Organizing Committee Members

Conference Co-Chairs

After completing a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Microbiology at the University of Manitoba, Dr. Williams relocated to Calgary where he finished medical school, a residency in Internal Medicine and a Masters in Microbiology before undertaking an Infectious Diseases fellowship for 3 years at the University of Washington in Seattle.  There, his interest in HIV was nurtured in a highly research orientated environment.

On returning to Canada in 1989, he accepted a position at the University of Saskatchewan in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. After securing provincial funding to staff and continue development of the Central Saskatchewan Immunodeficiency Clinic, Dr. Williams has enjoyed seeing the clinic expand and the division of Infectious Diseases increase from 2 to 6 adult and 2 pediatric specialists.       

He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan in the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology, Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Medical Director and Co-Director of the Living Well: Positive Living Programs (Immunodeficiency Clinic and Hepatitis Clinic respectively).

Brian Conway, M.D. is a full-time Professor at the University of British Columbia, Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He is Coordinator of the Downtown Infectious Diseases Clinic in Vancouver and Infectious Diseases Consultant with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which serves the inner city population on the infamous "Downtown East Side." He also serves as an Infectious Diseases Consultant at the Yale Medical Clinic.

Dr. Conway is a member of several professional organizations and has recently been appointed as the Co-chair on the Ministerial Council for the federal initiative on HIV/AIDS, working with and reporting directly to Health Minister Leona Aglukkak. He is the president of the Société Santé en français a federal group charged with the development of health care services for francophones living in the 9 provinces and 3 territories outside Quebec.  He is the past president of the Canadian Association for HIV Research and co-chair of its upcoming 19th Annual Conference in May 2010 in Saskatoon.

In addition to coordinating the first year “Doctor, Patient and Society” for the UBC medical school and supervising several dozen undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students over the past decade, Dr. Conway is deeply involved in a range of HIV-related research and clinical practice efforts. Over the past 5 years, he has played a leadership role in the development of novel strategies for the delivery of care for HIV, HCV, genital herpes and other infections in the inner city. These strategies have emphasized the simplification of therapeutic options and integration of medical, addiction and psychological aspects of care. He holds significant research funding to develop a model for the treatment of HCV & HIV infection within a directly observed therapy (DOT) program, focusing on the treatment of intravenous drug users.   His programs have received a number of awards for their innovation and success, including the Health Employers Association of British Columbia Award of Excellence in 2008.  He was the Francophone of The Year in British Columbia in 2007, for his work in the development of culturally and linguistically optimized systems of care for minority populations.

He is a peer reviewer for 13 medical journals and the primary or senior author of more than 120 peer-reviewed publications. He has been an invited speaker at many international HIV conferences and meetings dealing with HIV.

Dr. Conway received his medical education at McGill University, from which he graduated in 1982 before completing his internship and residency at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Royal Victoria Hospital, respectively. He completed a specialty fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba in 1988, and a post-doctoral fellowship in HIV/AIDS at Harvard University in 1990.  His first staff appointment was as an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa in 1990.  He moved to the University of British Columbia in 1994, where he is now a tenured Full Professor. 

Basic Sciences Track Co-Chairs

BSc 1991 University of Manitoba, MSc 1995 University of Manitoba-Department of Medical Microbiology, PhD 2001 University of Manitoba-Department of Medical Microbiology.

Chief of the National Laboratory for HIV Immunology, National HIV and Retrovirology Laboratories, Public Health Agency of Canada, Adjunct Professor Departments of Immunology and Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba,  Senior Lecturer Center for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, University of Nairobi.

My main research interest has been in resistance, susceptibility in infectious diseases, specifically HIV-1 and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Focussing on innate and adaptive immune responses at mucosal sites, the role of CD8 T cells in controlling HIV and perhaps TB replication, the role of immunoregulatory factors such as IRF-1 in regulating immune responses to HIV, and the role of systems biology approaches to address important questions in infectious disease immunobiology.

