Advisory Board Bios

Maxim Anmeghichean

Having graduated from Moldovan State University in the field of journalism and communication sciences, as well as a master program in Cultures and Development at Leuven University (Belgium), Maxim Anmeghichean has linked all of his professional life with the LGBT movement. He has a decade of experience within the Moldovan LGBT movement, having started the organization Information Centre "GenderDoc-M" essentially from scratch and, with a team, developing it into a strong and respected organization at national and regional levels. At the national level, Maxim was also a member of the NGO Council, a founding member of the National AIDS Network, and a board member of the National Youth Council of Moldova (NYCM), having in his mandate capacity building and organisational development. Within the NYCM Maxim has coordinated a TACIS-funded project on promotion of social inclusion using psychosocial animation tools (social video, theatre forum, etc.). For the past ten years he has been actively involved with the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA-Europe), first as a board member, taking part in the development of ILGA's Eastern European work, lobbying before the Council of Europe and the European Union, and fundraising. In his post as Programs Director, he combines advocacy work before three major European institutions, development of the European LGBT movements, and capacity building.

Chris Beyrer

Dr. Chris Beyrer received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Hobart and William Smith College and his M.D. from the State University of New York Health Science Center. He interned in family medicine at the University of Wisconsin and completed his residency in general preventive medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Beyrer is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program. He works mainly on HIV prevention research, trials of prevention strategies, and the efforts to develop an HIV vaccine. Since 1994, Dr. Beyrer has been a consultant for the Thailand Red Cross Program on AIDS. He continues to act as a medical advisor to the Southeast Asian Information Network, creating HIV prevention programs and consulting for the Burmese refugee population and for the democratic forces in Burma. He served as the Field Director of the Preparation for AIDS Vaccine Evaluations (PAVE) and HIV NETWORK (HIV/NET) projects from 1992 until 1999. In the past, Dr. Beyrer has been a consultant for the World Bank Institute for HIV/AIDS Treatment Options for Developing Countries and for reducing HIV transmission among Thai drug users.

With a specific focus on AIDS in Burma and Cambodia, Dr. Beyrer has published several articles on political, social and medical problems surrounding the spread of HIV in Asia. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and at the 5th annual international AIDS Congress in Malaysia on issues such as, "Trafficking of Burmese women and girls into the Southeast Asian sex industry" and "Over land heroin trafficking routes and HIV spread in South and Southeast Asia". He is currently a member of the Thai Youth AIDS Project, American Public Health Association, International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission, Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, and the Society for AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.

Jane Cottingham

Jane Cottingham, BA, MSC, is an independent consultant and researcher in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights. From 1994-2009 she worked at the World Health Organization in Geneva as Team Coordinator and Technical Officer for Gender, Reproductive Rights, Sexual Health and Adolescence at the Department of Reproductive Health and Research. Her work involved, among others, working with women's health groups, policymakers, and scientists to ensure that women's rights and gender perspectives were integrated into sexual and reproductive health research, policies and programs at international, regional, and national levels. Particular areas of focus in this work were the development and promotion of barrier methods for dual protection, developing guidelines for the provision of safe abortion services, gender and ethical issues in research, and the development of a rights-based approach to sexual and reproductive health policy development and programming. In 1976 she co-founded ISIS, Women's International Information and Communication Service, and served as the organization's director in Geneva, Switzerland, for 11 years.  During this time she helped to create an international women's information network, built up a documentation system about and for women, and co-authored and edited numerous publications on women's issues. Ms Cottingham received a Masters in Population Sciences from Harvard School of Public Health in 1991.  She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Reproductive Health Matters.

Anna-Louise Crago

Anna-Louise Crago is a sex worker and the former Coordinator of Clinical and Outreach Services at Stella, Montreal's organization by and for sex workers. In 2006, she along with the other team members at Stella had the honor of being awarded the national "Aids Action Award" by Human Rights Watch and the Canadian HIV Legal Network. Since 2007, she has also worked as a consultant on sex workers' rights issues for SWAN, a network of 17 groups offering health and social services to sex workers in 16 countries in Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Anna-Louise has received SSHRC and FQRSC Graduate Awards for her research into the scapegoating of sex workers for HIV in Zambia and its links to national and transnational prostitution policy. She has also researched human rights abuses against sex workers for the Open Society Institute and the Open Society Foundation of Southern Africa. Her publications include Rights Not Rescue: Female, Male, and Trans Sex Workers' Human Rights in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa; Our Lives Matter: Sex Workers Unite for Health and Rights, which was awarded the Wilmer Sheilds Silver Award from the American Council on Foundations; and Arrest the Violence: Human Rights Violations Against Sex Workers in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a sex worker-led community research project on physical and sexual violence by police against sex workers in 11 countries.

Masha Lisitsyna

Masha Lisitsyna, Project Manager for the Open Society Justice Initiative, recently served as a Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch focusing on civil and political rights in Turkmenistan, the rights of Uzbek refugees, and the rights of migrant workers in Russia and Kazakhstan. She has researched and written reports on issues of discrimination in Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Prior to her work at Human Rights Watch, Masha co-founded and served for more than ten years as the Executive Director of the Youth Human Rights Group, one of the main human rights NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. While at YHRG, she developed a human rights monitoring program focused on custodial institutions including orphanages, mental health institutions, and detention centers; conducted advocacy at the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the European Union; and ran human rights trainings for lawyers, teachers, and NGO activists. Masha is also the founder of the Independent Human Rights Group, an NGO specializing in legal protection of human rights, juvenile justice, and freedom of information. In 2005, she served as a member of Kyrgyzstan's Constitutional Council, the body convened to work on constitutional amendments. Masha holds a JD from Kyrgyz-Russian Academy of Education.

Ruth Morgan Thomas

Ruth Morgan Thomas has been involved in the sex industry for more than 30 years. Eight years as a sex worker, two and a half years as an academic researcher at Edinburgh University looking at HIV related risks in the sex industry, and more than 20 years as a sex workers' rights advocate developing and striving to maintain services and support for sex workers within a human rights framework both within the UK and abroad. She has acted as a consultant to the World Health Organization–Global Programme on AIDS, UNAIDS and UNFPA and was a member of the founding steering committee of International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO). Ruth is one of the eleven founding members of the Scottish Prostitutes Education Project (SCOT-PEP) set up in 1989 by sex workers for sex workers in Edinburgh.

In 2004 she joined with other sex workers and allies to organize the European Conference on Sex Work, Human Rights, Labor and Migration held in Brussels October 2005 and is currently Chair of the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE).

In 2007 she joined with other sex workers and allies to draft the Global Working Group on HIV and Sex Work Policy response to UNAIDS Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work and lead the restructuring of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) between 2008-2009. She took on the staff role of Interim Global Coordinator for NSWP in January 2010.