BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
John G. Bartlett, MD
Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
John G. Bartlett, MD, is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. He served as Chief of the Infectious Diseases Division at the
School for 26 years, stepping down in June of 2006. Dr. Bartlett received his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth
College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and his medical degree at Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York. He
trained in internal medicine at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and the University of
Alabama, Birmingham, and he completed his fellowship training in infectious diseases at the University of California,
Los Angeles (UCLA).
Before accepting his current position at The Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Bartlett served as a faculty member at
UCLA and Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, and was associate chief of staff for
research at the Boston VA Hospital.
Dr. Bartlett has worked in several areas of research, all related to his specialty in infectious diseases. His major
research interests have included anaerobic infections, pathogenic mechanisms of Bacteroides fragilis, anaerobic
pulmonary infections, and Clostridium difficile associated colitis. Since moving to Johns Hopkins, his major interests
have been HIV/AIDS, managed care of patients with HIV infection, and bioterrorism.
Dr. Bartlett is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a master of the American College of Physicians, past president
of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and a recipient of the Kass Award from the IDSA. In 2005, Dr.
Bartlett was awarded the Alexander Fleming Award by the IDSA and the Finland Award from the National Foundation
for Infectious Diseases (NFID).
Dr. Bartlett has authored over 500 articles and reviews in peer-reviewed journals, more than 280 book chapters, and
67 editions of 18 books. He has served on editorial boards for 19 medical journals.
Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD FFPH
Director, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD is the Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
(NCHHSTP) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As NCHHSTP Director, Dr. Fenton
oversees all of CDC’s work related to the prevention, control, and elimination of HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STDs, and
TB in the U.S., as well as CDC’s Global AIDS Program (an implementing partner of PEPFAR). Dr. Fenton is a public
health specialist and infectious disease epidemiologist with expertise in STI (including HIV) surveillance, research
and prevention, sexual health promotion, and behavioral surveillance and research. Dr. Fenton has served in a
number of academic and community leadership positions, and has consistently focused on addressing racial and
ethnic disparities in sexual health. He most recently served as the Director of the HIV and Sexually Transmitted
Infections Department in the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency (HPA). He also served, among other posts,
as the Chief of CDC’s Syphilis Elimination Program, Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology and Public Health at the Royal
Free and University College Medical School, and co-founder of the European STI Surveillance Network (ESSTI).
Dr. Fenton has published numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed articles in prominent journals including The
Lancet, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, AIDS, the British Medical Journal, and the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
He has served on a number of notable professional committees as well as editorial boards for journals. He is a
Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom and a Visiting
Professor at the University of London.
After graduating from the University of the West Indies Medical School in Jamaica, Dr. Fenton earned his Masters in
Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and his Ph.D. in Epidemiology from University
College London.
Deadra Lawson Smith
Living Quilt project member and Community Liaison/Peer Advocate, South Carolina HIV/AIDS Council
Deadra Lawson Smith lives a commitment of empowerment, awareness and education throughout her own personal,
education and community-centered endeavors. She is the Community Liaison/Peer Advocate for PROJECT
F.A.I.T.H. (Fostering AIDS Initiatives That Heal) - A Project of the South Carolina HIV/AIDS Council, in Columbia, SC
where Dr. Bambi Gaddist is the Executive Director. In addition, Lawson-Smith is a motivational speaker and
workshop facilitator and trainer. She is also a member of the Living Quilt project, a group of HIV-positive women in
the South who decided to go public with their status in order to break stigma and fear around the disease.
Lawson Smith has made it her personal mission to educate others about HIV/AIDS and eliminate stigma and
discrimination that continues to be a powerful barrier in dealing successfully with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Her aim is
to be a catalyst for change in the lives of those infected and affected with this epidemic.
Deadra Lawson-Smith is also the loving mother of 4 children, Charmaine, Reginald, Sara and Jean-Elizabeth.
Kenneth H. Mayer, MD
Director, Brown University AIDS Program
Kenneth H. Mayer, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Community Health at Brown University, Director of the Brown
University AIDS Program, and Attending Physician in the Infectious Disease Division of The Miriam Hospital in
Providence, Rhode Island. He is also Medical Research Director at Boston’s Fenway Community Health Center,
where (since 1983) he has conducted studies of HIV’s natural history and transmission. In the early 1980s, as a
research fellow studying infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Mayer was one of the first clinical
researchers in New England to provide care for patients living with AIDS.
In 1983, Dr. Mayer co-authored The AIDS Fact Book, one of the first books about AIDS to be written for the general
public. In 1984, he began one of the first studies of the natural history of HIV infection, and was subsequently funded
by the federal government to study biological and behavioral factors associated with male-to-male HIV transmission.
