Spokespersons’ Biographies [International Conference on AIDS (12th: 1998: Geneva, Switzerland)]

Warren (Chip) Lindner (USA)
Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the 12th World AIDS Conference.
Warren (Chip) Lindner served for three years as Executive Secretary of the World
Commission on Environment and Development ("the Brundtland Commission"). In
1988 he created the Centre for Our Common Future, where he served as Executive
Director until its closure in December 1995. He was International Coordinator of the
1992 Global Forum held in Rio de Janeiro at the time of the Earth Summit. He was also
closely involved in the production of a worldwide five-hour live television concert on
Our Common Future and of the popular and widely distributed "Agenda for Change: A
Plain Language Version of Agenda 21". Prior to joining the Brundtland Commission he
served as Deputy Director of World Wildlife Fund International, head of the Energy
Department of SOGENER, a Swiss energy investment company, and a Partner in the
US law firm, Vinson & Elkins of Houston, Texas.
Awa-Marie Coll-Seck (Senegal)
Director, Department of Policy, Strategy and Research, UNAIDS, Geneva,
Switzerland.
Prior to joining UNAIDS in Geneva, Switzerland, Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck. was
Professor and Head of Infectious Diseases at the University Teaching Hospital in Dakar,
Senegal. She was also coordinator of the training of health personnel and social workers
on AIDS for the National AIDS Programme and has been the Principal Investigator of
international research grants on the medical and social aspects of AIDS, tuberculosis
and cervical cancer. Dr. Coll-Seck has been a member of numerous scientific societies
and non governmental organisations. She has published over 100 scientific publications,
including more than 50 on different aspects of HIV/AIDS. She obtained her medical
degree in Dakar in 1978, specialised in bacteriology and virology as well as infectious
and tropical diseases.
Beatrice Were (Uganda)
National Coordinator of the National Commmunity of Women Living with
HIV/AIDS (NACWOLA); member of the Board of the Uganda AIDS
Commission, Uganda.
Beatrice Were holds a BA in Social Science, Makerere Univeersity, Uganda. She has
extensive working experience in HIV/AIDS related activities, including as a research
assistant in a community health intervention, volunteer counsellor/social worker with
the Uganda Red Cross, social worker with the AIDS Widow Orphans Family Support
(AWOFS) and employed since 1995 in the Mobile Home Care Services of Nsambya
Hospital as a social worker/counsellor. Beatrice Were is a member of a number of
committees and task forces, including representing people living with HIV/AIDS on the
Board of the Uganda AIDS Commission and as a member of the National Task Force
on Women and AIDS. She is a key contact for the International Community of Women
Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW).