Our Team
Coordinating Committee of Scientific Activities (CCSA)
Carrie Tudor
Chair - CCSA
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Carrie Tudor has worked in global health for over 20 years on various global health projects throughout Asia and Africa. She earned a BSN and PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and a MPH from Emory University. Following her PhD, she completed a Fogarty Global Health Post-doctoral research fellowship at the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for TB and HIV (now the African Health Research Institute). Her research interests are focused on the occupational risk factors for TB among healthcare workers, airborne infection prevention and control, and preventing TB and other infections in healthcare workers.
Tudor is the TB Project Director for the International Council of Nurses working to build the capacity of nurses related to TB/MDR-TB and patient-centred care in China, the Russian Federation, and seven sub-Saharan African countries.
Rovina Ruslami
Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia
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Rovina Ruslami is Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine at Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia. Her main research areas are pharmacology of tuberculosis treatment and clinical trial (DS-TB, MDR-TB, Latent TB Infection, and TB Meningitis).
Kobto Koura
The Union, France
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Kobto Ghislain Koura is a Medical Doctor Public Health Specialist. He is acting Director for The Union TB Department. He completed his medical degree at Abomey-Calavi University, Benin and his Master of Public Health at Paris-Saclay University in Paris, France. He attained his Ph.D. in Public Health/Epidemiology at Sorbonne University in Paris, France. He also completed a post-doctorate in Epidemiology at Claude Bernard University in Lyon, France. Since joining The Union in 2013, he has addressed the challenges of Tuberculosis by supporting and advising National Tuberculosis Programmes in low-middle income countries and this involved the planning, designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating strategies and policies for the prevention, detection and management of drug-susceptible TB, multidrug resistant TB in adults and children.
Palwasha Khan
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
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Palwasha Khan is a clinical associate professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a clinical epidemiologist at Interactive Research and Development. Her research interests include understanding Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission at a population-level in high burden setting. She particularly enjoys working at the clinical academia-implementation interface which helps to maintain a healthy level of pragmatism while striving to improve health for all.
Bertrand Mbatchou Ngahane
University of Douala, Cameroon
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Pr Mbatchou Ngahane Bertrand is currently Professor of pulmonary medicine at the University of Douala. He is a consultant in respiratory at the Douala General Hospital in Cameroon. He’s the vice president of the PanAfrican Thoracic Society and the President of the Cameroon Respiratory Society. His research interest includes air pollution associated respiratory conditions and tuberculosis.
Zahedul Islam
Alliance for Public Health, Ukraine
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Zahedul Islam is the Director of the Treatment, Procurement, and Supply Management Department of the Alliance for Public Health in Ukraine. In APH, Zahedul is responsible for managing all treatment programs (HIV, TB, HepC) including all procurement. Previously, Zahedul worked with the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Handicap International, and Management Sciences for Health (MSH) in many developing countries. He is also a member of the Civil Society Advisory Panel (CSEM) for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) 2030 and a board of directors of MSF South Asia.
Zheng Pinpin
School of Public Health at Fudan University, China
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Dr. Zheng Pinpin is a professor and director of Department of Preventive Medicine and Health Education in the School of Public Health, Fudan University in Shanghai, China. She has been engaged in tobacco control research for twenty years and led a dozen of research on smoking cessation, smoke free policy and tobacco control related social norms. Some outputs provided evidence to advocate the smoke free policy in China and some have been transformed into practice to help smokers to quit.
Ajoy Kumar Verma
National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease, India
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Dr Ajoy Kumar Verma, Senior Specialist, Department of Microbiology, is actively involved in tuberculosis diagnosis, identification of mycobacterium and susceptibility testing of the pulmonary & extra- pulmonary samples collected from the patients’ care referral centres under the National TB Control Program at National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease (NITRD), New Delhi, India, since 2010. Dr. Ajoy is responsible for conducting on site evaluation of Laboratories and providing technical support for undertaking sputum smear microscopy, mycobacterial culture and drug susceptibility testing under the External Quality Assessment (EQA). Also, facilitating the training program for scaling up of newer diagnostic techniques, i.e. MGIT -960, Line Probe Assay, GeneXpert for MDR-TB diagnosis under the NTEP program. Dr. Ajoy is continuously working on Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria and currently Principal/Co-investigator in many TB, MDR-TB and NTM research projects.
