ADVISORY BOARD

Sarah Finocchario Kessler, PhD, MPH is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She completed her doctoral training in International Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research combines interests in reproductive health and HIV to improve safer childbearing for people living with HIV. Dr. Kessler’s active studies focus on developing, evaluating, and adapting mHealth interventions like the HIV Infant Tracking System (HITSystem) to improve early infant diagnosis (EID) of HIV, and prevent perinatal HIV transmission among pregnant women in Kenya. Her multidisciplinary research team was among the first to pilot new point-of-care HIV testing strategies for HIV-exposed infants at the time of delivery, conducting implementation research on new maternal and pediatric HIV innovations. Dr. Kessler is collaborating with Oak Therapeutics to develop and customize alternative drug delivery strategies to optimize pediatric antiretroviral therapy in settings with limited resources and persistent HIV stigma. 

Sally Maliski, PhD, RN, FAAN  is Dean and Endowed Professor in Oncology Nursing Research at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, and Associate Director for Health Equity in the University of Kansas Cancer Center.  Her research focuses on treatment-related symptom management and risk minimization for underserved people with cancer with NIH funding and multiple publications.  Dr. Maliski received her PhD from UNC-Chapel Hill and has been a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA.