Editorial Board
Saba Lambert
Editor-in-Chief
Saba trained as a rural GP before developing an interest in tropical diseases. She ran clinical trials on Ciclosporin for leprosy reactions at ALERT hospitals in Addis Ababa obtaining a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is based in Ethiopia where she works as a leprosy clinician, is involved in training and various research projects related to leprosy and other skin NTDs. She is part of the ILEP technical commission, convening a group looking at capacity building in leprosy.
ORCID
Paul Saunderson
Deputy Editor
Paul received his medical degree from Cambridge University and has been involved in leprosy work since 1981, particularly in Uganda and then at ALERT in Ethiopia. He joined Hope Rises International in 2000, and has served on several World Health Organization (WHO) advisory and technical committees and is a member of the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations (ILEP).
ORCID
Sujai Suneetha
Deputy Editor
Sujai Suneetha is a clinician–scientist with four decades of experience in leprosy research, diagnosis, and patient care. He trained at institutions including CMC Vellore and holds an MBBS, Dip in Clinical Pathology, a PhD in Leprosy Pathology, and an MPhil in Health Systems Management. He has held leadership roles at the Schieffelin Leprosy Institute at Karigiri and the LEPRA Society Blue Peter Public Health and Research Centre in Hyderabad, and currently serves as Director of INSSIL Nireekshana, Hyderabad. A past President of the Indian Association of Leprologists, he is currently Vice President (Communications) of the International Leprosy Association.
Shyamala Anand
Associate Editor
Dr Shyamala Anand is a medical doctor, an ophthalmologist by specialization, with 40 years of clinical and programme experience in The Leprosy Mission Trust India and American Leprosy Missions, Asia. She has been involved in programmes and field research in leprosy particularly ocular leprosy, NTD disability, WASH, and digital technology targeted at reducing transmission and improving care and quality of life for people adversely affected by NTDs. She is active in ILEP initiatives involving training manuals and modules and the ocular leprosy photo database.
ORCID
David Chandler
Associate Editor
David Chandler is a Consultant Dermatologist at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (Brighton). He completed postgraduate studies in tropical medicine and international health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and undertook research in India to assess the economic impact of leprosy reactions on patients and their families. His interest is in skin infections and NTDs and he has worked in Mexico, Brazil, India and East Africa. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Global Health & Infection at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, where his research focuses on the neglected fungal disease mycetoma.
ORCID
Belen Dofitas
Associate Editor
Belen Lardizabal-Dofitas is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine and completed her dermatology training at the Philippine General Hospital. She is a Fellow of the Philippine Dermatological Society and a founding member of its Leprosy Subspecialty Group. She is a wound specialist and Clinical Epidemiologist with special interests in skin neglected tropical diseases, health social science and teledermatology, and is President of the Philippine Leprosy Mission. At present, Dr Dofitas is an Active Consultant of the Department of Dermatology-St. Luke’s Medical Center-Quezon City, an Associate Professor 4 of the College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila, and Vice-Chair for Research, Section Head of Skin Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Division Head of Complex Wounds at the Department of Dermatology, Philippine General Hospital.
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Annamma S John
Associate Editor
Dr Annamma S John is a medical professional with 38 years of service in the NGO sector with experience in all aspects of clinical and public health perspectives of leprosy including Outpatient and Inpatient management, treatment of complications of leprosy including ulcers and disability. She also has experience in training medical and paramedical professionals in leprosy projects, hospital administration, and managing field projects, and in leprosy related research.
ORCID
Diana Lockwood
Associate Editor
Diana's work focuses on improving the outcome of leprosy patients with nerve damage. Her research programme has six main areas: understanding the pathogenesis of leprosy reactions, looking at the molecular effects of treatment on inflammation in reactional lesions, improving treatment for reactions, looking at risk factors for nerve damage, using strain typing of M. leprae to understand the epidemiology of leprosy, and studies on the interaction between HIV and M. leprae.
ORCID
Liesbeth Mieras
Associate Editor
Liesbeth Mieras is a medical doctor, serving as Head of the Medical Technical Department of NLR, with over 20 years’ experience working in global health. While working as a medical advisor in countries endemic for Neglected Tropical Diseases, including leprosy, she gained valuable experience applying science in medical practice. Liesbeth has developed and coordinated several multi-country leprosy research projects.
ORCID
Indra Bahadur Napit
Associate Editor
Dr Napit is Research Director at The Leprosy Mission Nepal supervising all research projects of TLM Nepal including the Mycobacterial Research Laboratory. He worked at the Anandaban Hospital, as a Reconstructive/Orthopaedic Surgeon and Medical Director from 2008 to 2019. He has been involved in different research projects since 2008. He supervised research studies under the RIGHT Project of the NIHR-UK Grant since 2019 and completed a PhD from the University of Warwick, UK. He has developed a substantial portfolio of ulcer care in Leprosy. He had successfully led a clinical trial of the use of autologous blood products (LPRF) in leprosy foot ulcers. He has substantial experience of leading various clinical trials.