Liliana Salvador
School of Animal & Comparative Biomedical Sciences, University of Arizona, USA
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Liliana Salvador is an Assistant Professor at the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences at the University of Arizona, Arizona, USA. Liliana was originally trained as a computer scientist at the University of Porto, Portugal where she earned a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Computer Science. For her Ph.D. she followed her fascination for life sciences and pursued a Computational Biology Program at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science, Portugal and a PhD in Biology at the University of Lisbon, Portugal that included a 4-year research training in Ecology and Evolution at Princeton University, NJ, USA. She did her postdoctoral training at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, UK in Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science where she focused on risk-based surveillance strategies and molecular epidemiology for animal Tuberculosis control. Before moving to Arizona, she was an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases and Bioinformatics at the University of Georgia, GA, USA. Her research focuses on understanding the ecology and evolution of animal tuberculosis at the wildlife, livestock, and human interface with the aim to identify the epidemiological, ecological, and evolutionary circumstances involved in spillover events, amplification, and spread of animal tuberculosis, essential for informing surveillance strategies and predicting future disease emergence risk.
Fernando Sanches
Tuberculosis Research Center/ Tuberculosis Academic Program/ Thorax Diseases Institute/ Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
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Dr. Fernando Sanches is a senior nurse with a specialization in occupational health and public health. He has been working with tuberculosis for the last 20 years. Sanches is currently completing his doctoral research at the School of Medicine/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He has worked at the Thorax Disease Institute/UFRJ since 2003, and from 2016 at the Tuberculosis Academic Program/Tuberculosis Research Center / Hospital Complex at the same university. He has also been working at the State University of Rio de Janeiro since 2008 and from 2021 at the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Commission at the Piquet Carneiro University Polyclinic at the same university. He has experience with clinical nursing residence programs as a coordinator, tutor, and preceptor with attention to educational and methodological processes. Another field of expertise is regarding biosafety and IPC strategies and their associations with public health and occupational health vision under operational and routine perspectives. Beyond the work at the two universities, he has developed a role as an ad hob consultant at IPC WG of the National Tuberculosis Program/MOH (since 2018); Co-chair of the Biosafety and IPC section at the Brazilian Tuberculosis Research Network – REDE TB (since 2018); Co-chair of IPC WG (since 2020) - Tuberculosis section, and Conference Program Leader of Nursing & Allied professionals (NAP subsection since 2022) both from the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (THE UNION); Chair of IPC chamber at the Nursing Board Rio de Janeiro State (since 2022); National Coordinator of the Brazilian Nursing Network for one Brazil free of Tuberculosis (Rede EnfTB since foundation 2020).
Organizing Team
David Jackson
Director Conferences and Events
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David Jackson has an extensive background in international events management and communications for the third sector and non-profit bodies, including environmental, agricultural and arts organisations.
His wealth of experience and a collaborative leadership style has ensured the successful creation and management of a broad range of live flagship events.
Rhea Lobo
Delegate Communications and Engagement Co-ordinator
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Rhea Lobo is a communications, marketing and public relations expert, an international award-winning filmmaker and a TB survivor. As a person from the affected community, she is also a Board Member representing Communities at Stop TB Partnership and is part of the Communities Delegation to the Board at UNITAID.
Adriana Hinojosa
Programme Coordinator
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Adriana joined The Union Mexico Office 15 years ago. She currently is the Programme Coordinator and, in the past, has been responsible for Registrations and Scholarships.
Sara Margarida Santos
Assistant Programme Producer
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Sara Margarida Santos has a background in project management and communications with over a decade of experience working in both corporate and non-profit sectors.
Karen Perea
Assistant Programme Producer
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Karen has extensive experience in the events industry and in scientific conferences. She works with the Scientific team, where she supervises all aspects related to abstracts (oral abstracts, e-posters, and abstract books) and supports communication between presenters, chairs, and CCSA members.
Alex Metcalfe
Head of Communications, The Union
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Leading all things communications with Rhea, including press, social media and content creation.
Alison Taylor
Corporate Sponsorship Fundraiser
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Alison Taylor develops Corporate Partnerships and Sponsorships for The Union, including the World Conference on Lung Health and Tobacco or Health Summit.
Cathriona McCauley, MPH
Development & Grants Coordinator
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Cathriona McCauley is a member of The Union’s Development team and manages the relationships with all non-commercial conference partners.
Madhava Sai Sivapuram
Special Projects Executive (Community Connect and Youth4LungHealth)
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Madhava Sivapuram focuses on designing as well as implementation of the Community Connect and Youth4LungHealth programmes at the World Conference on Lung Health.
Nicolas Gleria
Project Director, Bluedog Group
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Nicolas Gleria is a Project Director and specialises in production management and technical aspects of events (including sound, light, video, rigging, power and structures).
