Phyllis Kanki is the Mary Woodard Lasker Professor of Health Sciences at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She has worked in West Africa since 1984, where her research in Senegal provided the initial characterization of HIV-2, demonstrated reduced virulence, transmission and progression to disease and interactions with HIV-1 subtypes. In 2000, she founded the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN), supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation modeled after the Senegal research collaboration.  She led Harvard’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program supporting prevention, care and HIV antiretroviral therapy in Nigeria, Botswana, and Tanzania (2005-2013).  A long-time friend and supporter of BHP, she looks forward to developing future collaborative research projects.