In this section: Lynda Morris, Gonda Perez and more.
Lynn Morris
Head: AIDS Virus Research Unit
National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Tel: +27 11 386 6332
www.nicd.ac.za
Professor Lynn Morris is a chief specialist scientist and head of the Aids Unit at the National Institute and holds a joint appointment as research professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. She completed her BSc honours degree at Wits and obtained her DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1988. She was awarded a fellowship from the Royal Society UK for postdoctoral research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. In 1993 she returned to South Africa where she has made significant contributions to the understanding of local HI viruses, in part supported through a prestigious Wellcome Trust International senior research fellowship. She has published 110 scientific papers and participates in many committees and discussions on HIV research. From 1996 to 2007 she supervised seven PhD and six masters students and is currently supervising four PhD and two masters students. She chaired the 2nd South African AIDS Conference in 2005 and was the chairperson of the international AIDS Vaccine 2008 Conference in October 2008
Gonda Perez
Deputy Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Cape Town
Tel: +27 21 406 6106
www.health.uct.ac.za
Professor Gonda Perez is the first black deputy dean of the faculty of health sciences at the University of Cape Town. She graduated with an MDent in community dentistry at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1998 and has extensive teaching and research experience in dental health. She has published widely on public health and human rights as well as health transformation and occupational health. She has served as the director of health promotion and communication as well as head of ministerial services, welfare and population development in the national department of health. She was also chief director in communication and ministerial services in the department of public service and administration. As a health activist, Perez was active in various health committees, forums and conferences responsible for and contributing to formulating dental health policy within South Africa.
Hulda Shaidi Swai
Principal Research Scientist
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
Tel: +27 12 841 2366
www.csir.co.za
Dr Hulda Swai is a principal research scientist at Polymers and Bioceramics at the CSIR. For the past three years she has worked on polymer encapsulation of living material such as bacteria, cells, vitamins and vaccines. She is a principal investigator in the development of nano-drug delivery systems, with emphasis on delivering tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/Aids drugs. Swai completed her doctoral studies at the University of London, where her work included the development of an anti-fungal, slow-release device for HIV/Aids patients infected with candida yeast infections; the device was approved by the Medical Research Council in Britain. Swai received the CSIR’s Material Science and Manufacturing Excellence award for special contribution on the nano-drug delivery for anti-TB drugs. She is a member of the Developing Countries Coordinating Committee, which is an independent advisory body to the European and Development Clinical Trial Partnership of prominent African scientists and health professionals.
Shereen Usdin
Senior Executive
Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication
Tel: +27 11 341 0360
www.soulcity.org.za
Dr Shereen Usdin helped to establish the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication in 1992. The NGO has since won international renown for its contributions to raising public awareness of health issues, particularly relating to HIV and Aids. Usdin qualied as a medical doctor at the University of the Witwatersrand and holds a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University. She was named the 2004 SABC/Shoprite-Checkers Woman of the Year in the health category and received the Gordon School of Business Science’s Social Entrepreneur Award in 2006. She has authored two books, one on the Aids pandemic and the other on the politics of global health. Her work concentrates on health and development communication, HIV and Aids, gender, health and human rights. She was a founding mem¬ber of Acess (the Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security) and is a member of its board. She is also on the board of the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence Against Women and is a member of the Presidential Working Group on Women.
Linda-Gail Bekker
Deputy-Director/Chief Operating Officer
Desmond Tutu HIV Centre/Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation
Tel: +27 21 650 6959
www.desmondtutuhivcentre.org.za
Professor Linda-Gail Bekker is one of South Africa’s leading research specialists in tuberculosis and HIV. She graduated from the University of Cape Town as a medical doctor in 1987, a medical specialist from the South African College of Medicine in 1996, and was awarded her PhD in 2000. A champion for better care and treatment for HIV, she has, together with her husband, Professor Robin Wood, established the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation which seeks to lessen the impact of the HIV epidemic on individuals, families and communities by combining academic expertise with social activism. Over the last few years, Bekker has extended her research agenda to include HIV preventive strategies, in particular in target populations such as youth, women, and men who have sex with men. Innovative projects have included, amongst others, a mobile HIV clinic, the Tutu Tester, that provides screening for HIV and other chronic diseases; and a lay adherence counselling service, Sizophila. She is editor of the Southern Africa Journal of HIV Medicine and has authored and co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and a number of book chapters.
Carol-Ann Benn
Specialist Surgeon
Netcare Breast Care Centre of Excellence
Tel: +27 11 480 5779
www.breasthealth.co.za
Dr Carol-Ann Benn is one of South Africa’s top breast-cancer experts. After working as a surgeon at Chris Hani Baragwanath for six years, she was asked in 1998 to head the breast clinic at Johannesburg Hospital. She subsequently established breast-care clinics at Chris Hani Baragwanath, Helen Joseph and Milpark hospitals, offering counselling, telephonic advice and holistic health. The specialist breast unit at Helen Joseph is regarded as a top Gauteng health department unit that offers public sector patients access to holistic specialist care. In 2002 Benn established the Breast Health Foundation, which aims to educate patients and the medical community through forums and outreach programmes. Benn regularly presents academic papers, teaches young doctors and has co-authored a book called Know Your Breast.
