Our Team
Our Team
Enhancing Care Foundation is led by two Executive Directors, Dr Sandy and Dr Rosie, whose work is guided by a Scientific Advisory Board comprising Prof Benson and Prof Campbell. In addition, the organisation is currently in the process of appointing an Advisory Council composed of leading figures from across the industry.
The organisation is further supported and driven by a competent and experienced technical and administrative team of project managers and coordinators, quality controllers and assessors, monitoring and evaluation experts, social science and public health specialists, medical experts, and financial and grant management specialists. This highly qualified multi-disciplinary team has been widely published.
ECF has developed excellent working relationships and key contacts with major stakeholders in the public and private health, education, social welfare, and academic sectors in South Africa, sub Saharan Africa, Asia, and North America.
Dr Sundrapragasen (Sandy) Pillay
After completing a medical degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Dr Pillay immediately entered the field of research, having acquired a Medical Research Council post-internship scholarship to the Department of Pharmacology. Here, he was involved in various research studies including clinical trials in diabetes, hypertension and epilepsy. Dr Pillay spent many years in family practice, completing post graduate qualifications in occupational medicine and HIV clinical management.
He joined UKZN in 2004 where he led a team that developed South Africa’s only coursework post graduate program in clinical HIV management. He was the Director of the Global Fund’s HIV corporate program and coordinated UKZN’s clinical HIV services for many years. He then joined the Durban International Clinical Trials Unit (DICTU) in 2005. DICTU was funded by the National Institutes of Health through the Aids Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) and International Maternal, Paediatric and Adolescent Aids Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) groups. Dr Pillay continued his involvement in the Durban International Clinical Research Site (DICRS), a division of the University of California, San Diego Clinical Trials Unit. In his role as Investigator in DICRS, he has been involved in various protocol teams.
He was co-author and Principal Investigator of UKZN’s prestigious Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) grant, has been the South African lead in a 5-year groundbreaking randomised clinical trial of risk behaviour reduction among HIV positive people (OPTIONS study) and has led various capacity development and health systems strengthening projects in Africa including the TB in the Mining Sector (TIMS) grant.
Dr Pillay is the co-founder and Director of Enhancing Care Foundation. He has been Principal and sub-Investigator in many clinical trials in HIV, TB, emerging viral infections and related conditions. In addition, he coordinates the ECF Health Systems Strengthening program which has implemented various projects in TB prevention and treatment systems in the mining sector, cross-border harmonisation of TB treatment in southern Africa, TB adherence, HIV prevention and behavioural interventions. Dr Pillay’s other interests are in vaccine research and development in which he works in partnership with the Wits Research Hub.
Dr Rosie Mngqibisa
Dr Rosie Mngqibisa began her studies in the field of Medical Technology before qualifying as a medical practitioner at UCT. She has a diploma in HIV management and advanced health management certificate. She is currently in the process of completing her Masters in Public Health with specialization in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She has more than a decade experience in working in both the public and private health sectors and has extensive experience in HIV and TB Management. She is an experienced and distinguished researcher, mentor and teacher.
Dr Mngqibisa currently manages a large HIV/AIDS research unit and contributes to the academic output of the HIV/AIDS teaching program. She was part of the expert team that provided input to national DOH panels on ARV expansion. She is part of scientific committees that provide direction to an HIV network on improved outcomes and better management of HIV in women. Dr Mngqibisa is passionate about disease prevention and health promotion and sees them as cornerstone to any health system. Dr Mngqibisa is a member of a National Health Institutes committee on HIV and Women and is published in the field of HIV.
Dr Constance Benson
Dr Constance Benson, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine, Senior Attending Physician, and the Infectious Disease Fellowship Training Program Director in the Department of Medicine/Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. She is also the Principal Investigator and Chair of the Executive Committee and Vice Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the NIH/NIAID AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), Principal Investigator of the NIH/NIAID UCSD AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, and is a past chair of the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council.
Dr. Benson is an internationally-recognized researcher and clinician in the field of HIV and AIDS. Her areas of research focus include Mycobacterium avium complex disease, other HIV-related opportunistic infections, metabolic complications of HIV therapies, antiretroviral treatment and new antiretroviral drug development, treatment of acute HIV-1 infection, and the treatment of HIV infection and its complications in resource-limited international settings. Her contributions to the field of HIV/AIDS are numerous. To date, she has published more than 220 original manuscripts, book chapters and abstracts reporting and summarizing findings from HIV-related research. She has served on numerous NIH ad hoc study sections and scientific review groups, has served as a reviewer for 11 major medical journals, and lectures frequently both nationally and internationally on topics within her areas of research and clinical expertise.
Dr. Benson is a member of the International AIDS Society, the Infectious Disease Society of America, the HIV Medicine Association of the IDSA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American College of Physicians. She participates on numerous academic and extramural committees and is a member of the Board of Directors of the International AIDS Society-USA and the Foundation for Human Retrovirology. She also serves on the Scientific Program Committee of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), and participates in reviewing papers submitted to the International AIDS Society-sponsored World AIDS Conferences.
Dr. Benson received her B.S. and M.D. degrees from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine and her fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL. She served in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps at the Great Lakes Naval Regional Medical Center prior to continuing her career in academic infectious diseases. She was a faculty member of Rush Medical College and the School of Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center before assuming her current position as Professor of Medicine in the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. She maintains clinical duties as a specialist in infectious diseases and as an active provider of HIV/AIDS care at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center in San Diego
Professor Thomas Campbell
Dr Thomas Campbell, M.D. is Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, University of Colorado Denver. He joined the faculty of the Infectious Diseases Division in 1995 after completing clinical and research training in infectious diseases in the University of Colorado Denver Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. He is a graduate of the University of Texas, South Western Medical School and he completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern. Dr. Campbell is the Principal Investigator of the Colorado AIDS Clinical Trials Unit. His research interests are the use of antiretrovirals to treat HIV infection and its complications, particularly Kaposi’ sarcoma.
Dr Campbell was chair of a large international NIH study on the evaluation of the efficacy of once-daily Protease Inhibitor and once-daily Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor-containing therapy combinations for initial treatment of HIV-1 infected individuals from Resource-Limited Settings (PEARLS) Trial – this study has set the standard for HIV guidelines in developing countries and contributed greatly to our understanding of HIV. Dr Campbell is a member of various other ACTG studies and is very widely published particularly in HIV and TB. He is also represented on various committees and boards. Most recently, Dr Campbell was successful as PI of an NIH grant for the improvement of medical education in Zimbabwe (MEPI grant).