Staff and Consultants

Edwin J Bernard is executive director of the HIV Justice Network (HJN) and global coordinator of the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition. A leading international advocate against HIV criminalisation, he has worked with communities, policymakers, researchers, and advocates across multiple regions to support rights-based, science-informed responses to HIV non-disclosure, exposure, and transmission.

Edwin has contributed to global advocacy, policy, and knowledge on HIV criminalisation for almost two decades, beginning with the publication of his 2007 book, Criminal HIV Transmission, which evolved into the internationally recognised blog of the same name. He later co-authored HIV and the Criminal Law and has since written or co-written numerous publications on HIV criminalisation, human rights, and HIV policy, including HJN’s Advancing HIV Justice series. He is also lead author of forthcoming global guidance on HIV decriminalisation to be launched at AIDS 2026.

Before leading HJN, Edwin worked as an editor at NAM/aidsmap and as a policy consultant for organisations including the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), the International AIDS Society (IAS), and UNAIDS. He also contributed to and edited the Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention framework developed by GNP+ and UNAIDS, which places people living with HIV at the centre of healthcare delivery while emphasising human rights, dignity, and wellbeing.

Originally from the UK and now based in the Netherlands, Edwin has worked in HIV advocacy and communications for more than two decades and has lived with HIV since 1983. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in film and literature from the University of Warwick.

Sive Stofile is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She started her career working with biotechnology research grants and has extensive knowledge in the end-to-end process of managing grants from writing conceptual proposals and frameworks to MEL and identifying and addressing risks, challenges and opportunities central to the success of the investments. She has worked in grants management for several South African government agencies under the National Department of Science and Technology.

In addition, she has been involved in a project management role in various local NGOs focusing on youth development and child welfare. Sive has previous experience working on HIV and global health advocacy through her role as Grants manager for the International Civil Society Support (ICSS) and specifically through the Global Fund Advocates Network (GFAN).

Sive’s projects for HJN include grant management and MEL.

Sylvie Beaumont has been involved in HIV since the late 1980s when she started work as a volunteer to translate some of the vital information coming out of the English-speaking world into French. She joined NAM/aidsmap in the 1990s as International Editor and worked on the development of a multilingual platform aiming to facilitate networking and information sharing between HIV organisations across the world.

Since 2014, Sylvie has managed a variety of projects for ReShape, a London-based independent HIV think tank.  Now based in France, she also works as a translator specialising in HIV and remains involved in the development of knowledge sharing and content distribution platforms on a variety of projects.

Sylvie’s projects for HJN include researching and curating our newsletter, HIV Justice News and supporting the work of HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE in Francophone Africa.

Sofía Varguez is based in Yucatán, Mexico, Sofia has a background in international relations and development studies. She started her career working in international cooperation at a local and national level. She moved afterwards to multilateral affairs, where she gained experience in global health and human rights, as well as the work of OHCHR, WHO and UNAIDS.

She has experience working with diverse teams and counterparts around the globe, supporting them as contact point for internal and external communication.

In 2020, she started working in education and she is continuing in a part-time role for undergraduate academic activities at the Law and Political Science School at Universidad Modelo, in Yucatán, México.

Sofia’s projects for HJN include preparing and disseminating our social media activities and supporting the work of HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE in the LAC region.

Alison Symington is a legally educated advocate, researcher and project manager.

Based in Toronto, Canada, for over twenty years Alison has worked in the not-for-profit sector, making legal analysis and tools accessible to community and interdisciplinary teams.

Previously, she was the Co-Director of Research and Advocacy at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network (now known as HIV Legal Network) where she pioneered feminist analysis of the criminalisation of HIV non-disclosure. She has also worked with LEAF (Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund) on issues of sexual assault and HIV criminalisation.

She has published extensively on issues of health, human rights and justice and has produced two films focused on women and HIV criminalisation – Positive Women: Exposing Injustice, and Consent.

Alison’s projects for HJN include feminist analyses on the impact of HIV criminalisation, especially in the context of breast- and chest-feeding and comfort nursing.

Nicholas Feustel is a filmmaker based in Germany specialising in documentaries on health and human rights, with a particular focus on HIV-related issues. His films include the Adolf Grimme Award-nominated documentary, I Want To Live, Don’t I?, and PrEP17 – The coming of age of PrEP, for the UK-based advocacy group PrEPster.

Nicholas has produced many videos for HJN, including capturing our earliest advocacy moments at AIDS 2010 and the creation of the Oslo Declaration, as well as documentaries like Doing HIV Justice and More Harm Than Good.

Nicholas supports HJN both with his video advocacy expertise – overseeing livestreaming events such as our flagship Beyond Blame webinars and the innovative webshow series, HIV Justice Live – as well applying his design and layout expertise to our various publications, newsletters, and social media images.