Celebrating Outstanding Leadership: The Policy and Practice Leadership Awards

Meaningful research changes lives. It creates new programs and services. It solves practical problems. OHTN funds research with real-life impact, work intended to improve the lives of people living with and at risk of HIV. We also recognize that what moves research from an interesting finding to a life-changing moment is the hard work and influence of some very special people.

This month, OHTN has launched a new award that recognizes the contributions of people who we call Policy and Practice Leaders. Our first two Policy and Practice Leadership Awards go to Dr. Colin Kovacs and Dr. Alan Li. The awards celebrate their research contributions, and their determination to apply this work to real-world needs. The awards also provide up to five years of new funding to help them continue to drive change for people living with and at risk of HIV.

colinkovacs

Dr. Colin Kovacs is one of Ontario’s best known HIV doctors. He helped found the Maple Leaf Medical Clinic, now Ontario’s largest HIV-focused practice. Despite a demanding clinical practice, Colin has always been a proponent of using research to improve the care he delivers to his patients. He has built working relationships with laboratory scientists from Ontario and with US-based researchers at the prestigious National Institute of Health laboratories. Through these partnerships, he has helped address key questions in HIV medicine, such as why some people infected with HIV seem to control the infection without medication or why some people whose virus is controlled by medication don’t see much positive change in their immune system measures. With his partners, he has helped to demonstrate that people with fully suppressed viral load do not generally shed HIV, a finding that changed attitudes and prevention strategies. He has been a strong advocate for early treatment and for the approval of new therapies and treatment strategies. This Policy and Practice Leadership Award will support his unique research program, allowing Colin to continue to bring research attention to the questions his patients ask and helping to ensure that the latest research findings are applied in the clinic.

Alan Li

Dr. Alan Li is a clinician at the Regent Park Community Health Centre. In this role, he has had extensive experience with the health barriers and inequities faced by many marginalized people living with HIV, particularly immigrants, refugees, and those without status. These experiences have inspired his research efforts and his work as Research Chair of the Committee for Accessible AIDS Treatment (CAAT), a coalition of more than 30 Ontario-based organizations from the legal, health, settlement and HIV/AIDS sectors. His research emphasizes community empowerment and mentorship. This community-based work has led to crucially needed programs, including the Compassionate Drug Program at Toronto People with AIDS Foundation, immigration legal services at the HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic (Ontario), and the Legacy PHA Mentorship Project. This Policy and Practice Leadership Award will allow Alan to continue to design and test new programs through community-based collaborations, including programs to reduce HIV stigma, to build resiliency among racialized men who have sex with men, and to provide better support for the many HIV positive people who staff AIDS Service Organizations.

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