Title: Breaking Silos: Insights from a Decade of HIV and Mental Health Interventions for Young Women

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Speaker Bio: Dr. Jennifer Velloza is an Assistant Professor in Residence in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Co-Director of the UCSF Partnerships for Research in Implementation Science for Equity (PRISE) Center. Her research, teaching, and mentoring focus on advancing the field of HIV and STI prevention and the intersection with global mental health, specifically for adolescent girls and young women. She has conducted partnered implementation science and behavioral science research in Kenya and South Africa for over a decade. Dr. Velloza also regularly leads implementation science training and capacity-building activities locally and globally.

Title: A Fence, Not An Ambulance: Implementing Youth-Led Behavioral Strategies for Vaccine Literacy and HIV Resilience

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Speaker Bio: Dr. Anita Shet is Research Professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a pediatrician and public health researcher whose work focuses on strengthening the prevention continuum for infectious diseases across the life course. Following her training in pediatric infectious diseases, she worked in India for a decade, establishing one of the country’s first public-private antiretroviral treatment clinics and developing a pediatric HIV cohort that helped inform national guidelines on early ART and viral load monitoring. Her current work centers on peer mentorship and physical activity interventions to strengthen resilience and long-term outcomes among young people with HIV. Dr. Shet’s work also spans childhood vaccine uptake including leading global initiatives on pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines, serotype surveillance, vaccine advocacy, and vaccine impact evaluation. She has contributed to immunization policy and rollout in India and supported vaccine introduction in fragile settings in African countries. She is currently developing school-based approaches to strengthen vaccine literacy and build early foundations for prevention behaviors among children. Overall, her research integrates implementation science and community-engaged approaches to design youth-led behavioral interventions that improve health outcomes.