Dr. Olive Shisana is an internationally respected public health scientist, policy strategist, and institution-builder with a career spanning more than 40 years across South Africa, the United States, and Switzerland. Her work has contributed to the global understanding of HIV epidemiology, advanced universal health coverage, strengthened health systems, and influenced policy at the highest levels of government and multilateral organisations.

She earned her Doctor of Science degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, specialising in social epidemiology of diseases. She is widely recognised for pioneering South Africa's population-based HIV survey series — the first comprehensive national HIV prevalence and behavioural surveillance studies.

From 2018 to 2025, Dr. Shisana served as a part-time Special Advisor on Social Policy to the President of the Republic of South Africa, advising on health, education, gender-based violence, social cohesion, inequality, and pandemic preparedness.

Dr. Shisana was the first woman to serve and lead as the CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). She expanded its research footprint across the continent and enhanced its global standing. She also chaired the first BRICS Think Tank Council on behalf of South Africa.

Internationally, she served as Executive Director at the World Health Organization in Geneva, where she strengthened global reproductive health programmes and led the development of the health-sector plan for the International Partnership on HIV/AIDS in Africa.

She currently serves as President and CEO of Evidence-Based Solutions (EBS), a research and ICT enterprise headquartered in Cape Town, and maintains an appointment as Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town.