Kennedy Mupeli
Botswana
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Kennedy Mupeli is a long-time advocate and educator in the HIV community. In 2017, as an AVAC Advocacy Fellow, Kennedy spearheaded a critical PrEP initiative in Botswana aimed at bolstering education, advocacy, and crucial partnerships with civil society organizations to streamline PrEP delivery. By 2019, Kennedy’s dedication to the fight against HIV deepened as he was selected as the International AIDS Society (IAS) Cure Advocacy Fellow. He is also the co-founder of the U=U Africa Forum. In his current role as the Community Engagement Lead for the IMPRINT Project, Kennedy is at the forefront of translating innovative fungal treatment findings from the ACTA and AMBITIONcm studies into actionable, real-world applications. Kennedy is also the visionary behind the Botswana Media Science Café and a crucial figure on the U=U Global Community Board for the Prevention Access Campaign.
Sekgabo Seselamarumo
Botswana
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Sekgabo Seselamarumo is a dynamic HIV advocate, educator, and media influencer from Botswana, committed to transforming health and wellness for young people, especially those living with HIV. As a Youth Advocate with Sentebale’s Let Youth Lead program, she has become a powerful voice, reaching over 90,000 listeners as a presenter on Radio Positive. Her creative campaigns, like viral TikTok content on long-acting injectables with over 1 million views, showcase her ability to mobilize and inspire. In 2024, she was selected as a Fellow of the HIV Cure Advocacy-for-Cure Academy (IAS & AVAC) and served as an AIDS 2024 Media Fellow with the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW), amplifying the stories of young people and women on global platforms.
Simon Ondiek
Kenya
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Simon Odiwuor Ondiek is a public health specialist with over a decade of experience in research, evaluation, and advocacy. Holding a Bachelor of Science in Public Health, he is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health at the University of Manchester. Simon has led and contributed to several key projects, advocating for the uptake of Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), Microbicides, HIV vaccines, conducting comprehensive evaluations and landscape analyses in areas like sexually transmitted infections (STI) and digital health. His work with organizations such as AVAC has focused on STI and HIV prevention advocacy, particularly in policy reforms and community engagement. Through his advocacy efforts, Simon has successfully mobilized communities, influenced stakeholders, and contributed to global health dialogues.
Jacqueline Wambui
Kenya
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Jacqueline Wambui holds the position of Regional CAB Coordinator at the Afrocab Treatment Access Partnership. Passionate about advocating for the treatment and prevention of HIV, she focuses particularly on the rights of HIV-positive individuals and AGYW (adolescent girls and young women). With over fifteen years of experience in HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights programs in Kenya, she has spearheaded various advocacy campaigns that have positively impacted people living with HIV and AGYW at national, regional, and global levels. Jacqueline also co-led the FASTER Paediatric and Adolescent CAB and is an AVAC Alumni Fellow as well as a member of the GCAG for the Merck Monthly Pill Trial. Additionally, she serves on the African Women’s Community Prevention Accountability Board (AWCPAB). Jacqueline’s efforts have garnered recognition, including the AIDS 2020 Women, Girls, and HIV Investigator’s Prize.
Jerop Limo
Kenya
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Jerop Limo is an Adolescent HIV Programming Expert and the Executive Director of AYARHEP (Ambassador for Youth and Adolescent Reproductive Health Program). With eight years of experience in the SRHR/HIV space, she has worked at community, national, regional, and global levels, ensuring that adolescents and young people are heard and prioritized. Jerop actively serves on various boards and advisory groups, using her voice to amplify the needs of young people. She is a Council Member of the Young Women HIV Prevention Council and Chair of the Dual Prevention Pill Advisory Group, both convened by AVAC.
Ulanda Mtamba
Malawi
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Ulanda Mtamba, the Executive Director of the Generational Empowerment Movement (GEM Organization), supports the development of skills and access to opportunities for girls and young women through mentorship and coaching, leadership development, educational support, social and behavioral change interventions, and services. Ulanda serves on different boards, including the African Women HIV Prevention Community Accountability Board, EXPreSSIVE-10 GCAG, ViiV CAB, KUHES Ethics Committee, and Social Directorate of the Blantyre Archdiocese. She is among the 13 African women named the BBC’s 100 Women for 2023, alongside Michelle Obama and Melinda French Gates, the 100 Inspiring Women 2024 Season II for Wealth Woman. Africa’s 50 most influential women and 10 inspiring African women Leading Change in 2025 by Africa Policy Conversations. She holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration.
Grace Kumwenda
Malawi
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Grace Kumwenda is a Public Health Practitioner with 15+ years’ experience advancing HIV prevention, research, and advocacy across Africa and globally. She is Regional Program Manager at AVAC, leading community engagement in clinical trial design and shaping HIV prevention R&D agendas. Previously, she served as Chief of Party at Pakachere Institute in Malawi, managing PEPFAR-funded initiatives including DREAMS and Local Endeavors for HIV Prevention. Grace serves on advisory boards such as the African Women HIV Prevention Community Accountability Board and Elevate Her Malawi and contributes to global committees including CROI’s Community Liaison Subcommittee and the PrEP Steering Committee. A recognized leader, she holds an MSc in International Public Health and fellowships including Perennial Leadership (2021) and Global Change Leader (2015).
Mitch Mirichi Matoga
Malawi
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Mitch is a physician-scientist at the University of North Carolina Project Malawi. His current roles include Director of HIV prevention and STI Research and Clinical Services and he is the lead for the Implementation Science Research Unit. Mitch’s research focus includes HIV and STI prevention and treatment research, cure research and vaccine trials. He has been conducting clinical trials and epidemiological studies since 2011 with clinical trial networks such as the Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Groups, HIV Vaccine Trial Network, HIV Prevention Trials Network and the STI Clinical Trials Group.
Adaobi Olisa
Nigeria
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Adaobi Lisa Olisa is a global health advocate and youth leader with expertise in HIV prevention, gender-responsive policy, and research translation. As a member of AVAC’s Clinical Trial Design Academy, she brings a strong track record of advancing youth engagement and multi-stakeholder collaboration to expand access to PrEP choice across Africa. Adaobi currently serves on the Board of Root to Rise, a nonprofit organization working to ensure lifesaving health innovations reach the communities that need them the most. She previously co-led the global youth engagement strategy for the USAID-funded MOSAIC project, supporting work across 10 African countries and contributing to Nigeria’s rollout of biomedical HIV prevention tools, including long-acting cabotegravir for PrEP. Her global leadership includes roles as an IAS Vaccine and Cure Advocacy Fellow, CROI Community Scholar, and MOSAIC NextGen Squad member.
Osadebamwen N. Eghaghe
Nigeria
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Osadebamwen N. Eghaghe is a dedicated public health practitioner by profession with a focus on Infectious Diseases (HIV/AIDS, TB, Hepatitis) and NCDs, SRHR, Trials Design, and Methodology in Behavioural and Public Health Interventions affecting Vulnerable populations, Marginalized populations, and key populations, especially young women and adolescent girls. Throughout her career, she has amassed progressive experience in SRHR, project management, research coordination, administration, volunteering, and the deployment of process improvement initiatives to achieve project goals with non-governmental organizations.
Nandi Sikwana
South Africa
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Nandisile is Regional Stakeholder Engagement Manager at AVAC, providing technical support for research engagement across East and Southern Africa. She leads community, civil society, and stakeholder engagement for AVAC projects and works with regional and global advisory structures to advance biomedical HIV prevention, with a focus on AGYW and women-centered advocacy. Since joining AVAC in 2019, Nandisile has developed and supported advisory mechanisms amplifying the voices of women and girls and contributed to HIV prevention and product introduction projects across sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, she was Lead Community Engagement Project Manager at the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, overseeing engagement for major efficacy vaccine and bNAb trials, including HVTN 702, 703, and 705. She received the Omololu Falobi Award for Excellence in HIV Prevention Research Community Advocacy (2016).
Catherine M Slack
South Africa
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Cathy is a clinical psychologist and Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Law University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and Honorary Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council (SA MRC). She is head of the HIV AIDS Vaccines Ethics Group (HAVEG), which undertakes reviews of ethics guidance, empirical research and resource development for HIV prevention trials. She was a member of a DSMB for several vaccine trials and was a member of a council that sets standards for health research ethics in South Africa (the National Health Research Ethics Council) for 3 terms (2007-2016). Her interests include community/stakeholder engagement, ancillary care, informed consent, adolescent enrolment, and ethics review. She is especially interested in how empirical data might best inform normative guidance.
Ntando Yola
South Africa
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Ntando Yola is Stakeholder and Community Engagement Lead at the University of Cape Town Clinical Trials Unit and the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation. He brings extensive experience in HIV, TB, and related research, creating environments where stakeholders play meaningful roles in health R&D. Co-founder of Advocates for Prevention of HIV in Africa (APHA), he drives community-led advocacy initiatives. Ntando chairs the HIV Prevention Trials Network Community Working Group and serves as a national leader in the South African National AIDS Council – Civil Society Forum (Research Sector). He has contributed to regional and international platforms and published on HIV, stakeholder engagement, and advocacy.
