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Keynote Speakers

Below are the confirmed keynote speakers for the Australian Public Health Conference 2024. Come back and visit this page soon, as new speakers will be added as they are confirmed.

Professor Vivian Lin

Executive Associate Dean (Strategy and Operations), Professor of Public Health Practice, The University of Hong Kong

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Vivian is the Executive Associate Dean in LKS Faculty of Medicine. She is concurrently Professor of Public Health Practice. She was the Former Director of Health System in the World Health Organization (Western Pacific Regional Office). She has more than 30 years of experience in public health, with a variety of leading roles in policy and programme development, health services planning, research and teaching, and senior administration in complex organisations. This included Chair of Public Health at Latrobe University from 2000 to 2013, founding executive officer of the National Public Health Partnership and Policy Convenor at the Public Health Association of Australia in her early career.

Dr Alana Gall

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine, Southern Cross University

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Dr Alana Gall is a proud Truwulway woman, a Pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) from the north-east coast of Lutruwita (Tasmania, Australia). Dr Gall is passionate about Indigenous peoples' holistic health and wellbeing, globally. She believes that the wellbeing and identity of Indigenous peoples are strongly centred around strong connections to Country/land, culture, spirituality and each other.Dr Gall is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, in the National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine, at Southern Cross University, and an Honorary Research Fellow at both the University of Queensland and Menzies School of Health Research. She is Vice Chair of the World Federation of Public Health Associations, Indigenous Working Group, and the Vice President (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) at the Public Health Association of Australia. Dr Gall is also the Indigenous Traditional Medicines representative in the TCIH Coordination Council for the TCIH Coalition of The People's Declaration for Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Healthcare.Research At Southern Cross University, Dr Gall leads a research program that centres around First Nations Australians traditional medicines, with the aims of protecting and preserving these medicines for future generations and improving accessibility for all First Nations communities across Australia.

 

Dr Gall has over a decade of experience in research, research translation, community engagement, health education and a background in Nutritional Medicine. She has an extensive and broad knowledge in First Nations health and wellbeing; First Nations Traditional Medicines; qualitative, Indigenous and decolonising methodologies and methods (including co-design methods/methodology); PROMs/PREMs measure development, and; systematic, comprehensive and policy reviews. Dr Gall pioneered the use of individual yarns with a think-aloud component, called the ‘think-aloud yarn’, and co-developed the Key Principles to Co-Design with First Nations peoples, which have informed the development of Cancer Australia's Australian Cancer Plan and will underpin its implementation (p.29, Cancer Australia Annual Report 2022-23).

Professor Adam Bourne

Director, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University

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Adam Bourne is Professor of Public Health and Director of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University. He leads a large program of research relating to the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQ+ communities, with a particular emphasis on mental health, alcohol and other drug use and intimate partner violence.

Dr Jaithri Ananthapavan

Associate Professor, Faculty of Health, School of Health & Social Development, Deakin University

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Associate Professor Jaithri Ananthapavan leads the Economics of Obesity team within Deakin Health Economics (DHE) and the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE) at Deakin University. She is an experienced health economist with over 15 years of experience in both health economics consulting and academia. Jaithri’s research interest is the economic evaluation of preventive health interventions and policies, economic modelling, priority setting and in methods to better assist decision-makers use economic evidence in resource allocation decisions.

Professor Kathryn Backholer

Professor of Public Health Policy, Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition, Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University

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Kathryn Backholer is a Professor of public health policy and Co-Director of the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition, within the Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University.  She holds a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship and is a Fellow of the Public Health Association of Australia. Her research is focused on building the evidence to support the design, adoption and implementation of healthy and equitable policies that address the social, cultural and commercial determinants of health. She regularly works with UN organisations, particularly UNICEF and WHO, across the Asia region where she supports governments to accelerate food policy actions. Her research has a key focus on harmful marketing and food price and affordability.

Dr Renee Carey 

Senior Lecturer, School of Population Health, Curtin University  

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Dr Renee Carey is a postdoctoral research fellow with a particular interest in lifestyle causes of cancer. She has a PhD in Psychology from Murdoch University. Renee was previously the project coordinator of a large-scale epidemiological survey investigating current occupational exposure to carcinogens, the Australian Work Exposures Study (AWES). Her current research looks at the future burden of cancer resulting from current occupational and lifestyle exposures. 

Ms Fran Bernhardt

Commercial Determinants Coordinator, Sustain UK

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Fran Bernhardt is the Commercial Determinants Coordinator at UK charity, Sustain, where she specialises in supporting governments to implement Healthier Food Advertising Policies. In 2018, she was seconded into the Mayor of London’s team, and advised with writing and implementing the policy across the Transport for London network. Since then she has supported 17 English local authorities to successfully get policies over the line and written Sustain’s Healthier Food Advertising Policy Toolkit. She now runs a working party of 150 UK local governments to advise them on implementing this policy and has also been consulted by several international governments.

Mr Liam O’Brien

Assistant Secretary, Australian Council of Trade Unions  

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Liam was re-elected as Assistant Secretary at the ACTU Congress in June 2024.

Before joining the ACTU Liam was the Victorian Assistant Secretary and National Vice-President of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU). It was there where he fought for the rights of workers across the diverse range of industries that the AWU represents. As a national official he led the AWU’s work in the aluminium, aviation, glass and construction sectors.

As ACTU Assistant Secretary Liam is responsible for leading the movements policy, industrial and campaigning work on work health and safety and workers’ compensation matters. Liam is passionate about the rights of all workers to have safe, healthy and decent work, and is a member of Safe Work Australia (SWA) and the Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Council (ASSEC).

