STIHIV 2025

Meet the
SPEAKERS

Discover the esteemed lineup of speakers at the STI & HIV 2025 World Congress in Montreal. These experts will share their insights, cutting-edge research findings, and invaluable experiences, contributing to the advancement of knowledge in the field of sexually transmitted infections and public health

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

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JeannE
Marrazzo

Jeanne Marrazzo is currently the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health in the United States. Prior to her position at NIAID, Dr. Marrazzo was Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and was a professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington. 

Dr. Marrazzo previously served as the president of the International Society for STD Research and received the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association’s Distinguished Career Award, the highest recognition of contributions to research and mentoring in the field. She is currently a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and is board certified in infectious disease. Dr. Marrazzo also has chaired the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Council and the ABIM Infectious Disease Specialty Board. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard University; her M.D. from Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia; and her M.P.H. in epidemiology from the University of Washington, Seattle. She completed residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Henry
de Vries

Henry de Vries (1967) is dermatologist-venereologist with expertise in skin infections, especially sexually transmitted infections. In 2010 he was appointed Professor of skin infections at the University of Amsterdam, and he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London (FRCP). 

Meet-the-Speakers-Kop-Henry

He is currently employed at the Public Health Service Amsterdam Centre for Sexual Health where he leads a research group including 15 PhD students in close cooperation with the public health laboratory and research department. He is also appointed as staff member at the Department of Dermatology at the Amsterdam University Medical Centres, the Netherlands. In 2021 he organised the STI & HIV World Congress as President of the International Society for STD research (ISSTDR). He was scientific chair for the International Union against STI 2018 World congress in Dublin, and the IUSTI Europe congress in Malta in 2023. He co-authored over 300 PubMed registered publications on various topics including mpox, Lymphogranuloma Venereum, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, and sexualised drug use. In 2020 and in 2022 he was awarded the Bio Art & Design Award in joint projects with artists. 

PLENARY SPEAKERS

Eric-Chow

Eric
Chow

Professor Eric Chow is an epidemiologist and biostatistician with expertise in sexually transmitted infections, particularly gonorrhoea and human papillomavirus. He is Professor of Sexual Health at Monash University, Australia. At the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, he heads the Health Data Management and Biostatistics Unit and co-leads the HIV/STI Clinical Trial Unit.
He completed his PhD at the Kirby Institute, UNSW, in 2014 and holds four master’s degrees in Applied Science (Bioinformatics), Public Health, Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology.
He has co-authored over 400 peer-reviewed articles covering a wide range of topics, including mpox, syphilis, health services, antimicrobial resistance and doxyPEP. He was the Congress President for the IUSTI2024 World Congress. He is currently the Vice-President of the Sexual Health Society of Victoria, a Board Member of the International Society for STD Research (ISSTDR), and the Treasurer of the International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Infection (IUSTI) Asia-Pacific Region.
In 2024, Prof Chow was honoured with the prestigious Gottschalk Medal from the Australian Academy of Science, recognising his innovative work in developing a new paradigm of gonorrhoea transmission and evaluating the impact of male HPV vaccination. He was also named Australia’s top researcher in Sex & Sexuality by The Australian.

Helen
Rees

Professor Helen Rees is internationally recognised as an award-winning global health practitioner who has dedicated her professional career to improving public health in Africa, with a focus on vaccine preventable diseases, HIV and sexual and reproductive health. Helen is the Executive Director of Wits RHI, the largest research Institute at the University of Witwatersrand and Co-Director of the Wits African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise Flagship programme.

Helen-Rees

Helen is widely respected for her ability to synthesize recommendations from multifaceted inputs and to link research to policy and has successfully chaired many national, regional and global committees in deliberations that have changed key strategies and policies in the African region, and has served on expert structures and committees for WHO, UNAIDS, UNICEF, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Helen chairs the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority and the World Health Organisation’s AFRO Region Immunization Technical Advisory Group.

Margaret-Kisikaw-Piyesis

Margaret
Kisikaw Piyesis

Miyotehewin ᒥᔪᑌᐦᐁᐃᐧᐣ Okihcitaskwew (Kind-hearted Warrior Woman)
okimaw (CEO), CAAN Communities, Alliances & Networks- December 2019 to present
Finance and Research Director, All Nations Hope Network -Oct 1999 to present
Nehiyaw iskwew ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ (Cree Woman) with direct ties to the Kisikaw Piyesis(Bitternose)/Itittakoose Family from George Gordon First Nation and the Desnomie/McLeod Family from Peepeekisis First Nation, in Saskatchewan on the land now called Canada. 
Descendant of both the Moose clan and the Bear Clan, living as an ancestral scientist, a knowledge keeper and baby catching bundle carrier.
Waniska (Awakened) to the ways of the ancestors, practising traditional ways of knowing, healing along the way, seeking pimâtisiwin (life) for all nations through Indigenous practices, language, ceremonies, culture and traditions, working as a Co-Creator for Kisi Manito (Great Mystery) honoring the ancestors along the way.
In the colonized world, she is a leader as the CEO of CAAN and celebrates 30+ years of responding to HIV, HCV and colonial impacts to Indigenous communities through culture, ceremony, humour, and Indigenous ways.