Alpha Panda
Business Development Administrator
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Alpha Panda provides administrative support for the Sponsorship Department and Office of Executive Director
Joanna Szostakowska-Naidoo
TBScience Manager
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Joanna Szostakowska-Naidoo has been working on TBScience as part of the Union Conference team for the past 5 years. She has worked as a consultant for 15+ years organising major public health conferences focusing on HIV/AIDS, drugs and lung health as well as major sports events.
Magda Gajewska
Consultant
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Magda's background is event management. She coordinates the Conference Plenary and Special Sessions as well as Meet the Expert sessions
Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP)
Zahedul Islam
Chair And Europe Representative
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Zahedul is currently working with Alliance for Public – Ukraine, as their Director of Treatment, Procurement and Supply Management division. As a member of the senior management team in Alliance, Zahedul manages all treatment programs (HIV, TB, HepC), COVID-19 mitigation and procurement including providing technical assistance to different directorates of the MoH. Earlier, Zahedul worked as the Country Director of USAID funded SIAPS project in Bangladesh implemented by Management Sciences for Health (MSH). Zahedul worked with MSF for over 15 years in west and central Africa, India, Central Asia and Eastern Europe in top management position including Head of Mission and Country Director. He has an MBA in Public Health Management (MBA-PHM) from University of Cumbria, UK. He is a civil society representative at the WHO initiated global Access to COVID-19 tools (ACT) Accelerator platform to fight COVID19 pandemic, member of TB Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) and also Member of the executive committee of the STOP TB partnership, Ukraine and a board of directors of Medecins Sans Frontieres - South Asia.
Eva Naznin
Asia Pacific Representative
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"I have a PhD degree in Community Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology from the School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, Australia. I have a Master’s degree in Health Economics (advanced) in the field of health and development, from the School of Economics and School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Australia.
I have 10 years of global experience in public health, health care financing, health
systems strengthening, policy analysis, primary healthcare, and implementation support.
I Worked in several international organizations including Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, USA, World Health Organization (WHO), and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B).
As a program manager of CTFK, I provided technical support to several non-government organizations for strengthening tobacco control program implementation in Bangladesh. During my work at WHO, I conducted human resource assessment program on improved Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) case detection and case management in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. While working for ICDDR, B, I worked in a project ‘Integrated management of childhood illness - multi country evaluation’.
I led and contributed to high-level policy dialogue engagements, stakeholder involvements, technical assistance, change management, applied research activities, capacity building projects, and strategic partnership with multiple development partners."
Kinz Ul Eman
Middle East Representative
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Kinz ul Eman is a global health professional, chartered accountant, and project management expert and has been engaged in public health programmatic management, coordination, broadening partnership, engagement and training key stakeholders, civil society actors and communities since the last 12 years. She is currently leading DOPASI Foundation's programmatic interventions across the country. She has worked in various national and international consulting assignments with The World Bank, Stop TB Partnership, Jhpiego and various UN agencies. She is currently exploring the global health sphere, while acting as the secretarial lead for Stop TB Partnership, Pakistan chapter, the End TB Parliamentary Caucus and TB survivors’ group in Pakistan. Currently leading implementation of a Community Led Monitoring Platform with a dashboard for the program and partners across the country. She is the pioneer of development of the TB Community, Rights and Gender Action Plan 2023-25 in Pakistan. The DOPASI Foundation, whose programmatic part is headed by her, has over 25 years of experience in implementing development sector projects, particularly within the realm of public health, and has been awarded the international Kochon Prize for 2021 for its efforts for TB control under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Priyanka Aiyer
South East Asia Representative
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Priyanka Aiyer (She/Her) is a Communication Specialist with over 7 years of experience in designing and implementing multi-pronged campaigns at national, regional and global levels. Until recently she was working with the Global Coalition of TB Advocates as the Communications and Digital Media Officer where she worked with community members to provide hands-on training on communications and advocacy in addition to developing communication tools and ensuring meaningful community engagement at a global level. In 2023 she transitioned to an independent consultant role. She continues to be a member of the GCTA and identifies as a person affected by TB. She is committed to ensuring that the TB affected community is not looked upon a just a tick-in-the-box and meaningful engagement is made the norm. She regularly workers with patient rights groups, survivor coalitions and community members at large.
Priyanka is the co-author of the Asia Pacific TB and Human Rights Advocacy Strategy, and she has curated the collection of survivor stories - Men and TB Stigma: Conversations of Resilience in The War Against TB. Priyanka holds a master's in film studies from Ambedkar University, India.