Sharon Fonn
Head: School of Public Health
University of the Witwatersrand
Tel: + 27 11 717 2543
www.wits.ac.za
Professor Sharon Fonn is head of the school of public health of the University of the Witwatersrand. Her most recent areas of work focus on improving access to and functioning of the public healthcare system with a focus on maternal health, HIV and chronic diseases. She has also worked extensively on cervical cancer and other reproductive health issues. Fonn is involved in strengthening research capacity in Africa through her involvement with the World Health Organisation and other international agencies and institutions. She co-leads a programme with a number of African partners to ensure the next generation of public health practitioners are committed to equity, including gender equity. She is a medical doctor, has a PhD in community health from the University of the Witwatersrand and diplomas in epidemiology and occupational health. In 2005 she was awarded the department of science and technology’s distinguished scientist award for contributions to the quality of life of women.
Glenda Gray
Director: Perinatal HIV Research Unit
University of the Witwatersrand
Tel: +27 11 989 9703
www.phru.co.za
Professor Glenda Gray is a paediatrician and a co-director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (University of the Witwatersrand), based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. She’s an expert in the field of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, HIV vaccine clinical trials and the management of HIV in children. Her work has benefited HIV-positive pregnant women throughout sub-Saharan Africa by developing affordable interventions to protect babies from HIV infection during pregnancy, birth and early life. Gray’s contributions to this field were recognised in 2002 when she received the inaugural Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award, and again in 2003 when she received the Hero in Medicine Award from the International Association of Physicians in Aids Care. More recently, she was a co-recipient of the 2009 N’Galy-Mann Award, which honors pioneers in the global response to AIDS. Gray led the implementation of the first HIV vaccine clinical trials in South Africa. She is responsible for the clinical testing of potential HIV vaccines being developed by the South Africa Aids Vaccine Initiative.
Rachel Jewkes
Director: Gender and Health Research Unit
Medical Research Council
Tel: +27 12 339 85253
www.mrc.ac.za
Professor Rachel Jewkes is the director of the Medical Research Council’s Gender and Health Research Unit and an honorary professor in the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand. She trained as a medical doctor in London, completed specialist training in public health medicine in the United Kingdom, and received both her master’s degree in community medicine and her doctorate in medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Jewkes has spent the past 15 years researching gender and gender-based violence and their intersections with health in South Africa. She has authored more than 170 publications, including 85 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 19 book chapters. She is the secretary of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, a global initiative seeking to promote research into sexual violence to use it in advocacy and prevention work. She was also a member of the steering committee of the World Health Organisation’s multi-country study on violence against women and is a member of the multi-country Men and Gender Equity Policy Project. She was the founder and is the secretary of the South African Gender-Based Violence and Health Initiative.
Julia Kim
Clinical Research Fellow: Gender and HIV
Rural Aids and Development Action Research (Radar), School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand
Tel: +27 21 433 2278
www.mrc.ac.za
Dr Julia Kim is a physician and public health specialist who is based with the School of Public Health, Wits University, and the Health Policy Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has served on numerous national and global task teams focusing on issues relating to reproductive health, gender-based violence and HIV/Aids. Published outputs cover a range of issues including interventions to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in low-income settings, integrating reproductive health and HIV/Aids, HIV post-exposure prophylaxis, HIV clinical services and health systems development, strengthening research utilisation and addressing social determinants of health. Recent work has focused on the intersections between poverty, gender inequalities and HIV/Aids, including the Image Programme, which combines microfinance with gender/HIV training for rural women. As a musician, she is interested in exploring the interface between popular culture and public health, particularly the role of music and the arts as a medium for social change.
Patience Mavata
Director
Ihkaya Lobomi
Tel: +27 74 1773867
Based in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, Patience Mavata founded Ikhaya Lobomi (Home of Life), an NGO providing help for HIV-infected people in the Valley of a Thousand Hills outside Pinetown. She is a trained professional nurse, earning her qualification from Addington College in Durban. Through her NGO, she helps HIV-infected people to build houses, create vegetable gardens, access life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs and create an income. Mavata’s practical knowledge, and her application thereof, is widely recognised; the University of KwaZulu-Natal has involved her in the supervision of honours nursing students to ensure that their research projects are useful to the community. She has been awarded, amongst other honours, the Community Development Mayoral Award for Excellence, the SAFM Women Otherwise award, the Unilever Award 100 and a Unilever Exceptional Women award.
Diane McIntyre
Health Economics Professor: Health Economics Unit, Department of Public Health and Family Medicine
University of Cape Town
Tel: + 27 21 406 6579
www.heu.uct.ac.za>
Diane McIntyre has more than 20 years of professional experience in health economics and health policy issues. In 1990 she founded the Health Economics Unit based in the Department of Public Health, University of Cape Town and was its director for 13 years. She has served on numerous policy committees and as chairperson of the Medicine Pricing Committee. She has extensive experience in research, technical support and capacity development. Her research and technical support experience relate to alternative healthcare financing mechanisms (user fees and mandatory health insurance), resource allocation (needs-based formulae and fiscal federalism issues), challenges in the public-private health sector mix, and mechanisms for promoting health equity and access to health services. McIntyre’s PhD was entitled Healthcare financing and expenditure in South Africa: Towards equity and efficiency in policy making. She has a keen interest in developing understanding of health economics and policy, and has produced training materials for the World Bank, as well as coordinating regional courses for Anglophone Africa.