Rayner
Tan

Dr Rayner Kay Jin TAN is an Assistant Professor at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System. His research interests include stigma and health, community engagement, implementation science, and health equity.
 
 
Rayner-Tan
Rayner was a recipient of the ASEAN Youth Fellowship, Fulbright Visiting Research Scholarship, and the HIV, Infectious Disease and Global Health Implementation Research Institute fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently deputy editor of the Journal of the International AIDS Society, and Associate Editor at the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. Beyond academia, he leads several community-based organizations.
 
He currently is the president of Project X Society serving the health and social needs of sex workers, and a Director at The Greenhouse Community Services Limited, a charity providing substance use recovery services for marginalized groups in Singapore. He also currently serves as the Treasurer for the Society of Behavioural Health, Singapore and a co-lead at SG Mental Health Matters. He is currently a co-lead of Project Hayat, a community-led initiative to develop a national suicide prevention strategy in Singapore, and a representative on the Singapore Ministry of Health’s Agency for Care Effectiveness (ACE) Consumer Panel.
Sean-Young

SEAN
YOUNG

Sean Young is Professor of Emergency Medicine (School of Medicine) and Informatics (School of Information and Computer Sciences) at UC Irvine. He is the Executive Director of the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology. Trained as a social psychologist and health services researcher, his research is focused on studying digital health interventions and data science/artificial intelligence modeling approaches in areas including HIV, substance use, pain, sickle cell disease, mental health, and public safety/crime. 
He works with public health organizations, including health departments, on designing and implementing digital tools to improve their surveillance and community outreach. He also studies the ethical and implementation issues in using health technologies. Outside of his academic research, he is an advisor/consultant on digital health products and digital marketing; the author of the International Best-Selling book, Stick With It (Harper Collins); and an advisory board member for the Division of Health and Medicine for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). He received his PhD in Psychology and master’s in health services research from Stanford University.

Sanjay
Ram

Sanjay Ram is an Infectious Diseases physician-scientist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, with a career dedicated to studying and combating sexually transmitted infections (STIs). A graduate of Seth G. S. Medical College in Mumbai, he completed his residency in Internal Medicine at SUNY Buffalo and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Boston University. His research has focused on the interactions between Neisseria gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis and the complement system. 
His group now focuses on the development of innovative immunotherapies and vaccines targeting antimicrobial-resistant gonorrhea, including Fc fusion proteins, monoclonal antibodies, and sialic acid analogs. As co-founder of StiRx, Inc., he advances the mission to create safe, affordable vaccines for low- and middle-income countries. Ram is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a member of the American Society of Clinical investigation. Ram is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Infectious Diseases Society of America. He attends on the Infectious Diseases consult service at UMass Chan and enjoys learning along with his trainees.
Anne-Hanley

ANNE
Hanley

Dr Anne Hanley is a Senior Research Fellow and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the Department of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham. She has written on many aspects of sexual and reproductive health, including patient care, human experimentation, ethics, medical negligence and harm, state surveillance, sexual violence, health policy, health propaganda, eugenics, infertility, literary representations and oral history. 
Her research team are mapping Britain’s sexual health histories from the First World War to the AIDS crisis, exploring the complex personal, social, cultural and political factors that shaped people’s health experiences and outcomes.

Lianne
Gonsalves

Lianne Gonsalves is a Scientist working on sexual health in WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, which includes the UN Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP). Her research, normative, policy, and advocacy remit covers topics ranging from sexual pleasure to menopause.
Recent work has involved leading a 19-country study to develop and refine a WHO survey module assessing sexual practices and experiences; exploring the extent to which pleasure-inclusive sexual and reproductive health programmes outperform traditional programming; and promoting quality health care for transgender and gender diverse persons.
 
She joined WHO in 2013, and has previously supported the Organization’s work in digital health, antimicrobial resistance and the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and young people. A social scientist by training, she has an MSPH in Social and Behavioural Interventions from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Basel, Switzerland.