The Speakers

Dr.Cissy Kityo, MBChB, M.Sc, PhD 

Dr. Cissy is the Executive Director of the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) and the Director for the JCRC College of American Pathologists (CAP) certified laboratories. She is an experienced specialist medical doctor, vaccinologist, and Public Health expert with over 27 years of experience in conducting and coordinating AIDS research and care for patients.  She is one of the pioneers in prescribing ART in sub-Saharan Africa and has been at the forefront of scaling up HIV treatment in Uganda including field work and extension of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to all the districts in Uganda. She spearheaded the development of the JCRC state-of-the-art CAP Accredited clinical and research laboratory at JCRC, equipped to perform a variety of tests and research studies including molecular biology, HIV resistance, Tuberculosis, HIV vaccine trials, pharmacokinetic studies among others. She has been the Principal Investigator, Co-investigator for operational, clinical, and epidemiological trials of HIV treatment and associated infections including TB, as well as intervention studies aimed at preventing HIV transmission and preparation for HIV vaccines.  She is the site PI for the Gilead Sciences Inc. studies and Co-PI for the JCRC Clinical Research Site (CRS) of the ACTG network.  She is a founder member of The Global Gene Therapy Initiative (GGTI) which was formed to tackle the barriers to LMIC inclusion in gene therapy development and is working with various stakeholders to identify and address key areas that are requisite to successful implementation of Gene Therapy in developing countries. 

Hon. Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng (MBChB), MMED (Pediatrics) 

Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng is the Minister of Health- Uganda.   Dr. Aceng holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine), Masters in Public Health and a Diploma in Health System Strengthening.   She is a Pediatrician expert and is currently at the level of Senior Consultant Pediatrics.  She is also a Public Health expert. She has vast experience both as a manager and practicing medical personnel, which she accumulated while serving in various capacities as Medical Officer, Senior Medical Officer, Medical Officer Special Grade, Medical Superintendent, Consultant Pediatrician, Senior Consultant Pediatrician, Hospital Director and formerly as the Director General Health Services where she was responsible for coordinating technical functions for the delivery of Health services, a role she has fulfilled until her appointment as the Minister for Health. As Minister of Health, she possesses the Constitutional Powers and functions of spearheading the Ministry. Among them are Administration, Policy Formulation and Direction. She is also responsible for defending the Ministerial budget and issue orders and statutory regulations on the sector.  In addition, she initiates and presents to Cabinet, the Ministry memorandums and accounts for the State, operations, function and achievements of the health sector. 

Dr. Francis Ssali, MBChB, M.Sc, DTM&H, MMed, 

Dr. Ssali is the Deputy Executive Director of Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC).  In this role, Dr. Ssali leads efforts that continuously strengthen Research and Clinical Services. He is a physician involved in the practice and teaching of HIV–medicine, Internal medicine and Hematology at the JCRC and Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He has over three decades of experience as a Physician specializing in Internal Medicine and Hematology.  For the past 21 years he has been providing care and treatment for People Living with HIV, Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and other medical conditions. He is involved in operational, clinical and epidemiological trials of HIV treatment. He is investigator on various studies including the ACTG–Network studies, HIV reservoir studies, paediatric dose-finding studies on Rilpivirine, studies investigating the effect of antiretroviral therapy on lymphatic tissue among PLHIV in Uganda, and protocols in development for cell and gene therapy trials for both HIV and SCD.  He is a member of the Global Gene Therapy Initiative (GGTI) which is an alliance of various experts working towards the development of and enabling access to cell and gene therapy products in low and middle-income countries including Uganda, a Member of ASH. 

Prof. Pontiano Kaleebu 

Prof.Pontiano is the Director Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and Director of the MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit. He holds a medical degree from Makerere University, a Diploma in Immunology and a PhD from the University of London. He has served on several committees including the WHO HIV Vaccine Advisory Committee, The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise coordinating committee, The UNAIDS science panel, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition Board, the NIAID HIV/AIDS Clinical trials strategic working group and was chair of the African AIDS Vaccine Programme (AAVP). He leads a number of national and regional networks; he is Uganda’s representative to the EDCTP General Assembly. He is a co-Director of the African Partnership for Chronic Disease Research (APCDR) and co-director of the Uganda Medical Informatics Center (UMIC); a computational resource offering data storage and analysis capacity. He also chairs the national HIV drug resistance technical working group under the Ministry of Health and a member of the National Antiretroviral Treatment committee. His main research interests include HIV vaccine research especially understanding protective immune responses, HIV diversity and resistance to antiretroviral therapy. He has authored many research articles/books related to Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery.

