Council

Mathuram Santosham, M.D., is the founder and director emeritus of the Center for American Indian Health at the Johns Hopkins University. He holds professorships in the Departments of International Health and Pediatrics. Dr. Santosham founded the center to promote physical, mental and behavioral health among Native Americans. His pioneering research on oral rehydration therapy and H.influenzae type b, conducted in partnership with the White Mountain Apache Tribe and Navajo Nation, has helped to save over 50 million lives worldwide. Dr. Santosham is the recipient of numerous awards including the Sabin Gold Medal and the Fries Prize for Improving Health. 

Julia Brotherton, MD, PhD is a public health physician and Medical Director of Australian Center for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer (ACPCC). She is an Honorary Principal Fellow at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health and a Professorial Fellow at Australia’s National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.  She is a medical graduate from the University of Newcastle, NSW, has a Master degree in Public Health, a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Sydney and holds a Fellowship in Public Health Medicine. For over fifteen years Julia has been involved in research and policy development informing the implementation and evaluation of HPV vaccination programs in Australia. She has been a lead investigator in Australian research which has demonstrated the world’s first evidence of dramatic declines in both HPV infections and pre-cancerous cervical lesions in young women post- vaccination. She has over 210 publications to date, is a chief investigator of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Cervical Cancer Control, and is a member of the WHO Director General’s Expert Advisory Group on Cervical Cancer Elimination.

Iacopo Baussano, MD is a scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO). He has a medical degree from Turin University in Italy. A Master of Science in infectious diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. As well as a PhD from the School of Public Health, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Dr. Baussano’s current search includes evaluation of HPV vaccine programme impact in various low- and middle-income country implementation settings for which he is the Principal Investigator. Also, modelling the impact of HPV vaccination and cervical screening in Europe and low- and middle-income countries IARC for which he is the Principal investigator and Coordinator. He was the winner of the Divisional Prize 2008 for Postgraduate Research, Division of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care, School of Public Health, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK (2008), Honorary Research Associate, School of Public Health, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK (2010-2011) and the Honorary Research Fellow, School of Public Health, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK (2012-2018).   

Douglas R. Lowy, M.D. currently serves as Principal Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute. As Laboratory Chief, Dr. Lowy’s two main research areas focus on basic and translational aspects of human papillomavirus infection and on cancer genes. His joint research with John Schiller in the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology (LCO) has identified many aspects of the human papillomavirus (HPV) life cycle, developed technology underlying the FDA-approved HPV vaccines, and elucidated mechanisms for the high efficacy of the vaccines. Secondly, his research is currently examining the DLC1 tumor suppressor, which encodes a Rho-GAP that is down-regulated in a wide variety of cancers, leading to the high Rho activity seen in many advanced cancers. This research has identified important scaffold functions for DLC1, including protein-protein interactions that contribute to the regulation of its activity and its role as a tumor suppressor, and identified kinases that activate and inactivate the functions of DLC1 and the mechanisms by which they do so. 

Jane Kim, PhD is a K.T. Li Professor of Health Economics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She holds a Master’s degree in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health (2001) and a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Decision Sciences from Harvard University (2005). Dr. Kim’s research focuses on the development and application of mathematical modeling methods to evaluate health policy issues related to women’s health. She has developed and used models to perform cost-effectiveness analyses of cervical cancer screening strategies in the U.S., Europe, Hong Kong, and less developed regions. Her methodological interests include integrating different methods of operations research to inform health decision-making in low-resource settings, such as packaging health services at opportune moments and quantifying the impacts of budget and human resource constraints on program effectiveness and feasibility. She has won awards for her presentations at annual meetings held by the Society for Medical Decision Making and the International Papillomavirus Society. 

