Helen Rees

Executive Director, Wits RHI

Helen Rees is Executive Director of Wits RHI, in the role since 1994.

Wits RHI is the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, part of the University of the Witwatersrand's Faculty of Health Sciences and a WHO and UNAIDS collaborating centre. Rees founded it in 1994, and in 2026 she became chair of the International Vaccine Institute's board.

In the job

  1. Rees co-chaired the WHO Poxvirus CORC with Jean-Jacques Muyembe of the DRC, an initiative that brings research networks together. Source

  2. Rees was appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Vaccine Institute. Source

  3. Rees received the 2026 NRF Lifetime Achievement Award for her career in health research and public health. Source

Career before

  1. 1994-presentFounder and Executive Director, Wits RHI
  2. Personal Professor in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of the Witwatersrand

Education

Medical degree and Master's in Social and Political Sciences, Newhall College (now Murray Edwards College), Cambridge

Sources

  1. wrhi.ac.za
  2. wrhi.ac.za
  3. wrhi.ac.za
  4. wits.ac.za

Facts last checked 3 November 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.

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