Program Committee
Virginia MacDonald
WHO, Global HIV, hepatitis and STI Programme
Virginia Macdonald has worked in global public health for over 15 years. She currently works for the World Health Organization's Global HIV, hepatitis and STI programme as well as at Family Planning Australia. She is interested in increasing access to health services particularly for key populations.
Bao Vu
Senior Technical Director, HIV/TB/Viral Hepatitis, PATH, Vietnam
Dr. Bao Vu Ngoc is an infectious disease physician, with more than 20 years of experience as clinician, researcher, and public health professional in HIV, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, sexual and reproductive health. He currently serves as Senior Technical Director leading HIV, TB, and viral hepatitis portfolios at PATH in Vietnam.
Chunyan Li is a post-doctoral fellow at Tokyo College, the University of Tokyo, Japan. Her research focuses on digital health for HIV prevention and sexual health promotion, and generating socially innovative solutions using crowdsourcing strategies and community engagement frameworks. Her post-doctoral research focuses on accessibility of HIV/STI care among international migrants in Japan.
Ari Probandari
Universitas Sebelas Maret
Prof. Ari Probandari is a professor of Public Health at Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. She is also a coordinator of the research and innovation division in the National TB expert committee and advisor for the Indonesia TB research network. Currently, she is working as a co-principal Investigator for several international collaboration projects relevant to point-of-care testing for Infectious Diseases.
Panyaphon Phiphatkhunarnon
Love Foundation
Panyaphon is actively involved with the Love Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on HIV prevention and awareness about PrEP, and conducting research on HIV self-testing and Hepatitis C study in Malaysia and Thailand, aiming to improve accessibility and awareness in these regions. Additionally, working on leveraging online and AI technologies, which underscores his innovative approach to community support and engagement.
Weiming Tang
Co-Director of UNC Project-China and the Advisor of SESH Global, UNC School of Medicine
Weiming Tang, Associate Professor of UNC Chapel Hill, Co-Director of UNC Project-China and the Advisor of SESH Global. Hi is an epidemiologist with a special interest in HIV/STI epidemiology. His research focuses on promoting HIV/STI testing and healthy behavior change among key populations. Specifically, He is interested in using crowdsourcing and decentralized tools to enhance health services.
Phillip Cunningham
St Vincent’s Health Network
Professor Philip Cunningham is Chief Research Officer of St Vincent’s Health Network. He is also the Chief Scientist of the NSW State Reference Laboratory for HIV which plays a significant role in the diagnosis and management for people living with HIV and a program of infectious diseases testing innovation.
He holds a conjoint appointment at the Kirby Institute, UNSW and was awarded the Order of Australia for services to medical research and sexual health medicine in the 2020 Queens Birthday Honours List.
ASHM Health
Edan is a proud Murri and Yulluna man from North-West QLD and proud Polynesian from the Cook Islands. Edan is passionate about advancing health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and leads ASHM's Indigenous portfolio as the organisations Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lead.
Dashika Balak
FIJI Ministry of Health
Dr Dashika Anshu Balak (MBBS, MSc PH) is the Senior Medical officer in-charge of the Suva Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinic at the Fiji Ministry of Health. She specializes in HIV and STIs and has provided training and mentoring in the Pacific. She has experience in policy development, program implementation, M&E and research.
Phillipp Du Cros
Philipp is a Principal Research Fellow and Co-head of the Tuberculosis Elimination and Implementation Science Working Group. An infectious diseases physician and researcher, he has more than 15 years of clinical and public health experience in TB and infectious diseases programs. He has an appointment at Monash Health as an infectious diseases physician.
Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV
Harry Prabowo is Indonesian and he is a proud gay men living with HIV. He’s embarked his journey in 2008 when he formed a local Community-Led Organization work on Service Delivery for Gay Men and other MSM in Indonesia. In 2009, he joined the Indonesia Network of Gay Men, Transgender women and other MSM or GWL-INA as the National Program Manager. Harry moved to Bangkok in 2014 when he’s joined the Asia Pacific Network of People of Living with HIV (APNPLUS) as the MSM living with HIV working group coordinator and his current position at APNPLUS is the Programs Manager.
Bev Lawton
Victoria University of Wellington
Professor Bev Lawton (ONZM), nō Ngāti Porou, is the founder/director of Te Tātai Hauora o Hine (the National Centre for Women’s Health Research Aotearoa) at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. Professor Lawton’s significant contribution to advancing cervical cancer prevention in Aotearoa New Zealand is in her advocacy and research in HPV self-testing.
Anita Suresh
Genomics Unit at FIND
Anita is Director of the Genomics Unit at FIND, evaluating sequencing technologies for diagnostics and surveillance globally across antimicrobial resistance and pandemic threats. She has 18 years of experience in diagnostics commercialization, R&D and policy, an MBA from Kellogg School of Management-Northwestern University, and training in Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology.
USAID EpiC Project at FHI 360
Stephen Mills, PhD, MPH is Asia Regional Director for the USAID EpiC Project at FHI 360. In this capacity, he manages interventions and approaches that try to optimize the HIV prevention, care, and treatment cascade for key populations, especially community-based approaches that reduce stigma and discrimination. He also is involved in the sustainability of these approaches through promoting social contracting and universal health care (UHC) reimbursements from governments to community-based organizations and through the formation of social enterprises that generate program income for these organizations. Steve is a Commissioner in the newly formed Lancet Commission on People-Centered Care for Universal Health Coverage and has served on the Technical Review Panel for the Global Fund on HIV and Equity, Human Rights, and Gender.
Endorsing partners