Shahira Ahmed is a health policy and systems researcher with over 10 years of experience focusing on HIV, sexual and reproductive health and rights. Using mixed methods, she conducts implementation research to improve and evaluate health systems performance in resource constrained settings focusing on access, quality and equity of services for different populations. She is currently a Research Scientist at the Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, leading the design and implementation of studies in South Africa to assess demand and supply of HIV testing services and linkage to care, and adolescent preferences for HIV and reproductive health services in different health care settings. She has also worked and consulted globally and nationally with international agencies such as UNAIDS and WHO and governments on policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Shahira received her MPH from Boston University School of Public Health and doctorate from the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health.

A reporter for Science since 1990, Cohen has covered the HIV/AIDS epidemic for the magazine in more than three dozen countries. He also has written for the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, BuzzFeed News, Technology Review, Outside, Slate, Surfer and many other publications.

Diveena Cooppan, is a filmmaker from Tongaat, South Africa. Inspired by her work in HIV and her friendship with members of the HIV activist community, the idea of Positively Beautiful was conceived. They recognized the need for a film that challenges the traditional image of AIDS in Africa. A film that not only focuses on HIV but also shares the deeply human story of multifaceted individuals dealing with everyday life challenges in addition to a life threatening disease. So Diveena, formerly an Occupational Therapist working in psychiatry in South Africa and London and a public health practitioner in the US and South Africa, stepped into the world of documentary film making to produce and direct Positively Beautiful. Diveena is also a veteran professional dancer and is currently based in Oakland, CA with her family.

Kenneth Mayer’s clinical research career has focused on the natural history and transmission of HIV in the US and in Asia, having developed some of the first cohort studies and prevention interventions dealing with the AIDS epidemic. He has co-authored over 700 peer-reviewed publications and is currently a Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Director of HIV Prevention Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. As the Principal Investigator of the Brown-Tufts Fogarty International AIDS Training and Research grant for more than a decade, he helped develop the research capabilities of almost 100 international investigators. He is the founding Medical Research Director of The Fenway Institute, the research division of the largest ambulatory facility caring for HIV-infected patients in New England, where he continues to teach and mentor medical students, residents, and fellows. He has served on the national boards of the HIV Medicine Association, amfAR, and the GLMA. He has received awards recognizing his work from the Governor of Massachusetts, the Rhode Island Medical Society, the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. He currently serves as a member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society.