‘Knowledge Is Power’ Webinar Series – Timetable of Topics, Dates and Facilitators

Bakita Kasadha

Bakita Kasadha FRSA is a multi-award winning poet, health researcher and health writer based in the UK.

She has shared her poetry and spoken internationally, including Latitude Festival, Wilderness Festival and Manchester Pride. She has been commissioned for the Sainsbury’s Group Black History Month campaign, National Stephen Lawrence Day, 40th anniversary of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt. Her poem Numbers Game inspired the creation of a multi-million-pound community fund to prevent new HIV cases and support people with HIV.

She is a researcher at the University of Oxford, working on an HIV and infant-feeding project. In 2022, Dr Shema Tariq and Bakita co-edited a special collection entitled HIV and Women’s Health: Where Are We Now?

Bakita has written for a wide range of publications, including the British Journal of Healthcare Management, Glamour, Metro, Black Ballad and gal-dem.

In December 2022, Bakita was appointed Chair of Glitch, an award-winning UK charity working towards ending online abuse – particularly against Black women and marginalised people.

Megan Westhead

Megan Westhead is a Trainee Clinical Psychologist with a keen interest in understanding complex mental health difficulties, alongside health psychology.

Beginning her academic journey at the University of Sussex, Megan obtained her undergraduate degree in psychology, whilst loving living in Brighton! She completed this degree with a year abroad, studying and researching at the University of Texas, Austin. Megan then achieved a master’s degree in Mental Health Studies from King College, London, whilst being involved in several research projects, which have now been published in peer reviewed journals.

Megan is currently in her final year of earning a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Royal Holloway, University of London. Her thesis research focusses upon developing an online, self-guided, HIV status sharing intervention. This will involve recruiting people who identify as Sub-Saharan African and live in the U.K, with the aim of exploring the impact of this intervention, alongside participant experiences.

Megan is committed to addressing health disparities and harnessing the power of technology to create meaningful psychologically minded interventions.

Simon Collins

Simon Collins is living with HIV and is a treatment advocate who encourages people living with HIV to take an active role in their own health. In April 2000, he co-founded HIV i-Base, where he edits the monthly HIV Treatment Bulletin and a range of treatment guides. He also runs a treatment information service.

Yvonne Gilleece

Professor Yvonne Gilleece, Chair of BHIVA, is Honorary Clinical Professor and Consultant in HIV Medicine & Sexual Health at Brighton & Sussex Medical School and University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. She is a national and international leader on HIV and was elected Chair of BHIVA in January 2023.Prior to this she was elected as a BHIVA trustee to serve on the Executive Committee (2016-2019, 2019–2022) and was also elected as Honorary Secretary (2019- 2022).

Professor Gilleece specialises in HIV in Women and is immediate past Chair of the BHIVA Pregnancy Guidelines, Chair of WAVE, a subcommittee of the European AIDS Clinical Society, and Founder and Chair of SWIFT, promoting research in women living with HIV. She teaches on the BHIVA inpatients and Dip HIV courses.

She was Vice Chair of the BHIVA Guidelines Subcommittee (2017-2019), was a member of the BHIVA Hepatitis and Conference Subcommittees and has contributed as an author to additional BHIVA guidelines (Adult Treatment, 2015, SRH 2019). She also specialises in HIV and Bone and HIV and Hepatitis Coinfection & Liver Dysfunction.

Susan Cole

Susan is an award-winning HIV activist, broadcaster, writer and public speaker, advocating for people living with HIV for two decades. She leads the community engagement and broadcasting activities for the HIV information charity NAM aidsmap, producing and hosting the live broadcast series aidsmapLIVE for a global audience of people living with HIV.

She has previously worked for a number of NGOs including the UK Coalition of People Living with HIV, the National AIDS Trust and has serves as a Trustee of the Children’s HIV Association & the Women’s HIV charity the Sophia Forum.
She is particularly passionate about issues affecting women and people of colour living with HIV, writing and presenting about the health inequities they face.

She is a member of the Global HIV Collaborative, 4M Network of Mentor Mothers and serves as a community representative of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) HIV Special Interest Group. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan

Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan is a Consultant in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. Her clinical work, research and advocacy focus on improving health equity for marginalised populations.

She is currently Chair of the Steering Group of 4M Mentor Mothers and a medical advisor to NAZ.

Dr. Grace Bottoni

Dr Grace Bottoni is a GP and has been working and living in South East London for the last 10 years.

In 2019 she was appointed as a GP HIV Champion working with the Elton John AIDS Foundation to increase HIV testing in primary care, support patients who are out of care and reduce stigma amongst health care professionals. She now continues this role with the Lewisham Council. More recently she has also been appointment as a Hepatitis C GP Champion.

Dr Bottoni is also a local clinical lead for the Clinical Effectiveness Group in South East London, a programme which helps to improve health outcomes and reduce variation and inequalities in primary care.

Angelina Namiba