Mwelwa M Phiri, Bernadette Hensen and Helen Ayles

Mwelwa M Phiri, BPharm, MPH (International)

Mwelwa Phiri is currently a PhD Candidate at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) with research interests in adolescent sexual and reproductive health, with particular interest in young men’s access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. She has over 6 years’ public health research experience based at Zambart in Zambia and managed the Yathu Yathu Study, which was a two-armed CRT to evaluate the impact of a community-based, peer-led SRH/HIV services intervention designed with and for young people in Zambia. She is currently co-investigator on a formative study, “Yaba Guy Che”, to co-develop an intervention to increase men's HIV service use in Lusaka, Zambia.

Bernadette Hensen BSc, MSc, PhD

Dr Bernadette Hensen is an epidemiologist with over 15 years of experience in implementation and evaluation research, with a focus on evaluating strategies to improve access to sexual health services among underserved populations. She is Professor of Sexual Health and HIV at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and Honorary Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has collaborated with Zambart for approximately 12 years, most recently on the Yathu Yathu trial and a formative research study to co-design an intervention to reach men with HIV services.

Helen Ayles, BSc, MBBS, MRCP, DTM&H, MSc, PhD

Prof. Helen Ayles has worked in the field of HIV and TB in Africa for over 25 years, both implementing care programs and undertaking research. She is a Professor of Infectious Diseases and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is the Director of Research of Zambart, a multidisciplinary research group in Zambia, that has conducted a range of studies from clinical trials and laboratory based diagnostic studies to community randomized trials.