Dr Andrew Scheibe is a medical doctor by training who works in key population programmes and policy in South Africa and the region. His work focuses on the intersections between infectious diseases, determinants of health, and rights, with a particular focus on substance use and harm reduction. He is a technical advisor for TB HIV Care, a researcher at the University of Pretoria’s Community Oriented Primary Care Research Unit and a consultant working for the South African Network of People Who Use Drugs and Population Services International.

Rita Gatonye is a human rights advocate with over a decade’s experience in peer-led harm reduction and drug policy advocacy, and the Director at Women in Response to HIV/AIDS and Drug Addiction; a harm reduction advocacy organization and network of women and young people who use drugs in East Africa.

Dr Kennedy Kipkoech is a Senior Research Associate in Infectious Diseases mathematical modelling at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. His research specialty and interest are in the application of epidemiological, statistical, and mathematical modelling approaches to understand transmission dynamics and control of infectious diseases, particularly HIV and viral hepatitis.

With a background as a nurse, Ernst has extensive field experience in street-based harm reduction programs and has managed interventions across low- and middle-income countries, including Iran, Afghanistan, and Myanmar. Ernst holds a master’s degree in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and currently serves as Médecins du Monde’s lead on harm reduction, providing strategic direction and technical support to programs in over 10 countries. His work emphasises community mobilisation and empowerment.

Dr. Altice is a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University where he serves as the Director of Clinical and Community Research, the Community Health Care Van and the HIV in Prisons Program. His research training is in implementation science, decision science, behavioral interventions with expertise on intervention adaptation implementation science, including development and adaption of HIV prevention and treatment interventions and expanding evidence-based practices into real-world community settings. He is interested in creation of novel prevention and treatment programs for the treatment of HIV, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, and substance use disorders in vulnerable populations, including people who inject drugs, criminal justice populations, men who have sex with men and both female and transgender sex workers. Dr. Altice has spent considerable time devoted to developing and studying integrated systems of care, including integrating medication-assisted therapies such as methadone, buprenorphine, and extended-release naltrexone into managing co-morbid conditions, including people living with or at risk for HIV, HCV, tuberculosis, and mental illness. As the time from evidence to dissemination often exceeds 17 years, his recent interests have been how to work with individuals and systems to shorten this gap. Dr. Altice is currently leading studies in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Peru, and the United States. He directs a collaborative implementation science center in collaboration with Yale and University of Malaya and has Fogarty training sites in Ukraine, Peru, Georgia and Malaysia.