Dr. Scott received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1985 (Cell & Molecular Biology) and her M.D. in 1989 from St. Louis University.  Her postdoctoral training was at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the lab of George P. Smith, the inventor of phage display, and at The Scripps Research Institute in the laboratories of John Tainer and Elizabeth Getzoff.  In 1993, she began work at Simon Fraser University as an Assistant Professor.  In 2004, Dr. Scott joined the new Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU, which awarded her a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Molecular Immunity.  She has served on grant review panels for the Science Council of BC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the NIAID and the NCI.  Her research has been supported by the NIH, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Dr. Scott’s main research interest is in understanding the molecular basis of antibody-antigen interactions, and application of these concepts to vaccine design.  Her postdoctoral project involved the initial development of phage-displayed peptide libraries for this purpose.  Since then, she has worked on furthering phage library technology, with emphasis on understanding the structural mechanisms by which peptide ligands are recognized by antibodies, especially those that are directed against epitopes on folded proteins and carbohydrates.  To this end, her laboratory has worked with four human antibodies that neutralize a broad range of HIV-1 isolates, and to develop filamentous phage as a vaccine platform.  More recently, she has begun to study the role of B cell subsets in the antibody response to infection and vaccination, and in autoimmune disease.

Clinical Sciences Track Co-Chairs

I trained at the University of Saskatchewan (MD 1994). I received certification in Internal Medicine in 1997 and in Infectious Diseases in 1999 while at the University of Manitoba. I completed a HIV Research Fellowship and Masters of Epidemiology in 2002 while at the University of Ottawa. I am currently an Associate Professor with the University of Ottawa, Infectious Diseases Consultant with the Ottawa Hospital Division of Infectious Diseases, and Associate Clinical Researcher with the Ottawa Health Research Institute. As a clinical researcher, my research activities encompass HIV, viral hepatitis, and vaccine development. My work is focused on the development of new therapeutic agents and the delivery of treatment that maximizes safety, adherence and safety.

Susanne Nasewich received her BScN from the University of Saskatchewan in 1993 and holds a BA in Political Studies (1992). Susanne has been involved in HIV/AIDS care throughout her nursing career.   Susanne currently works as a Public Health Nurse in Regina.  Her work focuses on communicable diseases, primarily HIV. She is part of a public health team responsible for HIV case/contact management, including testing, reporting, counseling and follow up in the community, and harm reduction. Care and support for at risk clients is low barrier with goal of reducing harm, preventing disease and supporting individuals to accessible health care and support within their community.

Epidemiology and Public Health Sciences Track Co-Chairs

Dr. Carole Beaudoin is the head of the Epidemiology section of the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).  As such, Carole provides epidemiologic support to the scientific director and area directors, and serves as a link between the NML and other PHAC epidemiologists traditionally based in Ottawa.  She is an investigator for both national and international research projects; her research has focused on the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV among high risk populations, such as youth and injection drug users.  She has a particular interest and experience applying social analytic methodologies such as social networking and structural equation modeling to better understand transmission patterns infectious diseases outbreaks.  Carole is the principle investigator on some local studies examining HIV/STI risks among youth, prison inmates, and barriers to behaviour change among HIV-positive people.  She is also a research collaborator on a number of national and international studies to examine HIV transmission patterns among vulnerable populations in Canada, Kenya, and Colombia.  Carole holds a faculty appointment with the Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba and has used this position to create an epidemiology training programme at the NML for graduate students. 

Dr. Mark Tyndall is a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and is the head of the Infectious Diseases division at St. Paul’s Hospital.  He received his Medical degree from McMaster University and a Doctoral degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. He joined the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in 1999 where he is the Program Director for Epidemiology. He is currently conducting a number of research projects in Vancouver, including epidemiologic studies of HIV and Hepatitis C transmission, antiretroviral access among injection drug users, and health care utilization among marginalized populations.

Social Sciences Track Co-Chairs

Paula Migliardi is the Community-Based Research Facilitator (CBRF) of the Prairie HIV Community-Based Research Program. The program is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and housed at Nine Circles Community Health Centre in Winnipeg. Through this position, Paula provides support to community agencies, community members and academic researchers in the many aspects of community-based research. In addition, Paula conducts research and evaluation for the Sexuality Education Resource Centre in Manitoba. A large proportion of Paula’s work has been in prevention and health promotion with immigrant and refugee, Aboriginal and youth populations with a predominant focus on sexuality and sexual health.

Sylvia Abonyi holds a Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Health and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. She is also a research faculty member with the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU). Trained as an anthropologist, her current research interests lie in the areas of culture as a health determinant, the development of community health frameworks and indicators, and evaluation research. Other projects she is working on include the determinants of TB transmission on the Canadian prairies, HIV/AIDS and motherhood, cultural context of healthy body weight, and the historical dimensions of the emergence of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Her methodological orientation is qualitative and ethnographic approached through participatory and capacity building collaborations with colleagues, stakeholders, and communities. Additional areas of interest include the negotiation of community-university research agreements, population health research ethics, and the use of multimedia strategies in research and knowledge exchange.

Judy Mill, RN, PhD, is an associate professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta. Judy’s research program focuses on understanding the broad social, economic and cultural factors that influence the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV infection. She is currently involved in research projects on the following topics: the meaning of depression in Aboriginal persons living with HIV; HIV prevention for women; and nurses’ involvement in HIV policy development in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. She has expertise in qualitative research methodologies and community-based research that incorporates opportunities for capacity building in its design. Judy is a board member of HIV Edmonton and CIHR’s Institute of Aboriginal People’s Health.

Community Representative

Since the early 80’s, Margaret Akan has been involved in working with the Aboriginal community.  As a youth, she worked in an outreach and peer counseling capacity with other youth.   Throughout her career, she has worked with various Aboriginal organizations.   Her background includes working as Childbirth instructor with Healthiest Babies Possible Program dealing with women at risk during their pregnancies. 

She currently is Chief Executive Officer with All Nations Hope AIDS Network in Saskatchewan.  The Network is well connected regionally, provincially and nationally.  They have representation at all levels and are an Aboriginal voice to address the many issues that go hand in hand with HIV/AIDS and the Aboriginal community.  Margaret is an active member and volunteer of various committees, boards and councils to address the issues that impact both the health and social needs among Aboriginal people.

Advisory Members

Physician; born at Trenton, Ontario; educated at Queen's University, M.D. 1979; married Genevieve in 1983; children: Emily, Ian, Matthew; Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Medicine, of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Ottawa at The Ottawa Hospital and Senior Scientist, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute; Career Scientist, Ontario Ministry of Health / Ontario HIV Treatment Network 1991−Present; practices infectious disease medicine; research interest includes infectious diseases in developing countries and in Canada; named Researcher of the Year, Ottawa Health Research Institute 1999; Senior Visiting Research Scientist, Welcome Trust Centre for Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, University of Oxford (Merton Coll.), U.K. 1999−2000; Editor-in-Chief International Journal of Infectious Diseases 2006−Present; President, Canadian Association for HIV Research 2009−Present

Bob O'Neill has worked for many years as a Health Research Administrator.  He is currently the Executive Director of CAHR.  Prior to that, he worked with the Canadian HIV Trials Network for two decades, initially as Administrator and subsequently as Director of its International Program. During the 1980’s, he served as Assistant Director of the Nova Scotia Red Cross Blood Donor Program, Director of the Canadian Hemophilia Society (CHS) Ontario Chapter and Director of the CHS’ Task Force on AIDS. On a volunteer basis, Bob has served as Director of the Canada-Africa Prevention Trials Network and has participated on a number of committees and review panels.