Meet the ILEP Technical Commission
The ILEP Technical Commission comprises a group of experts covering a range of areas of leprosy expertise related to ILEP’s three strategic objectives. Due to the importance of ILEP’s relationship with the WHO, there is a standing invitation to the WHO Global Leprosy Programme to attend ITC meetings. There are also standing invitations to the Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy and the UN Special Rapporteur for the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members.
Sunil Anand (Chair of ITC)
Regional Director for Asia, American Leprosy Missions
Sunil Anand is a dermatologist and leprologist with 38 years in clinical and top-level administrative roles in the NGO sector. His expertise includes clinical leprosy and reconstructive surgery, hospital and programme management, and strategic leadership and change management.
As Asia Regional Director, Sunil is currently responsible for programmes researching and implementing innovative, integrated, contextual, and scalable solutions specific to NTDs and related disability, including the use of digital technology.
Saba Lambert (Deputy Chair of ITC)
Clinical Research Fellow, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 
Saba Lambert is a part-time Clinical Research Fellow, seconded to ALERT, in Addis Ababa as a leprosy specialist. She has been in Ethiopia for the last 12 years. Her duties include organising and conducting research, looking after leprosy patients as their clinician, organising and supervising leprosy related research, teaching on leprosy courses offered at ALERT and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and working in conjunction with the Ministry of Health as part of the Leprosy Expert Advisory Group.
Her PhD at LSHTM, under Professor Diana Lockwood, was based on a clinical trial looking at treatments for leprosy reactions. She continues to work on this field by being part of the ENLIST group which specifically looks at Erythema Nodosum Leprosum. Having recently completed a Diploma in Clinical Dermatology, she is looking forward to working on a new study on stigmatising skin diseases funded by the UK NIHR RIGHT: Skin Health Africa Research Programme (SHARP). Saba writes that she is privileged to be part of this technical commission and looks forward to learn and share as the ITC works towards improving leprosy care and control.
Charlotte Avanzi
Assistant Professor, Colorado State University
My laboratory specializes in the genomics epidemiology of leprosy. More specifically, it investigates the transmission and dissemination dynamics of Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis, the causative agents of leprosy in humans, along with the role of animal and environmental hosts in facilitating the global pathogen spread. Furthermore, our research encompasses the development and optimization of molecular diagnostic techniques for detecting these pathogens in clinical specimens and assessing their viability, which is crucial for evaluating treatment effectiveness and developing new regimens. Additionally, the laboratory conducts comprehensive molecular analyses to determine drug susceptibility profiles and elucidate novel resistance mechanisms in M. leprae.
Ngozi Ekeke
Senior Programme Manager, RedAid Nigeria
Ngozi Ekeke is a Public Health Physician and serves as Senior Programme Manager with RedAid Nigeria. Prior to his present employment, he served in the academia as a Lecturer in Community Medicine with Abia State University, Uturu and part time with Madonna University, Elele, Nigeria. His work is focused on managing projects related to control of Tuberculosis, Leprosy, Buruli ulcer, Yaws and other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) where he provides regular training and technical assistance to national program staff.
Ngozi is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians (FWACP) in Community Health. He builds networks with local universities for research collaboration and oversees internship programs (in RedAid Nigeria) for resident doctors from the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital.
Ngozi is passionate about strengthening organizations of persons affected by NTDs and other marginalized groups, including persons with disabilities to improve their mental health and quality of life. He is interested in finding innovative ideas and effective strategies to strengthen health systems through community engagement, to build resilient communities in a livable planet.
Liesbeth Mieras
Research and Advocacy Coordinator, NLR
Liesbeth Mieras is a medical doctor, serving as the Research and Advocacy Coordinator for NLR, with over 25 years’ experience working in public health, mainly in low- and middle income countries. While working as a medical doctor and as a medical advisor in countries like Mozambique and Indonesia she gained in-depth knowledge and experience on integrating science into medical practice in the field of (skin) neglected tropical diseases and the management of communicable diseases, including leprosy. Liesbeth has worked for NLR for almost 15 years and has coordinated several large multi-country (research) projects. In the past years she has given guidance to the implementation of the Leprosy Post-exposure Prophylaxis (LPEP) project in India, Indonesia and Nepal and has been the Principal Investigator of a multi-country research project (PEP4LEP) on the integration of chemoprophylaxis for leprosy in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Benedict Okoe Quao
National Leprosy Programme Manager, Ghana
Global Health practitioner and family medicine specialist with expertise in the control and management of leprosy and other skin-related neglected tropical diseases, and rehabilitation medicine, with about 15 years post-qualification experience in a variety of clinical and healthcare managerial settings. He is a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group for leprosy and represents country leprosy programmes and ministries of health on the Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy (GPZL) Leadership team.
As the current national leprosy programme manager in Ghana, he’s been instrumental in Ghana’s progressive integrated skin-NTD approach implementation, bringing on board a deep understanding of the workings at the public health-primary care interface and across the clinical-managerial spectrum. His passion is to arm country program managers with the support, tools and resources to move away from the apparent stagnation in the fight against leprosy, whilst maintaining person-centredness in the delivery of interventions.
Aymée Rocha
Head of Research, PMEL and PEP++ Program Coordinator at NHR Brasil Foundation
Aymée Rocha holds a degree in nursing, a Postgraduate qualification in Human Rights, Social Responsibility, and Global Citizenship, and an MSc in Public Health. She is a member of the Clinical-Epidemiological Studies and Operational Research Group for the Implementation of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the Federal University of Ceará. With 12 years of experience working with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Brazil and with extensive experience in implementing chemoprophylaxis for NTDs, she has focused on Hansen’s disease (leprosy) control and research for the past 5 years. Aymée is passionate about fieldwork in Hansen’s disease and is currently involved in implementing a pragmatic clinical trial of chemoprophylaxis within the Brazilian public health system.
Sundeep Chaitanya Vedithi
Senior Director of Research and Innovation at American Leprosy Missions & Senior Research Associate, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge
Dr. Sundeep Chaitanya Vedithi holds a PhD in Health Sciences, specializing in Molecular Biology and Immunology with a focus on leprosy. His areas of expertise include genomics, transcriptomics, immune biomarkers, structural, and computational biology. He leads multicentric research projects dedicated to drug discovery and the development of diagnostic tools for leprosy and other neglected tropical skin diseases, using advanced DNA amplification and sequencing technologies along with rapid diagnostic methods. His experience includes roles at The Leprosy Mission Trust India and the Schieffelin Institute, where he contributed to studies on drug resistance and molecular epidemiology.
Dr. Vedithi serves as Chair of WHO’s Skin NTD Diagnostics Working Group and is a member of the WHO Diagnostics Technical Advisory Committee. He has authored over 50 publications focused on drug discovery, computational biology, and disease diagnostics. His work seeks to eradicate leprosy and other neglected diseases by bridging the gap between laboratory research and practical applications.