Prof. Sheila Tlou is Co-Chair of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition, Special Envoy of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, Chancellor of the Botswana Open University, and Nursing Now Global Challenge Champion. She is former UNAIDS Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, former Minister of Health of Botswana, former Professor of Nursing at University of Botswana and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Development in Primary Health Care.

As Minister of Health, she led a successful HIV prevention, treatment, care and support program which is still a model in Africa. She led the adoption of the African Union’s Maputo Plan of Action on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.

Prof. Tlou has published extensively on gender aspects of the AIDS response. She has a Ph.D in Nursing from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has Membership of the American Academy of Nursing. The Canadian Academy of Nursing and the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.