Dr. Anke Hemmerling is a researcher at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, focusing on the prevention of HIV and bacterial vaginosis in women. She also serves as faculty at UCSF and at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, where she directs the Interdisciplinary MPH Program. Dr. Hemmerling also serves as scientific advisor to CAMI Health and the Initiative for Multipurpose Prevention Technologies (IMPT).

Dr. Joseph Romano is President of NWJ Group, LLC, a biotechnology and pharmaceutical consulting firm that focuses primarily on non-profit and academic support for drug, device and diagnostic development. He consults to multiple organizations involved in HIV prevention product development. As Scientific Advisor, Dr. Romano supports CAMI Health’s capacity to provide central leadership as the IMPT Secretariat, including the planning and implementation of activities related to funder collaboration; refining the IMPT strategic plan to ensure scientific coordination across the MPT field; and support of other scientific, technological and development issues related to the MPT field. Prior to his role at NWJ Group, LLC, Dr. Romano was Chief of Product Development at IPM, and was responsible for the product research and development activity there for microbicides. Before joining IPM, Dr. Romano served as vice president of research at Biosyn, Inc., a private corporation that develops microbicides against HIV and other STI’s. Dr. Romano’s research at Biosyn focused on HIV-specific and broad spectrum anti-infectives and combination microbicides. Prior to focusing on microbicide research, he spent 10 years in the HIV field at ABL Inc., a subsidiary of AKZO-Nobel. There, he was involved in research related to Kaposi’s sarcoma, cytokine expression and vaccine development. He was also responsible for developing novel diagnostic technologies targeting HIV infection, viral load quantitation and immune response monitoring. He spent three years at the National Cancer Institute of the U.S. National Institutes of Health where his research involved molecular characterization of tumor suppressor genes. Dr. Romano’s training is primarily in molecular virology and immunology, and he received a BS in biology from Lehigh University, and MS and PhD degrees in microbiology from Rutgers University. Dr. Romano has published widely and he regularly presents at international scientific conferences. He is listed as the inventor on multiple patents.

Chief Research Officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI),a Research Professor at the university of Washington ( Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Global Health) and volunteer faculty at the University of California San Francisco , Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive sciences. She is a visiting Scientist at the University of Nairobi, an honorary lecturer at Aga Khan University in Nairobi and is faculty at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Culture at the Sind Institute for urology and transplantation Karachi. Her primary research interest includes STIs, reproductive health and HIV prevention, care and treatment in addition to interest in ethics and the development of systems and structures for regulating research, She has had a focus on capacity building for many years and has been engaged in the training and mentorship young scientists. She serves on many international boards, taskforces, and committees. Education PhD (University of Washington) MPH (University of Washington) MM (University of Nairobi (Kenya)) BS (University of Nairobi (Kenya)) Country Affiliations Kenya Languages Kiswahili Luo (Dholuo)

Dr. Ariane van der Straten is an Adjunct Professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, and an independent investigator and consultant through ASTRA consulting. She also serves as the Chair of the Socio-Behavioral Research Working Groups for two NIH-funded HIV prevention networks: the MTN and the HPTN and is a member of the Behavioral Science Collaborative Group of the NIMH funded HANC Network. She recently joined the USAID funded MATRIX collaborative as a consultant to the Prime (Dr. Sharon Hillier at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, PA, USA). Over the past 25 years, Ariane has researched women’s sexual health issues through the lifespan, from menarche to post-menopause, by combining biomedical and socio-behavioral strategies. Her expertise spans preclinical and clinical research (phase I to III trials) evaluating short and long-acting HIV prevention approaches (topical, oral, injectable, or implantable), and multi-purpose prevention technologies (MPT) for HIV and pregnancy prevention; for over seven years, she also led the development of a biodegradable implant, as an end-user informed long-acting HIV drug delivery platform.

Iana Simeonov is an innovation consultant and digital health strategist focused on building the entrepreneurial and technical capacity of healthcare, life sciences and public health organizations. Simeonov has catalyzed and facilitated the design and implementation of consumer-centric technology innovations across the healthcare spectrum, discovering opportunities, engaging stakeholders, creating value and driving operational efficiency in organizations such as UCSF, Genentech, Continuum Clinical, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, UWG Inc. and the Public Health Institute. Simeonov serves as an advisor to CAMI Health and the IMPT, providing guidance on strategy and emerging technology. She also directs and consults on other independent grant-funded projects based at PHI. Her areas of expertise include consumer insights, social marketing, branding and communications strategy and integrating mobile and social media components within public health programs, particularly those focused on low-income or at-risk audiences. Simeonov has developed and launched statewide and national health marketing campaigns and is a pioneer in the field of mHealth, which exploits the near-ubiquity of mobile phones to provide health information and education, perform research, serve as a diagnostic tool, and deliver and manage care.