Anna Mia Ekström is a Professor of Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet and senior infectious disease consultant at the South General hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. She holds an MPH in quantitative methods from Harvard School of Public Health, an MD from Uppsala University, and a PhD in medical epidemiology. With over 25 years of experience, she leads international research across Europe, Africa, and Asia. Her work focuses on sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV, and emerging infections, with a strong emphasis on women and key populations, including research on gender-based violence, sexual risk, and health equity. She leads the Global & Sexual Health (GloSH) group at Karolinska Institutet and has published over 280 peer-reviewed articles. She has served in multiple global advisory roles, including with the World Health Organization on vaccine access and pandemic response.

Dr Annie Madden is a Project Lead at the International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD) and Principal Investigator on the Unitaid-funded CUTTS Hep C Project, leading an innovative program of community-led research in low- and middle-income countries. She is a leading advocate for centring community voices in research and has spent the past decade leading global efforts to advance community-led values and preferences research among people who use drugs. Annie has a PhD in drug policy, living experience of injecting drug use, OAT and hepatitis C and she has dedicated over 3 decades to improving the health, rights and dignity of her community. She remains hopeful that she will see an end to drug prohibition in her lifetime.

Dr. Lily Ostrer is a clinical fellow in adult and pediatric infectious disease at the University of California San Diego. She is currently conducting modelling research with Dr. Natasha Martin on the impact of long-acting antiretroviral therapy among people who inject drugs. She has an interest in HIV, substance use-related infections, harm reduction, and prevention of perinatal infections.

Shruti Mehta is a Professor and the Charles Armstrong Chair of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is the co-director of the JHU Center for AIDS Research. Her research is focused on improving HIV and hepatitis C prevention and treatment engagement in people who inject drugs.