Person

Ian Sanne, FCP(SA), FRCP(lon), is the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Network’s International Vice Chair. He is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the Founder and Division Head of the Clinical HIV Research Unit at Wits, which is active in the development of transformative clinical research into new diagnostic tests for and the treatment of HIV, tuberculosis and infectious diseases. Dr. Sanne is also the founding Division Head of the Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Unit, a collaborative effort with Boston University’s School of International Health.

Additionally Dr. Sanne is the Founder and Managing Director of Right to Care (RTC), a not-for profit company that has implemented USAID/PEPFAR funding in support of the national antiretroviral therapy rollout program for HIV/AIDS treatment. Since 2001, RTC has supported over 135,000 patients on antiretroviral therapy, 150,000 patients in care and support, conducted 250,000 voluntary counseling and testing sessions a year, and trained over 5,000 health care workers. RTC focuses on providing access to care through high quality, innovative treatment solutions in both the public and private sectors. Right to Care Health Services, a for-profit subsidiary, was formed in 2008 to address HIV and TB-related activities in the private sector. Dr. Sanne has more than 50 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of HIV, TB and Health Economics Research.

Licet Garcia is the Executive Director of the ACTG Leadership and Operations Center at UCLA. She has a Bachelor in Business Administration from Cal Poly Pomona and is currently working on obtaining her Master in Business Administration from Washington State University. Before joining the LOC, Licet was the Business Manager for the UCLA Clinical Trials Unit. Through this position, Licet learned a great deal about the various ACTG operations and was able to apply this knowledge to her role as ACTG Finance Manager. The experience and knowledge gained from previous roles has been integral to her position as ED. Outside of the LOC, she spends her time taking MBA courses, hiking, or reading a good thriller.

Joseph J. Eron Jr. MD is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He received his Infectious Diseases and HIV training at Massachusetts General Hospital under Drs. Martin Hirsch and Richard D’Aquila. He is the Principal Investigator of the HIV/AIDS Clinical Research Unit at UNC-CH and the Director of the Clinical Core for the UNC Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). He has been part of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group since 1993 and has held multiple leadership positions including Chair of the Optimization of ART (OpART) Committee and the Cure Transformative Science Group.  He is the Principal Investigator of the UNC Clinical trials Unit with sites in Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Lilongwe Malawi and Hanoi Vietnam.    In addition he is a leader of the UNC Acute HIV Infection research team and is a collaborator in the UNC HIV Cure initiative. Over the last 10 years Dr. Eron has led the development of the UNC HIV CFAR Clinic Cohort that includes over 3500 HIV infected individuals and has active collaboration and membership in the NA ACCORD and CNICS cohorts. Dr. Eron has over 350 publications in peer-reviewed journals focusing on antiretroviral therapy, resistance, pharmacology, transmission and HIV persistence and disruption of latency.  Recent work has included publications from the UNC CFAR HIV Clinical Cohort, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, HPTN 052 and IAS-USA HIV treatment guidelines in JAMA 2018.  Dr. Eron has worked extensively in the area of HIV drug development and led or participated in original studies of many antiretroviral therapies. He also continues as an active HIV and Infectious Disease clinician. He was awarded the HIVMA HIV Clinical Educator Award in 2013. He is now Vice Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and was recently elected Vice Chair of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG). He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife and family. He has four daughters, three sons and four grandchildren.

Dr. Currier is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Co-Director of the Center for AIDS Research and Education Center (CARE) in the Department of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She was elected Chair of the NIH sponsored AIDS Clinical Trials Group in 2017 after serving as Vice Chair of the group since 2010. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the UCLA AIDS Prevention and Treatment Clinical Trials Unit. She has been involved in the clinical care of patients with HIV infection for over twenty-five years. Her research has focused on HIV therapeutics and long-term complications of HIV disease with an emphasis on sex differences and antiretroviral therapy, cardiovascular disease, and women’s health. Throughout her career she has been dedicated to mentoring new investigators in HIV related patient oriented research.