Francis Luwole
Tanzania
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Francis Luwole is a Country Coordinator for COMPASS Coalition in Tanzania, under leadership of Pangaea Zimbabwe, and Board Chairperson of Focus for the Future Generation Organization (2FG). He is a public health specialist with skills and experience in project planning, monitoring, coordination and advocacy. He is experienced in HIV, SRHR and other aspects of community health response among children, youth, AGYW, Vulnerable Populations and People Living with HIV (PLHIV). He is an ardent advocate of combination prevention, differentiated service delivery, and addressing structural barriers that hinder some population groups from accessing health services. Through COMPASS Tanzania and Focus for the Future Generation, he has participated in leading advocacy endeavours involving PEPFAR, Global Fund and the government of Tanzania since 2018.
Catherine Madebe
Tanzania
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Catherine has seven years of practical experience assisting young people in understanding various issues concerning SRHR and HIV/AIDS. She believes pursuing activism in an unusual business style could push Tanzania to achieve significant milestones in addressing SRHR and improving the HIV response among AGYW. With her outstanding performance in leading and championing SRHR and HIV agendas among youth, she was awarded the Southern African AIDS Trust (SAT) as the Best Celebrity on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights in Eastern and Southern Africa. Catherine is also an AVAC Fellow alumni 2022/2023; done a project on strengthening AGYW engagement in HIV prevention response and advocates for new prevention technologies, i.e. Dapivirine Vaginal Ring and Injectable PrEP.
Nsubuga Supercharger
Uganda
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Moses Supercharger is an artist, radio DJ, and a person openly and positively living with HIV since 1994. He represents the global family of PLWH on several networks, including ACTG, INSIGHT, IAS Cure board, and ASLM, and he is the ambassador of AIGHD in Africa. He heads JABASA, a CBO in Uganda, promoting HIV prevention, treatment and research literacy. He is the founder of the Stigmaless band, a music group of youth born and living with HIV. Moses Supercharger is the proprietor of the first global HIV ARTseum under construction in Uganda, and he leads the committee that organizes the annual HIV cure community conference in Uganda. He is an AVAC Alumni fellow, the first one ever to do an HIV cure research-related fellowship.
Ruth Akulu
Uganda
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Ruth Akulu is an economist, award-winning HIV prevention advocate, and founder of HopeStone Insight Uganda, advancing health justice through community-driven solutions, creative advocacy, and health economics. Openly living with HIV, she combines lived experience with professional expertise to champion the meaningful inclusion of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) in HIV prevention. An AVAC Fellow (2022/23), Ruth contributes to the Prevention Forward project and serves on national and global platforms, including Uganda’s Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism, the Young Women HIV Prevention Council, and the African HIV Control Working Group. Through HopeStone Insight Uganda, she ensures HIV prevention is evidence-based, economically sustainable, and grounded in community realities.
Patricia Humura
Uganda
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Patricia Humura is an aspiring bioethicist completing a Master of Health Sciences in Bioethics at Makerere University. She began her advocacy journey early, focusing on youth and women’s rights, and has strong research interests in ethics and community engagement. Patricia serves on advisory boards including the Global Community Advisory Board of the EXPRESSIVE-10 study, Baylor College of Medicine’s Community Advisory Board, and the Adolescent and Youth Sub-CAB. She is a member of the Vibrant Young Voices Consortium and formerly a HER Voice Fund Mentor. Patricia also supported SRHR campaigns like Inside My Purse and recently joined the Forum for Collaborative Research as a Community Advisory Member.
Stacey Hannah
United States
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Stacey is a global public health professional with over twenty years of experience in clinical research in the developing world, including advocacy through local, national and international stakeholder outreach; technical support provision for the conduct of HIV prevention and tuberculosis treatment clinical trials; knowledge transfer and partnership building through innovative education and training mechanisms; and operational management. Since 2011, she has led AVAC’s influential Good Participatory Practice program, which governs stakeholder engagement in research processes. Since its inception in 2016, she has directed AVAC’s Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research project, which built Africa-based and led advocacy for the development of new HIV prevention interventions.
Harry Tembo
Zambia
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Harry is a dedicated HIV and infectious diseases community educator in Zambia, committed to advancing community health and biomedical research. He has served as Chairperson of the Zambia Community Advisory Platform and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group Community Advisory Board, developing networks of treatment and prevention advocates and facilitating engagement with researchers, doctors, and pharmaceutical partners. Harry creates tools for community feedback, addresses misconceptions about clinical trials, and promotes understanding of IRBs and DSMBs. He volunteers with local health initiatives, including the Kwacha-Ngwee Home-Based Care Project and Kalingalinga Clinic CAB. His work strengthens community representation, improves health outcomes, and fosters inclusive clinical research.