Dr.Richard Elion

He has been active in HIV care and research for 28 years. He currently leads a team at Whitman-Walker that is focusing on cutting-edge research initiatives in prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and other STDs. Dr. Elion’s tenure at Whitman-Walker coincided with the organization being selected in 2013, as part of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group by the National Institute of Health (NIH), a distinguished honour for Whitman-Walker, and rare for a community health centre. Prior to joining Whitman-Walker Health, Dr. Elion served as co-director of HIV services at Washington Free Clinic, in private practice in Washington, D.C., and in various research and clinical capacities in New York and in Washington. Dr. Elion received a bachelor’s degree in English and Psychobiology from Tufts University and a medical degree from Temple University. He completed his internship and residency at Duke University. He also holds a Master’s in Counselling and Spiritual Psychology from University of Santa Monica. In addition to his duties at Whitman-Walker, he is currently an associate clinical professor of Internal Medicine at George Washington University and at Johns Hopkins University. 

Dr. Ian Gilson

He is an Internal Medicine Specialist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has over 47 years of experience in the medical field. He graduated from University of Illinois College of Medicine medical school in 1974. He is affiliated with Froedtert Hospital and Medical College of Wisconsin. He is a general internist. 

Dr. Frank Rhame

Frank Rhame received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology at Caltech and an MD at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.  His postgraduate training in internal medicine and infectious diseases was at the University of Michigan and Stanford University respectively.  He was a Medical Epidemiologist in the Hospital Infection Section at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.  In 1979, he joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine where he was Hospital Epidemiologist and became Associate Professor. In 1987, he established the HIV Clinic at the University of Minnesota, which he directed through 1995. In 1995, Dr. Rhame moved to Abbott Northwestern Hospital, part of Allina Health where he does infectious diseases consultation and infectious diseases research.  He is now Adjunct Professor of Infectious Diseases, University of Minnesota. His research activities have involved antiretroviral during prelicensure evaluation, drugs for HIV associated opportunistic conditions, investigator-initiated studies of Raltegravir and Kaletra pharmacokinetics, IL-2, 2 HIV vaccine trials and 2 NIH-sponsored trials seeking to mitigate HIV-associated immune activation. He was the site investigator for the CDC SUN observational study of the long-term consequences of HIV treatment. He has served on DSMBs, as co-chair of the University of Minnesota ACTU, in four CDC HIV related consultation groups and on the initial NIH HIV Study Section.  He conducted three hepatitis-C trials, two influenza trails and two RSV trials.  He is now conducting four COVID-19 trials. Dr. Rhame has traveled extensively internationally to lecture. 

Dr. Sabrina B. Kitaka

Ugandan Medical Doctor with specialized training in Paediatrics and Child health as well as Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Adolescent Medicine. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Paediatrics and Childhealth at the Makerere University, College of Health Sciences. She was a Gilead Fellow, and then Research Scholar at the Infectious Diseases Institute where she undertook a Fellowship in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and did research on HIV-infected adolescents. which she completed in 2011. She has a PhD from the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. She is involved in conducting basic research in various Paediatrics Infectious Diseases and offers clinical care to HIV infected children and adolescents most of whom are perinatally infected. She directs the Adolescent Health training program at the Makerere University College of Health Sciences and is the Founder President of the Society of Adolescent Health in Uganda (www.sahu.ug).Dr.Kitaka is also an active member of the African Paediatric Society of Infectious Diseases (AFSPID). She is an author of the real pursuit of excellence. She is a wife and mother. 

