This program focused on the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). We explored the PEPFAR funding landscape and reflected on our progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
Resources
Speakers
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John N. Nkengasong
Ambassador-At-Large, US Global AIDS Coordinator and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy, Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)
John N. Nkengasong
Ambassador-At-Large, US Global AIDS Coordinator and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy, Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)
Dr. John N. Nkengasong was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator May 5, 2022 and officially sworn in on June 13, 2022. A little over a year later, Ambassador Nkengasong joined U.S. Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken to launch State Department’s Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy (GHSD) August 1, 2023, which he leads. GHSD serves as the Department’s coordinating body for work on strengthening global health security to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS; as well as elevates and integrates global health security as a core component of U.S. national security and foreign policy. As its Senior Bureau Official, Ambassador Nkengasong leads U.S. diplomatic engagement; leverages and helps coordinate U.S. foreign assistance; and promotes international cooperation at the national, regional, and multilateral levels to better protect the United States and the world from health threats. GHSD is now home to the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history, prevent millions of HIV infections, save lives, and make progress toward ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic as a global health threat, which the Ambassador leads. Born in Cameroon, Dr. Nkengasong is the first person of African origin to hold this position. In 2017, Dr. Nkengasong was appointed as the first Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Through his leadership, a framework for moving Africa CDC into a full autonomous health agency of the Africa Union was established. Dr. Nkengasong led efforts to create policy frameworks to guide countries to establish and strengthen their public health institutes and defined and implemented a system to collate national surveillance data. He also led the COVID-19 response in Africa, coordinating with heads of state and governments across the continent, among other achievements to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped secure 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines at the height of vaccine scarcity. During his tenure, he was appointed as one of the World Health Organization’s special envoys on COVID-19 preparedness and response. Dr. Nkengasong served as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Global HIV and Tuberculosis’ International Laboratory Branch Chief and as the Associate Director for Laboratory Science. Subsequently, he served as Acting Deputy Director at the CDC Center for Global Health and Co-Chair of the PEPFAR’s Laboratory Technical Working Group. As a leading virologist with over 30 years of experience in public health, Dr. Nkengasong was appointed as a board member for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in New York, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, in Norway. He received his B.Sc. from the Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé, Cameroon; his M.Sc. from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium; and his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Brussels, Belgium. He also received a Diploma in Leadership and Management from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Dr. Nkengasong is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and recognitions. Most recently, he served as one of the World Health Organization Director General’s Special Envoys for COVID-19. In 2021, Dr. Nkengasong was recognized as Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, where he was described as “a modern-day hero.” Additional awards include the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Award for excellence in Public Health Protection Research, the Shepard Award, the U.S. Director’s Recognitions Award and the William Watson Medal of Excellence, the highest recognition awarded by CDC; which was awarded for outstanding contributions and leadership in advancing global laboratory services and programs to support the PEPFAR. Most recently, Dr. Nkengasong was invited to become a member of the National Academy of Medicine; became the first-ever laureate of the Virchow Prize for Global Health, for his dedication to improving the health and wellbeing of the world’s most vulnerable people; and received the African of the Year Award from All Africa Business Leaders Award in partnership with CNBC Africa and Forbes Africa. He has authored or co-authored over 250 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in professional journals. -
Susan Cu-Uvin
Professor, Ob-Gyn and Medicine; Director, Providence/Boston Center for AIDS Research, Brown University
Susan Cu-Uvin
Professor, Ob-Gyn and Medicine; Director, Providence/Boston Center for AIDS Research, Brown University
Dr. Susan Cu-Uvin is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medicine at the Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University and Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the School of Public Health. She is Principal Investigator of a D43 HIV and Cervical CA Training Grant with MOI University in Kenya. She is the director of the Providence / Boston Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). She was the Director of the Immunology Center at the Miriam Hospital, Brown University, a clinic that now serves 1,700 HIV infected patients until mid-2009. She chaired the Women’s Health Committee of the Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) from 2003-2006. She had been NIH funded since 1996 and the Principal Investigator of several RO1s to assess HIV dynamics in the female genital tract. She was a co-investigator of the CDC funded study to understand the natural history of HIV in women (HERS) and the study to understand the natural history of HIV and AIDS in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (SUN). She had a K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award in Patient Oriented Research which allowed her to mentor several junior investigators locally as well as internationally. She has been a co-investigator in studies related to mucosal immunity, microbicides, STI’s and immune reconstitution in the female genital tract. She is a member of the Public Health Service Task Force/Perinatal Antiretroviral Guidelines Working Group, Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council and the NIH advisory committee on HIV related research in women and girls. She is a member of the NIH advisory committee on HIV related research in microbicides and chairs the HPV Working Group, USPHS/IDSA Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections. She was the recipient of the Constance B. Wofsy Women’s Health Investigator Award from the AIDS Clinical Trials Group. She is a member of the Adult / Adolescent HIV Guidelines and the CDC STD Treatment Guidelines.
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Alan E. Greenberg
Director, District of Columbia Center for AIDS Research; Professor, Milken Institute School of Public Health and School of Medicine and Health Sciences, George Washington University
Alan E. Greenberg
Director, District of Columbia Center for AIDS Research; Professor, Milken Institute School of Public Health and School of Medicine and Health Sciences, George Washington University
Alan E. Greenberg is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology in the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, and a Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine in the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Professor Greenberg served as the Chair of the Department of Epidemiology (formerly Epidemiology and Biostatistics) from 2005-2022. His primary focus is on the epidemiology of HIV and other infectious diseases, and he has developed numerous multidisciplinary initiatives with academic, community and government partners in Washington DC. Currently, Dr. Greenberg is Director, District of Columbia Center for AIDS Research (DC CFAR); Senior Co-Investigator, DC Cohort; Secretariat, DC Partnership for AIDS Progress (PFAP); and Director, GW-Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) Partnership.
Prior to joining the GWSPH, Dr. Greenberg served as a USPHS Commissioned Corps Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1985-2005, where he provided scientific leadership for domestic and international HIV epidemiologic research. He served as the director of CDC’s HIV research station in Cote d’Ivoire from 1993-1997, and Chief of the HIV Epidemiology Branch from 1998-2005. He received his MD from GW School of Medicine in 1982 and his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1999. He was the recipient of the American Public Health Hero Award from Research America! in 2008, the Alvan R. Feinstein Award for Clinical Epidemiology from the American College of Physicians in 2015, and the Sizanani Award from Global Camps Africa in 2018.
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Renee Heffron (CAS'00)
Professor of Medicine; Director, Center for AIDS Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Renee Heffron (CAS'00)
Professor of Medicine; Director, Center for AIDS Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Renee Heffron, Professor of Medicine at UAB, is a clinical epidemiologist and HIV prevention researcher with experience that incorporates implementation science, behavioral 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. She is the Director of the Center for AIDS Research at UAB, a center with a 35-year history of supporting HIV research across disciplines of basic, clinical, implementation, and community sciences. Throughout her career she has been a mentor to dozens of trainees including doctoral students, fellows, and early career investigators at US and African institutions.
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Peter Hayward
Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet HIV (MODERATOR)
Peter Hayward
Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet HIV (MODERATOR)
Peter Hayward is the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet HIV and has served in this role since 2014. Mr. Hayward hosts the podcast “The Lancet HIV, in conversation with” and speaks to the journal’s authors to explore their research and its impact on people’s health, health care, and health policy. He previously served as Deputy Editor of The Lancet Infectious Disease.
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