HIV Section /Vice Chair: Dr Anand Date (USA)
Dr Anand Date is a physician trained in preventive medicine and applied epidemiology. He currently works as a medical epidemiologist with the Division of Global HIV/AIDS at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His main focus is on TB/HIV, and he has conducted programme evaluations and operational research on TB/HIV and has collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) on developing global policies and guidelines. As Vice Chair, Dr Date hopes to increase the number of abstract-driven sessions at The Union World Conference on Lung Health in order to improve the scientific rigor and to increase the participation of HIV care and treatment implementing partners in the HIV Section.
Tobacco Control Section /Vice Chair: Prof Xiaolin Wei (Hong Kong)
Prof. Xiaolin Wei is an MD who has also completed an MPH and PhD from the University of Toronto, Canada. He has worked in TB, cardiovascular disease (CVD), HIV and influenza control. He currently leads a Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) study on comparing primary health care in Hong Kong and China. Since 2006, he has been leading China programmes for the communicable disease research and health deliver consortium research projects funded by the Department for International Development of the UK government. In addition, he has incorporated smoking cessation as a major intervention approach in TB and CVD control. As Vice Chair, Dr Wei hopes to bring strengths of public health academics to the section in terms of research, education and student involvement. He would like to contribute to bridging the two important topics of tobacco control and TB control.
Tobacco Control Section/Secretary: Mr Ehab Asaad (Egypt)
Mr Ehab Asaad holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Business Administration from Cairo University and a Diploma of Health Statistics from Health Technical Institute. He has worked as a Technical Officer for Egypt’s Ministry of Health, a Researcher Associate for the Egyptian Smoking Prevention Research Institute and a Project Coordinator for the Taxation Project under the Bloomberg Initiative. As Secretary, Mr Asaad plans to put his skills, commitment and qualifications to serve The Union.
Lung Health Section /Secretary: Dr Andrew Steenhoff (Botswana)
A native of South Africa, Dr Andrew Steenhoff MBBCh, DCH(UK), FCPaed(SA), FAAP trained at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and completed paediatric residencies at Chris-Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto and Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia. Andrew Steenhoff is now based in Botswana, where he is the Associate Country Director and Research Director for the Botswana-UPenn Partnership. He is an Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and CHOP and an adjunct senior lecturer at the University of Botswana. In Botswana he is a member of the national TB and HIV guidelines committees. His research focuses on enhancing the diagnosis of paediatric TB and on TB contact tracing. As Secretary, Dr Steenhoff plans to advocate for improved lung health in the developing world with a specific focus on paediatric TB.
TB Section/Vice Chair: Dr Edward Nardell (USA)
Dr Edward Nardell has long been active in The Union., previously serving as Programme Secretary of the TB Section and and President of The Union North America Region. Dr Nardell has been engaged in TB control domestically and internationally since 1975. He began his public service as TB Control Officer for the City of Boston and subsequently served as TB Control Officer for the State of Massachusetts for 18 years. He is currently part of Partners In Health, working primarily in Russia and South Africa. He is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. His clinical work is in the Pulmonary Division, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston. His area of expertise and research interest is TB transmission and airborne infection control. He has also worked on the development of inhaled TB drugs and has clinical expertise in programmatic management of MDR-TB at the international level. Dr. Nardell is co-founder and co-director of an annual course for engineers and architects on building design and engineering approaches to airborne infection control. He serves as a co-moderator of Global Health Delivery On Line (GHDonline, Infection Control) an on-line community of best practice. As Vice Chair, Dr Nardell aims to find ways to extend TB Section activities beyond the annual conference in order to include TB workers in resource-limited settings and others who have not found ways to become more involved in The Union.
TB Nurses & Allied Professional Sub-Section/ Programme Secretary: Stacie C Stender (South Africa)
A Family Nurse Practitioner with a masters degree in infectious disease and 15 years of experience working in primary health care in underserved communities in sub-Saharan Africa and the US, Stacie Stender is the TB/HIV Technical Advisor for Jhpiego and an Associate at JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has provided technical support to governments and international NGOs in the design and implementation of TB & HIV prevention, care and treatment programmes in 10+ countries in sub-Saharan Africa. As Programme Secretary, she plans to focus energies on expanding membership and increasing collaborative activities with other organizations.