Plenary Speakers

Opening Plenary | PrEPortunity for STD Control - Sheena McCormack, MBBS, MSc, FRCP, Dip Ven

Tuesday, September 20, 2016, 5:00 pm – 6:20 pm

Sheena McCormack is a Clinical Epidemiologist who has been coordinating HIV prevention trials since 1994, when she joined what subsequently became the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit. From the outset she has worked on HIV vaccine trials, all Phase I/II, in Europe and Africa. Since 1998 she has been involved in microbicide trials and was Chief Investigator of a Phase III vaginal microbicide trial that enrolled 9,385 women through six research centres in Southern Africa. Sheena has been a Consultant in HIV/GU Medicine since 1991, initially at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospitals and since 1996 at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital working at the Dean Street clinic in Soho. She recently reported the PROUD PrEP study conducted in gay and other men who have sex with men which showed a very high level of effectiveness for daily oral Truvada in the real world setting of 13 sexual health clinics in England. PROUD was the first HIV prevention trial to use a randomization to immediate or deferred access in order to compare PrEP to no-PrEP and assess the impact on risk behavior and determine if any change in this would undermine efficacy. Although her primary current focus is to ensure that PrEP becomes available to those who need it in the UK and Europe, she continues to work on HIV vaccine trials and maintains an interest in microbicides.

Closing Plenary | Addressing the Social Determinants of Health to Improve Outcomes - Sylvia Caley, JD, MBA, RN

Friday, September 23, 2016 12:15 pm – 1:10 pm

Sylvia Caley is Clinical Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law, Co-Director of the HeLP Legal Services Clinic, and Director of the Health Law Partnership (HeLP), a medical-legal collaboration.  She also is adjunct clinical assistant professor at Morehouse School of Medicine. She serves on the Ethics Committee at Grady Health System, the Bioethics Committee and the Public Affairs Committee at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and the Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her interests focus on issues arising at the intersection of health and poverty, addressing health disparities and the devastating effect that illness has on families, and using the law to address socio-economic determinants to improve health and social well-being.