Jacki Chen, Ph.D. Professor, Rutgers Health, Robert Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA President, Taiwan Hepatitis Information & Care Association (THICA), Princeton, New Jersey, USA Dr. Chen is a dedicated advocate for early prevention and treatment of viral hepatitis. He is a chronic hepatitis B patient himself, and so are many of his family members. Dr. Chen received his doctorate from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He became a University Professor at Rutgers University in 2002 after training at The Salk Institutes in San Diego, California, and at UMASS Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Chen has served on patient advisory boards for the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), GlaxoSmithKline, and Hepatitis B Foundation.

Dr. Carla S. Coffin is a Professor of Medicine within the Snyder Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, and Medical Director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Viral Hepatitis Clinic. Dr. Coffin’s clinical interest and translational research program is focused on hepatitis B virus infection including pre-clinical research using the woodchuck hepatitis virus model of hepatitis B. She received MSc degree using the woodchuck hepatitis virus model of hepatitis B with Professor Thomas I. Michalak, and MD from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. She completed Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and American Association for the Study of Liver Disease Hepatology Fellowship with Professor Norah A. Terrault at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. Dr. Coffin is President of the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver (2024-2026). She lead the formation of the Canadian Hepatitis B research network, and served on international expert panels including the WHO Essential Medicines Committee (viral hepatitis), the International Coalition to Eliminate HBV Stakeholders group, the US Centres for Disease Control, the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease Hepatitis B Steering Committee as well as global industry advisory boards on hepatitis B antiviral drug development.

Robert G. Gish, MD Dr. Gish was first in Pharmacy School at the University of Kansas and then obtained his medical degree from the University of Kansas Medical School in Kansas City, Kansas. He completed a 3-year internal medicine residency at the University of California, San Diego, and a 4-year gastroenterology and hepatology fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles which included transplant medicine. Dr. Gish is a fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, the American Society of Transplantation and American College of Physicians. He has served on the editorial boards of American Journal of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, Digestive Diseases and Sciences, and Gastroenterology, among many others. He co-authored a public health policy for liver health in Vietnam focusing on HBV and is also assisting with the development of viral hepatitis health care policies in Georgia, Armenia, and the Philippines. He was a major early contributor to decipher methods for the detection of hepatitis B and C virus and characterizing their epidemiology and clinical presentation in humans. He was involved in studies that led to the genotypic classification strategies and methods now in use worldwide. He has published more than 700 original articles, abstracts, and book chapters. Robert G. Gish, MD, is currently the Medical Director of the Hepatitis B Foundation in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Nevada Schools of Medicine in Las Vegas and in Reno. He serves as an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacy at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCSD, a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Loma Linda University. In addition, he is the Medical Director of the American Pacific Health Foundation in San Diego, CA. Dr. Gish is currently seeing patients, both in- person and via telemedicine, at various clinics in San Diego, Folsom (El Dorado Hills), Santa Rosa, and Valley Springs. He is a staff physician at La Maestra, a federally qualified health center in San Diego. Dr. Gish also serves as a Board Member of the Viet Nam Viral Hepatitis Alliance (VVHA).