ORCID
VRR Pemmaraju
Associate Editor
Dr VRR Pemmaraju is currently Programme Advisor (Medical Issues) at the Sasakawa Health Foundation, Japan. Prior to that he was epidemiologist and acting Team Leader of the Global Leprosy Programme at the WHO. Dr Pemmaraju coordinated with national programmes, international agencies, and academic institutions in accelerating implementation of global leprosy strategies as an epidemiologist and acting team leader of the WHO Global Leprosy Programme. He developed digital data management applications for national leprosy programmes and tools for monitoring and evaluation of leprosy and leprosy elimination programmes.
ORCID
Ruth Peters
Associate Editor
Dr Ruth Peters is an assistant professor in global health at the Athena Institute, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her current research is focused on 1) understanding and addressing complex societal problems (in particular health-related stigma) by taking a transdisciplinary approach, and 2) methodology development and facilitating public engagement in global health.
In 2015, she defended her PhD thesis on leprosy-related stigma and was awarded the distinction cum laude. Currently, she is the principal investigator of two multi-country studies. Ruth has more than 30 publications and has presented her work at more than 10 conferences. In 2018 - 2019 she was a visiting research fellow at the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
ORCID
Kingsley Stanley
Associate Editor
Kingsley is trained in Physiotherapy with more than 30 years of clinical and research experience in holistic disability and morbidity management. He has worked with urban leprosy projects in various capacities, both technical and administrative. He possesses wide skills in evolving simple systems and devices for a comprehensive disability management in leprosy. He has engaged in developing training guides for capacity building of medical and health professionals in leprosy. He has served as WHO shot-term consultant for a Community Based Rehabilitation project in Myanmar. He is involved in monitoring and evaluation of leprosy and community development projects. He has conducted operational studies on epidemiology of leprosy and related disabilities in urban and rural settings in India.
ORCID
Peter Steinmann
Associate Editor
Dr Peter Steinmann is a trained epidemiologist and public health specialist working as a project leader at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. He also holds a habilitation (Associate professorship) at the University of Basel. He has a track record of research and consultancies related to neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) with a focus on leprosy, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis, and public health in general. His technical expertise includes NTD research and control program implementation, public health, data quality and surveillance, and epidemiological surveys.
ORCID
Sunday Udo
Associate Editor
Dr Sunday Udo is a public health physician and leprosy control specialist with over 16 years’ experience in Nigeria’s health system. He is National Director of The Leprosy Mission Nigeria, Chair of ILEP Nigeria, and Chair of Nigeria’s National Leprosy Technical Working Group. He holds a PhD in Public Health from Lancaster University and a postgraduate qualification in mental health. His research and programme leadership focus on patient-centred leprosy care, disability prevention, mental health integration, and translating operational evidence into policy and practice.
ORCID
Sundeep Chaitanya Vedithi
Associate Editor
Dr Sundeep Chaitanya is working as the Director of Research and Innovation at Hope Rises International (HRI) and as a Research Associate at the Department of Biochemistry – the University of Cambridge in the UK. With a doctoral degree in Molecular biology and Immunology of leprosy from India and nine years of laboratory-based research experience in genomics, transcriptomics, immune biomarkers and computational biology, Sundeep leads multicentric scientific research projects in drug discovery and development of diagnostics for leprosy. With a strong passion to translate laboratory research findings into practice in the field to reduce the global the burden of leprosy, Sundeep leads the initiative to set up the HRI Centre for Translational Research and Innovation at the University of Cambridge.
ORCID
Advisory Board
Abraham Assefa (Consultant for WHO-TDR, Ethiopia)
Kidist Bobosha (Lead for leprosy research, AHRI, Ethiopia)
Warwick Britton (Professor of Medicine and Immunology, Australia)
Paul Fine (Professor of Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK)
Christian Johnson (Medical Consultant, FRF, Benin)
Judith Justice (Professor of Medical Anthropology and Health Policy, UCSF, USA)
VM Katoch (Former Director General ICMR, India; Member of Lepra Board)
Zoica Pereira (Social Sciences Professor, Brazil)
P Narasimha Rao (President ILA, Professor of Dermatology, Hyderabad, India)
Jan Hendrik Richardus (Prof. Emeritus of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Doug Soutar (Retired, Former ILEP General Secretary, UK)
Aparna Srikantam (Head, Blue Peter Research Laboratory, India)
Wim van Brakel (Medical Director, NLR, Netherlands)
Marcos Virmond (Former President ILA; Professor, FOB-UPS, Brazil)
Michael Waters (Retired Leprologist, UK)