Dr Kathleen Sikkema 

Kathleen J. Sikkema, Ph.D., conducts community based intervention research focused on HIV prevention and mental health treatment in the U.S. and in low and middle income countries. She is a clinical psychologist who specializes in health and community psychology. Dr. Sikkema has led pioneering scholarship in global mental health, specifically related to traumatic stress, coping and gender violence. Funded by NIH for thirty years, her research program has focused on community-level HIV prevention trials, mental health interventions to improve HIV care engagement, and university-community research collaboration. U.S.-based HIV prevention interventions and mental health interventions developed by Dr. Sikkema and her teams have been identified by CDC and SAMHSA as best evidence interventions. Her research on HIV and mental health has had wide-ranging impact, including the development of prevention programs to improve health behaviors and access to treatment in low resource populations in this country and abroad. In South Africa, where Dr. Sikkema has worked for over twenty years, her current research focuses on integrating mental health treatment into HIV primary care for women who have experienced sexual trauma. This research addresses the syndemic nature of HIV and mental disorders, whereby social and economic contextual factors create and exacerbate the risk of disease progression.

Dr Leickness Simbayi 

Professor Simbayi is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) for Research (DCEO-R) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa since 1 January 2016. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Sussex in England, United Kingdom. He is a registered Research Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa's Professional Board of Psychology and also a Member of Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). He is also currently an Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. He is also a National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researcher.

During the past two decades Professor Simbayi has mostly conducted his research in the area of social aspects of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In particular, his research has focused on second-generation HIV surveillance especially using biobehavioural surveys, HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), determinants of HIV infection (such as poverty, alcohol and drug use, gender-based violence, sex in the presence of blood, multiple sexual partnerships, and male circumcision), and theory-based HIV social and behavioural risk reduction interventions including positive prevention which targets people living with HIV/AIDS who are aware of their status. He has published 138 scientific articles in both local and international peer-reviewed academic journals, 26 research reports, 15 abstracts, and 12 book chapters. He co-edited a book entitled HIV/AIDS in South Africa 25 Years on: Psychosocial Perspectives which was published by Springer of New York in 2009. He has also presented more than 300 papers and posters at both local and international conferences.

Associate Professor Hetta Gouse

Prof Hetta Gouse is a neuropsychologist and Chief Research Officer/Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town (UCT). She received her B.Soc.Sci, Honours, MA in Research Psychology (clinical neuropsychology) and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Psychology, UCT, and completed her postdoctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry, UCT. She has provided scientific oversight and led projects (R21-R01) within the HIV Mental Health Research Unit and the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health since 2008. She is the Director of the Safety and Cognition in Driving (SCID) Laboratory at UCT. Prof Gouse was awarded a K43-Emerging Global Leader Award from the Fogarty Institute in 2016.