Professor Robert C. Bailey is Chair of the Global Health Program in the School of Public Health at UIC and Acting Director of the Nyanza Reproductive Health Society (NRHS) located in Kisumu, Kenya. As a internationally renowned expert in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention, he has supported the development of policy and good practice guidelines in Africa, the United States and globally. Ensuring that research results get translated into evidence-based policies and interventions.​

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A leading expert in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention, Professor Bailey has led teams of biomedical and behavioural researchers practitioners in Africa, primarily in Kenya, since 1996. He is currently Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He is also Chair of the Global Health Program in the School of Public Health at UIC and Acting Director of the Nyanza Reproductive Health Society (NRHS) located in Kisumu, Kenya. Prior to UIC, Robert was Professor of Anthropology at UCLA for ten years and spent two years at Centers for Disease Control in the Division of HIV/AIDS.

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A key research focus for Professor Bailey is the ability of circumcision to prevent HIV transmission. Through his ground-breaking randomized controlled trial of medical male circumcision to reduce HIV incidence in Kisumu, Kenya, the country adopted circumcision as part the country's HIV/AIDS prevention strategy. As part of this, Robert co-founded the NRHS, which has trained and provided technical assistance to over 1900 providers, installed static and mobile comprehensive MMC services for HIV prevention and performed over 300,000 circumcisions in Kenya.

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His work on HIV prevention has led him to work with, and study, gay and bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Kisumu, Kenya. As part of this work he helped found the first support group for LGBTQ in western Kenya, called Kisumu Initiative for Positive Empowerment. He has assisted with the development of policy and good practice guidelines in Africa, the United States and globally, ensuring that research results get translated into evidence-based policies and interventions.

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He has served as technical advisor and consultant to the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, OGAC, CDC, the Kenyan MoH and The Centre for HIV and AIDS Prevention Studies in South Africa and has been on the advisory boards of various clinical trials and implementation programs.

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In 2008, Bailey was named one of UIC's Researchers of the Year. In 2010, he received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the RSPH Alumni Association.