With two decades of experience spanning public service, non-profit work, the private sector and diplomacy, Jirair has a distinguished track record of advancing global health and human rights initiatives. From 2021 to 2023, he served as Acting Chief of Staff and Health Equity Advisor to Ambassador John Nkengasong at the U.S. State Department. Previously, he led corporate social responsibility in Africa and Asia for Gilead Sciences and was Legislative Director to U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Deputy Director at amfAR. He holds a doctoral degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MPH from Boston University and a BS from the University of California, Los Angeles. His contributions are featured in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Time, The Lancet, The New York Times, TheBody and The Washington Post.

Solange Baptiste

As ITPC Global Executive Director, Solange Baptiste leads a global community of activists and allies working to achieve health and social justice through community engagement. Focusing on HIV as an entry point to the broader right to health, her work encompasses ensuring access to quality treatment, making medicines affordable and building resilient community systems. Central to her leadership is the use of community-generated data to drive innovations that respond to communities’ most pressing challenges. Solange has published widely on community leadership in global health and contributes to technical working and advisory groups at UNAIDS, the Global Fund and WHO; she also serves on the Steering Committee of the Global Public Investment Network. Solange holds a Bachelor of Science in biology from Tuskegee University and a Master of Science in population and international health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, she is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.