Stephen Lewis will share insights May 6 on AIDS-ravaged Africa.

As part of its yearlong 40th anniversary celebration, Fogarty International Center is presenting a series of Scholars in Residence lectures. The first speaker will be Stephen Lewis, who will share some of his insights in a talk titled “Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa,” on Tuesday, May 6 at Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10 at 11:30 a.m. The lecture will be followed by a reception.

Lewis was the UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa for Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 2001 to 2006, and is widely considered to be a visionary on moving public health programs into action. He is now co-director of AIDS-Free World, an international advocacy organization that works to promote more urgent and effective global responses to HIV/AIDS. Lewis embraces a grassroots approach to battling HIV/AIDS; his organization is particularly interested in promoting the rights of women who are vulnerable to the disease.

A politician, diplomat and international envoy for humanitarian efforts, Lewis has dedicated himself to improving the human condition. He has more than 20 years of experience with the United Nations and from 1995 to 1999 was deputy executive director of UNICEF. He is a professor of global health at McMaster University and senior advisor to the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. In April 2005, Time magazine listed him as one of the “100 most influential people in the world.”

For more information about Lewis and his work, visit www.aids-freeworld.org. His talk will be videocast.