Ambassador Stephen Lewis is co-director of AIDS-Free World, a new international advocacy organization that works to promote more urgent and more effective global responses to HIV/AIDS.
Among several senior United Nations (U.N.) roles that spanned over two decades, Lewis was the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, deputy executive director of UNICEF, and Canada's ambassador to the U.N.
In addition to his work with AIDS-Free World, Lewis is a professor in global health at McMaster University. He serves as a member of the board of directors of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and is the chair of the board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Canada.
Lewis is the author of the best selling book, "Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS Ravaged Africa". His impassioned speeches, alive with anecdotes ranging from maddening to hilarious to heartbreaking, are a wake-up call for a world falling desperately short of the goals it has set for itself. Lewis probes the appalling gap between vision and current reality in the global fight for an AIDS-free world, but also offers attainable solutions.
Lewis has received a number of prestigious awards, among them the Dean's Distinguished Service Award from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health; Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human rights from the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care; the International Council of Nurses' Health and Human Rights Award, The Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Leadership Ward, and the Health and Human Rights Award from Doctors of the World.
This event is co-sponsored by Rice University's Beyond Traditional Borders, Rice 360ￂﾺ and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management. It is free and open to the public.