Maureen Luba

Background

About Maureen Luba

Maureen Luba works as the HIV Technical Advisor at Cooper Smith bringing a wealth of expertise in health systems strengthening, and stakeholder engagement. Her role involves close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders to bolster health systems and enhance healthcare delivery by ensuring real-time access to data for informed decision-making in Malawi. Maureen has extensive experience collaborating with diverse partners across various sectors in low and middle-income countries.Before joining Cooper Smith, Maureen led a regional policy advocacy project at AVAC, focused on enhancing the capacity of civil society organizations in East and Southern Africa. She led and facilitated engagements with key stakeholders and supported policy analysis related to HIV, TB, malaria, SRHR, and COVID-19 at country and regional level. Maureen's commitment to advancing research and policy agendas that prioritize the needs of affected communities is demonstrated through her involvement in various national, regional, and global advisory bodies. As a board director for the International Partnership for Microbicides, she supported the submission of the market authorization application for the Vaginal Dapivirine ring to the European Medicines Agency. She gave oral testimony on the ring's anticipated impact on HIV prevention for women in Africa at the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use. In July 2018 she was invited to serve as a member of the National Committee on Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities which co-ordinates and regulates research in Malawi, where she reviewed over 100 research protocols. In May 2019 she was invited to join the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (GHVE) advisory group, where she provides strategic advice on HIV vaccine development. She has shared insights as a panelist in webinars and international conferences, discussing acceleration of HIV vaccine research by leveraging lessons from COVID-19 vaccine development. She also serves as a member of the newly established Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) Community Advisory Panel where she supports efforts to facilitate affordable access to medicines and other health technologies in low and middle-income countries.Throughout her career, Maureen has led and facilitated CSO and community engagement with researchers, regulatory bodies, policymakers and donors, and secured increased funding for recruitment of additional healthcare workers, scaling up HIV prevention tools (PrEP, VMMC), and influenced the adoption of policies and programs in East and Southern Africa.