Tariro Kutadza
Africa Representative
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"Tariro Kutadza is an HIV/TB Advocate with ZNNP+ based in Zimbabwe. A former teacher, is known as a community actor working for the improvement of the community to HIV and AIDS response in Southern Africa, she represents civil society organisations and people infected and affected by HIV, TB and COVID- 19 in several national, regional and global health related committees. She has contributed to several HIV/TB advocacy agenda, The STBP and Global Fund strategic Plan 2021-2028 to end TB including Zimbabwe NSPs and KP Paris Declaration 2017. She won Stop TB Partners Engagement Prize for participating in Partners Survey at The UNION Lung Conference 2017. Tariro also worked as Provincial Coordinator, Programs Manager for Zimbabwe Aids Network, GIZ, Zimbabwe National Network of PLHIV, PATAM and DAPP Zimbabwe etc.
Through her experience Tariro amplified the voices of adolescence and women living with HIV/TB in accessing prevention and treatment services in rural Zimbabwe. She is recognised for her vigour in resource mobilisation for the vulnerable groups and national events in country and Community System Strengthening (CSS) .More so her advocacy agenda particularly COVID 19 Vaccine Hesitancy dialogues and other national events and represent CSO/Communities in The Global Pandemic Preparedness and Response Scheme (I-DAIR 2021-23) that seeks to link citizen science, patient centeredness and evidence based advocacy.
Tariro has an Honours in Educational Management from the Tshwane University South Africa and a Master’s in Public Health –Health promotion Atlantic International University USA. She holds several Diplomas and certificates From in Zimbabwe University and other institutions. She was trained in TB care and treatment, TB prevention, TB/HIV integrated services and care for key populations through the UNION World conference (Lung Conference 2015, Cape Town), UNION 2017 MEXICO , UNION 2018 The Hague and UNION 2020-2022 Virtual . Tariro was also attending IAS and ICASA Conferences 2008 as young person and representative. She has been the UNION Member since 2013. She is an active trainer and facilitator on HIV/TB prevention and treatment
Tariro believes that the UCAP has a distinctive opportunity to support implementation of unique and creative initiatives that integrate prevention and treatment of TB. As a member of the Advisory Board, Tariro is committed to guaranteeing that The Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) achieves its goals that stems from the need to meaningfully engage civil society and affected communities in all aspects of the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union) as well as to maintain effective communication between The Union and Civil Society. As a team player on The Union Community Advisory Panel (UCAP), she promotes advancement of closer collaboration among stakeholders, affected communities, activists and Institute program implementation and research projects as appropriate.
Tariro is an elected member Zimbabwe Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) and Southern Africa Regional Coordinating Mechanism (RCM) re) representing TB affected communities of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (since April 2018), Chair of the Oversight Advisory Committee of TB Communities (SADC TIMs Project III) and TB Champion Zimbabwe”. She speaks fluent English,"
Ajaz Akhtar
Affected Community Representative
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Dr Ajaz Akhtar is an experienced medical practitioner and has earned university degree in medicine (MBBS) with clinical specialization in Family Medicine (MCPS) and also postgraduate qualification in public health (MPH). He has also done PhD in social science.
He is from the Pakistan, where population is highly affected with chronic pulmonary diseases such as TB, Bronchial Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary diseases. So, being experience specialist medical doctor, he is working to best tackle the needs of affected communities and civil society across the organization through his active participation.
Erman Varella
Affected Community Representative
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Erman varella, Rencently Program Manager at STOP TB Partnership Indonesia (since 1 November 2022. Ia have 15 years of experience in HIV and Tuberculosis program with focus areas ranging from; advocacy, communication and social mobilization, community engagement and patients’ empowerment; capacity building of social workers and civil society organization on HIV case managers, peer support, TB active case finding, motivational interviewing, proposal development for CSO, advocacy for CSO; to providing direct services for case management for HIV, TB and TB-Drug Resistance, psychosocial support, engage in active case finding.
Phumeza Tisile
Affected Community Representative
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Phumeza Tisile is a Health Activist, a student at the University of Cape Town and an Advocacy Officer at TB Proof. In 2010 she was diagnosed with normal TB while all along she had XDR-TB, she went through a grueling treatment of MDR-TB that left her deaf in both ears. In 2015 February she got a once in a lifetime chance to hear again. She can hear now using Cochlear Implants. She has done numerous advocacy works. She has presented the first Drug Resistant TB Manifesto at the 67th World Health Assembly in Genève which she co-authored.