Dr. Henry Mugerwa, MBChB, MSc.CEB, 

He is a medical doctor and an epidemiologist with over 10 years of experience in both clinical care management and research conduct people living with HIV/AIDS and as well as other related medical conditions like tuberculosis (TB). He is currently the director of research at the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC), where he oversees and supervises the coordination of all the research activities in the institution to ensure that they are conducted in accordance with the respective protocols and that both locally and internationally accepted regulations are adhered to. He seeks and promotes collaborations / partnerships with other research entities both locally and internationally. Henry is a member of the JCRC – Research and Ethics Committee (JCRC-REC) and a peer reviewer for the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics as well as the East Africa Health Research Journal. As a researcher, he is / has been an investigator as a Principal investigator, co-principal investigator or as a sub-investigator on a number of studies which include the NIH funded studies; EDCTP funded studies as well as Pharma studies investigating new interventional products in HIV and other non-HIV medical 

Dr. Paul E. Sax 

He is Clinical Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He holds the Bruce A. Beal and Robert L. Beal Distinguished Chair in Infectious Diseases. Dr. Sax received his MD from Harvard Medical School, did his residency in Internal Medicine at BWH, then fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is Editor-in-Chief of Open Forum Infectious Diseases, is Section Editor of HIV/AIDS in Up-to-date, on the Editorial Board of NEJM Journal Watch Infectious Diseases (where he writes the HIV and ID Observations blog), and on the editorial advisory board of Medscape HIV/AIDS. Dr. Sax is the Associate Program Director for the Mass General Brigham fellowship in Infectious Diseases, is on the core faculty of the International Antiviral Society – USA, and teaches regularly on HIV and infectious diseases locally, nationally, and internationally. In addition to his clinical practice and teaching, Dr. Sax’s ongoing areas of research include clinical trials of antiretroviral therapies, cost-effectiveness of management strategies for HIV, and toxicity of antiretroviral therapy. He is presently the principal investigator at the BWH AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, and is a member of the Cost-Effectiveness of Preventing AIDS Complications (CEPAC) Research Group. 

Dr. Stella Alamo 

Stella Alamo holds a Medical Degree from Makerere University, Kampala, a Masters in Disease Control and a PhD from the University of Antwerp and Institute of Tropical Medicine, in Belgium She was awarded the CDC leadership fellowship, from Makerere University School of Public Health.  She is a Chatham House London leadership fellow and is in her final year of Law School. She has received multiple leadership awards. She has more than 20 years public health service experience, sixteen of which have been at the level of Chief Executive. She is extremely passionate about innovation and social inclusion, particularly when it is applied to improve service delivery and access to healthcare. She has published widely in the HIV Domain particularly on community systems. She currently works as the Associate Director Technical Programs for CDC Uganda. 

Dr. Arthur Ahimbisibwe, (MBChB, MPH)

He is a Ugandan based human medical doctor and a public health specialist with over 10 years’ experience in the Uganda’s health sector. Through the ten years’ experience, Dr. Arthur has served under both Public, Private sectors including the Implementing partner-project approach to HIV health care service dispensation in urban, rural and hard to reach/to stay areas both at National and International levels. He accomplishes the following assignments: ART/HIV In-charge Health Sub District at greater Bushenyi at Comboni missionary Hospital-Kyamuhunga and a part-time general practitioner at City Medicals Hospital-Kampala; Deputy medical superintendent at Bundibugyo General Hospital; Full time Lecturer at Faculty of medicine -JOBKEY University, Somalia-Mogadishu; District integrated health services coordinator- under USAID-URC-RHITES-EC project. He also serves as a member of National Technical Working Groups in various thematic areas such as Care and treatment, HIV Drug Resistance, DSD, AHD, and National Quality Improvement platforms. He is the National team lead for Adult HIV care and treatment at the Ministry of Health/AIDS control Division-Uganda. 

Dr.  Michael G. Madlon B.S (Pharmaceutical Sciences), University of Wisconsin USA

Dr.Micheal obtained a Licensure for State of Wisconsin Pharmacist License from State of Wisconsin Pharmacist Intern Preceptor and advanced certification (BCPS and AAHIVP). Was Clinical Instructor Emeritus at UW School of Pharmacy. He was Senior Clinical Pharmacist, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) for September 1968 until August 2015). Has been HIV Clinic Pharmacist for 23 years. Active involvement in clinician training in Uganda as a member of the University of Wisconsin Hospital HIV Program with the late Prof. Frank Graziano with over 25 visits since February 2003. He is one of the Architecture of the annual HIV update meetings in Uganda and has supported the same since its inception. He has attained the following awards/special recognition: Pharmacist Customer Service UWHC Pharmacy Department, 2000; Outstanding Pharmacist of the Year drug Topics Magazine, 2002 and Honorary Resident UWHC Pharmacy Residency Program, 2008.  He belongs to the following professions: Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. He had been author for several titles including: Syndrome Following Bumetanide Administration to Patients with Renal Failure and Hypoalbuminemia; Clinical Clerkship Manual; HIV-1 RNA Quantitation and Antiviral Use in an Outpatient HIV Clinic; Pharmacy Practice Manual; Prospective Long-term Outcomes of a Cohort of Ugandan Children with Laboratory Monitoring During Antiretroviral Therapy.

Dr. Victor Musiime, MBChB, MMED, PhD

Dr. Victor Musiime is an Associate Professor at Makerere University, College of Health Sciences, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, and an Investigator/ Senior Research Consultant at Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC). He has worked as a Paediatrician at JCRC in HIV research, clinical care and treatment since 2004. He previously served as Head of Paediatrics, and Head of Research, at JCRC. He has been and continues to be an investigator (PI/Co-PI) on several research protocols, including multicenter clinical trials. He is a member of the Paediatric ART and Paediatric TB sub committees of the Ministry of Health, as well as a member of the Committee of the National Formulary (CNF) of National Drug Authority. He is the chairman of the board, Kawempe Home Care, and a member of the board, of the African Network of the Care of Children and Adolescents affected by AIDS (ANECCA). He is a member of the Paediatric Antiretroviral Drug Optimization and the Paediatric Antibiotic Optimization groups of WHO. His clinical and research interests are in Paediatric HIV-infection, other infectious diseases, child nutrition, gastroenterology, and other childhood diseases.

Dr. Isaac Ssinabulya

Dr. Isaac Ssinabulya, is a Consultant Cardiologist at the Uganda Heart Institute. He is also a Lecturer at Makerere University College of Health Sciences and Co-Director, Uganda Initiative for Integrated Management of NCDs in Uganda. 

Dr. Diana Antonia Rutebarika

Diana Rutebarika is the Head of Pediatrics at Joint Clinical Research Centre. She is a highly skilled and compassionate pediatrician dedicated to the health and well-being of children. With over 10 years of experience in the field, Dr. Diana has earned a stellar reputation for her expertise in pediatrics after completing medical school at Makerere University, Her commitment to the field is evident through continuous education and involvement in the latest advancements in pediatric medicine. In addition to providing outstanding primary care for children. Dr. Diana is also actively involved in community outreach programs, spreading awareness about child health and safety. Her dedication to the well-being of young patients and their families has made her a trusted figure in the field of pediatrics 

Dr.Immaculate Lillian Nankya MBChB, PhD

Immaculate is a senior virologist at the Joint Clinical Research Centre. She holds a faculty position at Case Western Reserve University USA in the department of Molecular biology and Microbiology. She heads the Centre for AIDS Research Laboratory at JCRC as the onsite director. Immaculate got her bachelors’ degree of Medicine and Surgery at Mbarara University of Science and Technology and got her PhD in virology at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), USA.  She is co-principal investigator on the Case Western Reserve University CFAR grant, she is involved in various CFAR collaborative research projects with various investigators at CWRU and University of Pittsburg focusing on HIV drug resistance, HIV cure and reservoir studies, HIV and malignancy studies. Due to the crucial role she is playing in HIV drug resistance testing and research, she is currently a member of the Ministry of Health-Uganda HIV Drug Resistance Technical working group. Furthermore, she is also a member of the WHO HIV Drug Resistance Laboratory Working Group. 

Dr. Lillian Tugume 

She is an internal medicine physician based at the Infectious Diseases Institute in Kampala with additional training in public health. Her primary research interest is implementation of evidence based diagnostic and treatment strategies for neurologic syndromes in resource limited settings. She has been involved in clinical care, research and community engagement related to HIV associated meningitis in Uganda for nine years. In addition to implementing clinical trials on cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculous meningitis, Lillian has provided clinical care for >1000 patients with HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis as well as hundreds of patients with TB meningitis. Lillian is currently a Fogarty global health leaders fellow investigating the utility of cerebrospinal fluid C- reactive protein for diagnosis and prognosis of TB meningitis. 