Liam is also responsible for the skills and VET portfolio at the ACTU, and is a member of the Jobs and Skills Australia Ministerial Advisory Board.

He also holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics, with a major in Economics.

He is the proud father of two kids and lives in Melbourne’s west.

Professor Jaya Dantas

Dean International And Professor Of International Health, Faculty of Health Sciences and Curtin School of Population Health

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Professor Dantas is the Dean International and Dean, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of International Health in the School of Population Health at Curtin University. She has 36 years’ experience working in India, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Australia and has undertaken research in several other countries. Her research uses participatory, community base approaches to understanding health equity, focusing on resilience among migrant populations. She has been a delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN and is on the Committee of Women in Global Health, Australia, Australian Graduation Women and International Health SIG of PHAA.

Ms Shakara Liddelow-Hunt

Research Assistant, PhD Candidate, Telethon Kids Institute

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Shakara Liddelow-Hunt is a Wajarri Yamatji who grew up on Noongar country. They are a Research Assistant in the Youth Mental Health Team at the Telethon Kids Institute and PhD student at the University of Western Australia, focused on the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+ young people.

Professor Ashleigh Lin

Principal Senior Research Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, University of Western Australia

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Professor Ashleigh Lin (she/her) is a Senior Principal Research Fellow at the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia. Ashleigh's research focuses on the mental health of young people.

Ms Kelli Owen

National Community Engagement Coordinator, National Indigenous Kidney Transplantation Taskforce

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Kelli Owen is a Kaurna, Narungga & Ngarrindjeri sovereign woman who holds a Bachelor of Education (Edith Cowan University) and a Masters of Indigenous Languages Education (University of Sydney). She is the National Community Engagement Coordinator for the National Indigenous Kidney Transplantation Taskforce (NIKTT), a member of NIKTT Secretariat, Cultural Advisor with SA Health overseeing the Kanggawodli renal project with CNARTS (Central Northern Adelaide Renal & Transplantation Service), is a CI and member of AKction (Aboriginal Kidney Care Improving Outcomes Now) with the University of Adelaide, a newly appointment member of Australian Organ Transplant Authority (AOTA) advisory committee and is leading the SAHMRI (South Australian Health Medical Research Institute) project COMPASS (Connecting Our Mob Patient navigators As Sustainable Supports).

One of Kelli’s current projects is coordinating the interstate patient navigator project across four sites to streamline the kidney model of care and journey across states. She is collaborating with renal teams to adapt health education resources to increase health literacy to meet the needs of her people. In her current role, she yarns up with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities across Australia, focusing on their kidney journeys, local issues, and culturally appropriate solutions to increase equity and access to kidney transplantation. Kelli is familiar with Indigenous Governance and Data Sovereignty methods, harnessing the voices of Indigenous people to raise awareness of equity issues and health system barriers to address. Kelli prides herself as an information sharer, helping to grow kidney care knowledge to assist her people to make informed decisions. Kelli’s passion to share knowledge and to bridge knowledge systems of understanding to design innovative models of kidney care is a vital skill Kelli brings to the projects to ensure its success.

Kelli is a mother of 5 and Mutha (nanna) of four. Kelli has lived with CKD knowing ESKD would eventuate. Her lived experience of the journey, from diagnosis, pre-dialysis, Peritoneal Dialysis, Haemodialysis, transplant workup and assessment, transplantation leading to her current situation of post-transplant care management makes her an invaluable contributor. The challenges Kelli has experienced living in a regional town in South Australia has instilled her with an appreciation of the difficulties faced by rural and remote patients accessing essential health services. Issues pertaining to accessing treatment, transport, health language used, knowledge translation, genuine informed consent, medications, allied services and feeling culturally safe in hospital settings are areas she passionately advocates for.

Ms Tracey Bence

Immediate Past President, Australian Institute of Occupational Hygiene 

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Tracey is the Immediate Past President of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists®, the peak body for the professionals who conduct exposure assessments in workplaces across the country. Tracey has a master’s degree in Occupational Hygiene and Toxicology, is a Certified Occupational Hygienist ®, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienist and AIOH Media Ambassador. Her working life includes practical, technical and leadership roles in Australia and the US – all focused uniquely on the important mission to daylight the unseen burden of occupational disease and advocate for the protection of worker health.
Her experience over several decades includes construction safety, mining and minerals processing, mineral, oil and gas exploration, the safe operations, maintenance and decommissioning of major hazard facilities. Tracey understands how workplace exposure to carcinogens occurs and what needs to change in order to get better health outcomes for Australian workers and their communities.

Ms Michelle Isles

Chief Executive Officer, Climate and Health Alliance

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Michelle Isles serves as CEO of the Climate and Health Alliance, Director of the Global Climate Alliance, member of Healthcare Without Harm’s Global Coordination Council and member of the National Health and Climate Strategy Advisory Group chaired by The Hon Ged Kearney. Trained as a journalist, in public policy and law, Michelle has worked at the nexus of climate action, sustainable development and health in a career spanning 20 years across Asia-Pacific. Michelle has brought health evidence to and shaped policy on energy, urban planning, housing and transport, and led innovation and strategy to address climate risk and resilience within cities and health systems. As a General Manager in public health, Michelle led community response during COVID, transformed regional models of care, spearheaded First People’s governance and championed resource efficient and climate adaptation measures.

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