Dr. Zachary Kwena is a Lead Social Scientist at Kenya Medical Research Institute’s Center for Microbiology Research since 2002. He is also the Science Coordinator of the Lake Victoria Consortium for Health Research (LVCHR), aiming to improve access to health care and other social services through research and implementation of resultant interventions. Dr. Kwena received his training in Medical Geography at Kenyatta University, where he graduated with a Ph.D. in 2014. This was followed by a 2-year post-doctoral training fellowship from 2015-2016 and several other fellowships, including the University of California Global Health Institute (GloCal) and African Research Excellence Fund (AREF). He has published numerous scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals (see a complete list of publications ) Dr. Kwena has extensive experience in the design and management of formative qualitative studies and intervention trials. He has collaborated with many local and international investigators on various intervention projects that target HIV prevention in high-risk groups in fishing communities. His research interest is in HIV program evaluations and HIV prevention with a bias towards understanding sexual risks and networks among heterosexual couples and adolescent girls, and young women. He was the winner of the 2018 International AIDS Society Women and Girls Cash Award for his outstanding work on barriers to retention in HIV care among adolescent girls and young women.