Dr. Eleanor Namusoke Magongo 

Eleanor is a pediatrician and child health specialist with experience of 13 years leading teams to design, implement, monitor and evaluate pediatric and adolescent HIV programs. Eleanor led the development of the national third-line Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) program in Uganda and the national clinical systems mentorship toolkit. She is leading the national pediatric and adolescent ART optimization work in Uganda. Her research interest is HIV drug resistance and its impact on health outcomes for children and adolescents living with HIV. She was recently appointed as a member of the international Conference on AIDS and STI’s in Africa (ICASA) scientific committee. She is very passionate about integrating implementation science into HIV programs to bridge the knowledge-practice gaps. She is a member of the Adolescent HIV Prevention and Treatment Implementation Science Alliance (AHISA), an NIH-Fogarty funded global alliance. She is the initiator and led the coordination of the 1st Paediatric and Adolescent HIV Learning Collaborative (PAHLCA). A meeting that fosters south-south learning among African Ministry of Health Paediatric and Adolescent HIV program managers and their respective country partners. The first meeting took place on the 8th and 9th December with representation from 21 African countries including representation from the Switzerland, USA, Canada, Netherlands, and Colombia. Eleanor is also the initiator and is leading the organization of 1st International Paediatric HIV/AIDS Symposium in Africa (IPHASA), a scientific meeting that will precede every ICASA conference starting in 2021. Eleanor graduated from the Afya Bora Global Health Leadership course run by the University of Washington, Seattle USA.

Dr. William S. Tamale 

William Tamale is a graduate of Makerere University and a holder of MBChB and MPH of the same University. He has a sustained interest in Continuous Quality Improvement, to which he is a Fellow in CQI and is constantly called upon to share his experience at Makerere University School of Public Health. He started managing HIV in 2002 and as such, he has gained valuable experience in the field. He is engaged in HIV program management, Clinical and Research work. As an HIV/AIDS specialist in Uganda, William sees on average 20–25 HIV patients on anti-retroviral therapy per day. Alongside his clinical work, he manages the clinic and runs clinical trials – roughly one to two every 2 years. Accordingly, he gained great interest from overseas elective students who want to learn more about the clinical situation faced by doctors and patients in a lower-resource setting like Uganda. To date, he has supervised over 30 elective medical students from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Kenya, and Nigeria. As a host doctor, he is intrigued and excited about the local and international elective students who visit JCRC and Uganda in general. Particularly, given that trainees are soon becoming doctors faced with patients who depend on their clinical skills and judgemejudgmentnt to solve medical and social problems. The elective serves as an ideal opportunity to begin that transition – from student to practitioner and he provides support.

Dr George Patrick Akabwai 

is a specialist in internal medicine with interest in infectious diseases working as a Specialist Physician and Researcher at Baylor Uganda. He is also an investigator in the HPTN084, IMPAACT 2009, BREATHER PLus/LATA clinical trials at the Baylor COE. He is an Honorary Lecturer of internal Medicine at Makerere University and offers technical support to MOH in the 3rd Line ART committee, Hepatitis B and C technical working group and has taken part in the HIV and Malaria National guidelines development. He is soon commencing his PhD on metabolic profiles of adolescents on injectable CABOTEGRAVIR/Rilpivirine and DTG containing ART regimens 

Dr Patrick Ssebunya  

Patrick Ssebunya is a Ugandan Medical Doctor and a graduate of Makerere University, with over 4 years transformational experience in the medical field, passionate about sexual and reproductive health; and optimistic about a bright medical research career and an HIV/AIDS free society. Currently a Research Medical Doctor at Joint Clinical Research Centre, worked with Uganda Martyrs’ Hospital Lubaga and volunteered with Reproductive Health Uganda. 

Dr. Kanyike Francis 

He is a trained Public Health Specialist at the Joint clinical Research Centre (JCRC) with 12 years’ experience in delivering PEPFAR USG donor-funded HIV /TB prevention, care, treatment, research and programs at the health facility, district and regional level. He has worked with the AIDS Clinical Trials group (ACTG) Ugandan site at the Joint clinical research Centre as a study investigator responsible for implementation, management and technical oversight of the clinical trials services portfolio covering several ACTG protocols. He has worked for reputable organizations including: Infectious Diseases institute (IDI), Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) and Baylor Uganda. He is a national TB trainer with experience in TB curriculum development, mentorship and training for District teams and frontline health care workers, as well as scientific writing. He has provided technical assistance on facility and community prevention interventions for HIV-TB including; TB prevention therapy (TPT), HIV testing services (HTS), Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), key and priority population programs, gender-based violence, prevention of mother to childhood transmission of HIV, Post Exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as well as scaling up the establishment of One-stop TB-HIV treatment centers in Public health sites. He has passion for research and as such has presented abstracts at both local and international conferences. He holds a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from Makerere University and a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery [MBChB] from the same Institution.