Dr. Pedro Mateu-Gelabert is Professor of Community Health and Social Sciences at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. A sociologist with over 25 years of research experience, his work focuses on the epidemiology of drug use and the prevention of HIV and Hepatitis C among people who use drugs. A national expert on opioid use among youth, he studies urban social networks, immigration, and harm reduction, and collaborates internationally in Latin America. He is Principal Investigator on multiple NIDA-funded studies. He holds a PhD in Sociology from New York University.

Ravi Goyal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on the intersection of statistics, mathematical modeling, and program evaluation. His work has centered on developing and applying novel statistical methodologies to design, model, and assess the impact of infectious disease interventions, particularly in the context of HIV, HCV, and hepatitis A. He currently serves as the Associate Director of the Biostatistics and Modeling Core for the San Diego Center for AIDS Research.

Maria Malakhova is a public health specialist working at the intersection of harm reduction, digital health, and mental health. She serves as Programme Manager for Innovation and Digital Projects at the Alliance for Public Health, where she leads the development and implementation of technology-enabled health interventions for key populations. Her work focuses on improving access to care for people who use drugs and other marginalized groups through innovative service models, including AI-based digital assistants and integrated mental health approaches. Maria has been involved in developing and scaling digital health tools such as TWIIN, an AI-powered assistant providing support on HIV, mental health, and harm reduction, currently implemented in Ukraine and being explored for regional scale-up.

Josh is trying his best to do research that helps people who can get or who have blood-borne viruses. He likes rock climbing.

Adama A Traore is a medical doctor, epidemiologist and psychiatry resident based in Bamako, Mali. He works at the Department of Psychiatry of the University Hospital Point G and collaborates with ARCAD Santé PLUS on community-based addiction and harm reduction programs. His research focuses on substance use disorders, mental health and infectious diseases among people who use drugs in low-resource settings. He coordinates clinical data initiatives, leads epidemiological analyses and contributes to the design of integrated models of care linking HIV, hepatitis and mental health services. Dr Traore has presented his work at regional conferences and published on substance use and mental health in West Africa. He is committed to strengthening evidence-based practice, capacity building and equitable access to care for vulnerable populations through research, clinical practice and community engagement.

Marianne Alanko Blomé is a senior ID physician and medical supervisor of the Malmö Needle Syringe program. She is also assistant county medical officer at the center of communicable diseases prevention and control in Skåne Region, Sweden.

Dr. Chappell is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, a board-certified addiction medicine provider, and a reproductive infectious disease specialist whose research is focused on improving health outcomes among perinatal populations with substance use disorders including those who are living with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and/or HIV. Recently, her research has focused on utilizing pharmacology-based approaches to optimize drug dosing during pregnancy and postpartum including medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD).

Dr. Oluwatosin Jegede is a Public Health Physician, Epidemiologist, and Modeler. He worked with UNODC on prison health and harm reduction. He is a PhD Candidate in Public Health at UC San Diego. His research is focused on modeling the impact of drug markets on opioid overdoses in California, the cost-effectiveness of Hepatitis C treatment in India, and the impact of harm reduction services on HIV incidence in South Africa.