Dr. Ruanne Barnabas is a South African physician scientist and the Chief of the
Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She is a South African Physician-Epidemiologist. Her research focuses on interventions for HIV
and STD treatment and prevention. She is the protocol chair of the KEN SHE Study to
assess the impact of single-dose HPV vaccination in Kenya. Also, she is the protocol
chair of the Delivery Optimization for antiretroviral (DO ART) Study, which will evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of decentralized, community-based ART
initiation and follow-up compared to clinic- based care. She also leads work assessing
strategies to increase linkage to care including lottery incentives and home delivery.
Recently, her work has extended to COVID-19 prevention. The ultimate aim of her work
is to identify effective and cost-effective HPV, HIV and infectious disease treatment and
prevention strategies to inform public health policy.

You-Lin Qiao, MD, PhD received his Medical Diploma from Sichuan Medical College, Chengdu, China and his Master’s Degree in Medicine from Dalian Medical College. Before returning back to China in 1997, he had been trained for 11 years at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (PhD) and Cancer Prevention Studies Branch, NCI/NIH, USA. He is also the deputy secretary general and director of International Collaboration Department, Cancer Foundation of China, and Deputy Director of the MOH National Expert Committee for Cancer Screening and Prevention in China. He is an author on over 520 peer reviewed publications in both English and Chinese with 19000+ citations and h-index 75. He has been the Most Cited Chinese Researchers For exceptional research performance in the field of Medicine for six consecutive years from 2014 to 2019 (by Elsevier). As an expert in cancer prevention and control, he served as WHO Director-General’s Cancer Control Advisory Committee and WHO’s Cancer Technical Advisory Groups for helping to promote cancer prevention and control programs in developing countries. He is involved in many national and international projects to study etiology, primary intervention including vaccination, and early detection of a variety of cancers through multidisciplinary and global collaborations. He has received several national and international scientific awards, including the 2000 EUROGIN International Award, The Cornelius W. Kruse Award, The Excellent Achievement Award on Medical/Public Health Service in China, 2011 WHO/IARC Medal of Honor, 2016 Certificate of Appreciation for CGH, NCI/NIH, 2016 Health China Top Ten Public Figures and 2018 Pearline Global Cancer Research Humanitarian Award.

Dr Neerja Bhatla is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Working in collaboration with Gynecologic Oncology Committee of the Federation of Obstetrics &
Gynecological Societies of India (FOGSI), she has largely contributed to the development of guidelines for cervical cancer screening and prevention in India.

Cathy Ndiaye, PhD, MPH is a senior technical advisor at the Center for Vaccine Innovation & Access at PATH. Cathy has provided technical assistance to reproductive health and immunization programs in several countries in Africa, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Zimbabwe. She supports Ministries of Health in the introduction planning, implementation and evaluation of new vaccines, mainly the HPV vaccine, and in the fight against cervical cancer, in collaboration with diverse bilateral and multilateral institutions. Prior to PATH, Cathy worked on a number of projects related to vaccines and infectious disease control for Agence de Médecine Préventive, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Research Center of the University of Montreal and the International Health Research Center in Montreal. Cathy conducted research on cervical cancer and head and neck cancers, which led to several scientific publications. In addition, she managed HIV research studies in Mali and Burkina Faso, and coordinated malaria research for the Harvard Senegal Malaria Initiative. As a postdoctoral fellow, Cathy undertook research on cervical cancer diagnosis and treatment failures. Cathy holds a PhD in public health and epidemiology and a master’s degree in community health, both from the University of Montreal, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Pine Manor College in Boston. She is fluent in French, English, and Wolof.

Francis Dien Mwansa is an immunization specialist at Zambia UNICEF. Dien is an immediate past manager of the National Expanded Program on Immunization for Zambia with more than 8 years’ experience in the role. Dien also served between 2011 and 2014 as the District Medical Officer for both Kaputa and Nsama Districts. He has over 10 years of experience in field epidemiology and donor business operation. His other areas of expertise include immunization, child health, adolescent health, and maternal health.  Dien holds an Advanced Diploma in Leadership and Management (Dip.L&M) – NIPA, a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology (BSc.HB) – UNZA, A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB.Ch.B) – UNZA, a Master of Science, Epidemiology (MSc.) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) – Cumbria,UK.