Sarah Bernays has been listening to and collaborating with communities affected by HIV for twenty years, since she first worked as a secondary school teacher in Jinja, Uganda. She is a medical anthropologist by training and has developed a programme of qualitative research focused on the psychosocial support needs of young people affected by HIV. She has a split post and is an Associate Professor at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney. Much of her research aims to help understand the ‘why’ behind success or failure of HIV interventions in different contexts as well as to inform intervention adaptation to maximise their translation into policy and positive impact. A consistent thread in her work is considering how to strengthen participatory approaches to include young people in research about them, as well as conducting ongoing capacity building and training on effective qualitative research. She is currently the lead social scientist in the following studies: Odyssey, ZVANDIRI, CHIEDZA, Breather Plus, the Youth Trials Board project and is also running a multi-country study focused on young people’s acute HIV risk in the context of local migration in Africa.