Natasha Mwila
Zambia
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Natasha is a passionate HIV prevention advocate committed to advancing health equity and the implementation of cutting-edge biomedical strategies for HIV prevention. Natasha draws her passion from a personal connection to the cause, having grown up in environments heavily burdened by HIV, which continues to affect numerous vulnerable populations. She holds an MSc in Analytical Epidemiology and a BA in Economics, Marketing, and Psychology. She is an AVAC 2022 alumni and an IVLP 2024 alumni. Natasha currently serves as a Global Alliance Champion. Her work is centred on advancing health equity and ensuring access to essential HIV prevention services through advocating for the introduction of new HIV products, research, policy development and community engagement.
Chilufya Kasanda
Zambia
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Chilufya Kasanda is Executive Director of the Ascend Futures Foundation, a social development professional with extensive experience in HIV programming, advocacy, community mobilization, and gender-transformative initiatives. She holds a BA in Development Studies and an MA in Human Rights, Governance, and Development from the University of Zambia. Chilufya advances HIV prevention and PrEP advocacy, particularly for adolescent girls and young women, contributing to initiatives like the Women’s HIV Prevention Choice Manifesto. She serves on multiple professional and advisory boards, including African Women Prevention Community Accountability Board, the Expressive Study GCAG, and she co-chairs the civil society caucus on long-acting PrEP coalition.
Idah Mulala
Zambia
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Idah Mulala is a registered nurse and Development Studies student at the University of Lusaka with over five years of experience in HIV prevention advocacy. She serves as Programs Manager at Ascend Futures Foundation, leading youth-focused programs and supporting the scale-up of biomedical HIV prevention tools in Zambia. Idah has contributed to national guidelines for the dapivirine vaginal ring and injectable cabotegravir and is an alumna of the IAS HIV Vaccine Advocacy Mentorship Program. She has contributed to networks such as the Coalition for Reproductive Justice in Africa, championing choice, equity, and meaningful youth engagement in HIV prevention research and programs.
Definate Nhamo
Zimbabwe
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Definate Nhamo, a PhD candidate, is Programmes Director at Pangaea Zimbabwe, overseeing HIV prevention research, programming, and advocacy initiatives that enhance women’s access to HIV prevention and SRH services. She leads stakeholder engagement, demand creation, research utilization, and knowledge management, while supervising the business development team to foster global collaborations. Previously, Nhamo served as Project Lead and Deputy Lead for the MATRIX, CASPR, and MOSAIC Implementation Science Projects. Definate has been with Pangaea Zimbabwe since its inception in 2013, bringing a wealth of experience in research, implementation science, policy advocacy, and stakeholder engagement.
Cleopatra Mpaso
Zimbabwe
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Cleopatra Mpaso is an HIV prevention advocate, sexual and reproductive health champion, and PhD candidate in Psychology. With a strong background in biomedical HIV prevention research, community engagement, and program implementation, she is passionate about ensuring accessible HIV prevention options for young people and key populations. Cleopatra has led initiatives to reduce HIV infections among pregnant and lactating women and conducted HIV prevention literacy sessions for adolescent girls and young women. Trained in counselling psychology, she brings a unique blend of psychosocial support and advocacy expertise, along with a strong commitment to stakeholder coordination and community-driven solutions. A former AVAC Fellow, Cleopatra continues to advance HIV prevention advocacy while pursuing her doctoral studies.
Dr. Lillian Benjamin
Tanzania
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Lilian Benjamin Mwakyosi is a highly accomplished healthcare advocate and leader based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She earned her Doctor of Medicine Degree (M.D.) from the Hubert Kairuki Memorial University in 2017, and since then has dedicated her career to improving access to healthcare services for young people and communities living and affected with HIV in East Africa. Lilian is the Executive Director and founder of DARE organization, a young women-led NGO that focuses on promoting young peoples’ leadership and involvement in designing and implementing innovative approaches to enhance access to differentiated sexual and reproductive health services.
Mitchell Warren
United States
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Mitchell Warren has served as Executive Director of AVAC since 2004, guiding its global strategy and partnerships across research, policy, and advocacy. Under his leadership, AVAC has expanded from a focus on HIV vaccines to a comprehensive R&D and access agenda, including biomedical prevention options and the development of the Good Participatory Practice (GPP) Guidelines with UNAIDS. He previously held leadership roles at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), The Female Health Company, and Population Services International (PSI), where he advanced HIV prevention and reproductive health programs worldwide. Mitchell serves on the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board, the IAS Governing Council, and multiple global health initiatives, and holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.