Heidi van Rooyen is an experienced executive leader, social scientist, clinical psychologist and an internationally recognized and accomplished South African scholar. For the last three decades she has led, with distinction, multi-disciplinary teams to deliver impactful bio-behavioral-social research on COVID, HIV and AIDS, sexual and reproductive rights through a mix of public health, health systems, implementation science, intervention and policy research. Her research has focused on marginality and how inequities of gender, race, sexual orientation and place, singularly and together, impact health and personal and social outcomes. The success of this work has relied on extensive networks, high degrees of interaction and liaison with partners, funders, government, academic and civil society sectors.