Starting in 1987, he and his colleagues have been supported by the NIH and CDC to study the dynamics of
heterosexual HIV transmission and the natural history of HIV in women, and to study HIV prevention interventions,
ranging from vaccines (HIVNET, HVTN) to microbicides, behavioral and other strategies (HPTN). He has been the
principal investigator of 4 Phase I microbicide trials, including the first human trial of Tenofovir gel. He has
collaborated with basic virologists and immunologists to more accurately characterize the genetics and
immunopathology of HIV disease. In the late 1980’s, he initiated the first community-based clinical trials for people
living with HIV/AIDS in New England, and helped amFAR develop its national Community-Based Clinical Trials
Network (CBCTN). He subsequently was named to the Board of Directors of amFAR and was co-chair of its Clinical
Research and Education Committee and is now a member of their Program Board. He has also served on the
national boards of HIVMA and GLMA.
Dr. Mayer is the Director of the Brown and Tufts Universities’ Fogarty (NIH) AIDS International Research and Training
Program, which has educated almost 100 laboratory and clinical investigators from Asia and Africa. Dr. Mayer has
worked increasingly in India and participated in many regional conferences on biological and behavioral approaches
to prevention research, and the development of community-based clinical research activities in Asia. Dr. Mayer also
co-edited The Emergence of AIDS: Impact on Immunology, Microbiology, and Public Health, published in November
2000 by the American Public Health Association Press and The HIV Pandemic: Impact on Science and Society,
published in early 2005 by the Academic Press. He has co-edited “The Social Ecology of Infectious Diseases”
(Academic Press, 2007) and “The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health (American
College of Physicians Press, 2007). Dr. Mayer has served on the Data Safety and Monitoring Board of the NIH’s
AIDS Clinical Trials Group and sits on several editorial boards of scientific publications, including: Clinical Infectious
Diseases. In the Fall of 2007, he received a Society Citation at the annual meeting of HIVMA for his editorial work on
annual compendia of HIV clinical articles and other public health leadership. He has co-authored more than 350
articles, chapters and other publications on AIDS and related infectious disease topics, and is a frequent lecturer and
presenter at national and international conferences and symposia.
Veronica Miller, PhD
Executive Director, Forum for Collaborative HIV Research
Veronica Miller is Executive Director of the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research and Research Professor in the
Department of Prevention and Community Health at The George Washington University School of Public Health and
Health Services.
Dr. Miller’s intellectual journey in HIV/AIDS began in Frankfurt Germany, where she co-founded the Frankfurt HIV
Cohort, which generated important data about treatment effectiveness and viral drug resistance, and influenced
regulatory policy in Europe and North America. Together with Dr. Joep Lange and the European AIDS Treatment
Group, she co-founded (1998) and chaired (1998-2001) the EuroGuidelines Group to create uniform standard-of-care
guidelines for HIV drug resistance testing across the continent.
In her current role at The Forum, she directs the public-private partnership whose mission is to enhance and facilitate
HIV research by bringing together all major stakeholders to discuss emerging issues in HIV research in a neutral and
independent setting. She has emphasized the importance of involving all stakeholders in developing HIV research
agendas, an experience that will serve her well if elected to the IAS Governing Council.
Under her leadership, the Forum has expanded to include a focus on global HIV issues and HIV prevention research.
Since her appointment in 2001 Dr. Miller has recruited significant new members to the Forum’s Executive Committee,
including the US Food & Drug Administration, the European Medicines Evaluation Agency, the International AIDS
Society, the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the American Foundation
for AIDS Research, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Agence Nationale de Recherchers sur le
SIDA et les Hépatites Virales, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the World Bank. In addition, the Forum has
interacted with and collaborated with the WHO, UNAIDS and the Global Fund on a variety of projects. The Forum’s
industry membership has increased to 22 pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies. Most recently, The Forum has
launched the Prevention Research Advisory Group.
In addition to her academic appointment in the Department of Prevention and Community Health, Professor Miller
holds secondary appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and of Health Policy. Professor
Miller serves on numerous industry and government advisory boards. Professor Miller has published extensively on
HIV treatment strategies, especially on the immunological and virological impact of antiretroviral treatment (over 70
peer reviewed publications). A key area of interest is viral drug resistance and the characterization of treatment
failure. She obtained a Bachelor of Science (Microbiology) from the University of Manitoba in 1976, and a Doctor of
Philosophy (Immunology), from the University of Manitoba in 1985.
Richard E. Rothman, MD, PhD
Associate Professor and Research Fellowship Director, The Johns Hopkins University
Department of Emergency Medicine
Richard E. Rothman, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine with a Joint Appointment in
Medicine (Division of Infectious Diseases) at The Johns Hopkins University. He serves as Research Fellowship
Director for Emergency and received numerous grants and awards including the Society for Academic Emergency
Medicines Young Investigator Award, and Clinical Scientist Award from the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Rothman
served more many years as the American College of Emergency Physician (ACEP) representative to the CDC for
HIV testing policies and led the colleges program on ED HIV testing guidelines released in response to the 2006 CDC
guidelines. Dr. Rothman served as CO-PI on an American Hospital Association CDC-funded project evaluating
various models for HIV testing across the United States and in 2007 , cofounded the National ED HIV Testing
Consortium which includes the majority of ED across the US involved in HIV testing. Dr. Rothman also leads the
Johns Hopkins ED HIV testing program.