Keynote Speakers
Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM
Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM became Australia’s ninth Chief Scientist in January 2021 after an extensive career at Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, including as the agency’s Chief Scientist.
Dr Foley is an internationally recognised physicist with major research achievements in superconductors and sensors which lead to the development of the LANDTEM sensor system to locate valuable deposits of minerals deep underground.
Dr Foley’s scientific excellence and influential leadership have been recognised with numerous awards and fellowships, including election to the Australian Academy of Science in 2020, and an Order of Australia for service to research science and to the advancement of women in physics. She received the Australian Institute of Physics Medal for Outstanding Service to Physics in 2016. She is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering (2008) and an honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics (2019).
Dr Foley is an inspiration to women in STEM across the globe and focused strongly on equality and diversity in the science sector.
Professor Jonathan Carapetis AM
Professor Carapetis is Executive Director of the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth, Western Australia, a Professor at The University of Western Australia, and a consultant paediatrician at Perth Children’s Hospital.
His research interests include rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, other group A streptococcal diseases, vaccine-preventable disease, Aboriginal child health, child and youth health, development and education, and skin sores and scabies.
Professor Carapetis is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences (FAA) and the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences (FAHMS). In 2018, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his significant contribution to medical research.
His previous positions include President, Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI); Director, Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin; and Theme Director, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne.
Associate Professor Glenn Pearson
Associate Professor Glenn Pearson is a Nyoongar and the Director First Nations Strategy and Leadership at the Telethon Kids Institute which is located on Nyoongar Whadjuk boodjar. A member of the Executive Team his position leads the implementation of the Institute’s Commitment to Aboriginal Children and Families (2020-2023) Statement. The Commitment drives the integration of Indigenous health across all operations of Institute and specifically the Institute’s research program. A trained primary school teacher, he has 15 years of experience in senior positions within the Australian and State Governments in a range of areas including health, education and child protection including almost 10 years with the now, Department of Communities (formerly Child Protection).
Currently, Glenn’s primary area of research is in Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) where he is the Indigenous Lead for the Institute’s END RHD Program as well as the Australian Strep A Vaccine Alliance (ASAVI). The Australian Strep A Vaccine Initiative (ASAVI) is an Australian-led global initiative with the goal of reducing the disease burden caused by Group A Streptococcus (Strep A) infection through effective vaccination.
Glenn is an Associate Professor at The University of Western Australia.
A/Prof Jennifer Stone
A/Prof Jennifer Stone is a cancer epidemiologist/biostatistician and Head of the Genetic Epidemiology Group at the University of Western Australia in Perth, Australia. Her research aims to improve breast cancer screening by accumulating translatable evidence for the clinical use of risk factors, like breast density and body mass index, to tailor screening and improve breast cancer outcomes through early diagnosis and risk-reducing strategies. A/Prof Stone is currently leading a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Targeted Call for Research project, BreastScreenPlus, investigating a novel intervention targeting obesity-related barriers to mammographic screening. She is also a Chief Investigator within a NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence investigating Precision Public Health Approaches to Breast Cancer Screening, Early Detection and Mortality Reduction. A/Prof Stone also established (and co-chairs) the Australian Breast Density Consumer Advisory Council in 2019 to provide a community perspective on the research activities across Australian institutions interested in breast density research and breast cancer screening.
”Professor
K Ananth Krishnan,
Ananth directs Research, Innovation and Co-Innovation in TCS. Under his leadership, TCS has created a significant range of new products and services with a wide IP portfolio. Ananth has architected an organization-wide agile model for innovation at scale. He has been a member of the TCS Corporate leadership since 1999, leading several strategic corporate initiatives.
Ananth has served on several Governing Councils of Academia, Industry Advisory boards, and Government and institutional committees.
He was elected a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in 2013. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus of IIT Delhi in 2009. He has been listed in Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders (2007), and in Infoworld’s Top 25 CTOs (2007). Ananth has master’s degrees in Computer Science and Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi.
Darryl O’Donnell
Darryl O’Donnell is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations. AFAO leads Australia’s effort to end HIV transmission and strengthens civil society responses to HIV in Asia and the Pacific. He has 30 years’ experience working in HIV community, research and public sector roles. He is a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Consumer and Community Advisory Group and is chairing the joint NHMRC and Consumers’ Health Forum of Australia Advisory Group to revise the Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research. He is an advisory Board member of the Australian Global Health Alliance and Pacific Friends of Global Health. He has Masters degrees in Research and Public Policy and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of NSW.
CCI Breakfast Speakers
Peter McEvoy
Peter McEvoy is a teaching and research Professor of Clinical Psychology in the School of Population Health, and the Mental Health Domain Co-Lead within the enAble Institute, Curtin University. He is also a senior clinical psychologist and Research Director at the Centre for Clinical Interventions, North Metropolitan Health Service. Peter has extensive experience developing and evaluating psychological interventions that promote mental health and wellbeing. He recently co-led the Co-ROAMERS project with Mr Ben Horgan, a community and consumer involvement advocate, to inform the development of WA’s first Mental Health Research Strategy. The Co-ROAMERS project was guided throughout by a lived experience advisory group and involved comprehensive involvement of stakeholders across the sector.
Susan Hayes
Susan has been an active consumer representative across a number of cancer research organisations in WA for the last 8 years.
A diagnosis of stage 3 bowel cancer in 2021 caused an early end to Susan’s career in IT which encompassed development of AI systems (expert systems and neural networks for IBM and Fujitsu) as well as management of major development projects. Having experienced a decade of cancer treatments, Susan has applied her professional skills to working as a consumer advocate across several organisations. She has been on the grant approval panels and Research Grants Advisory Committee for Cancer Council WA for 8 years and has been active with the Consumer & Community Involvement Program at Harry Perkins, UWA and other universities, as well as the Clinical Oncologists Society of Australia.
Yvonne Parnell GAICD, MCHSM
Yvonne is the consumer representative member of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Principal Committee for Health and Research Impact (HRIC) and cross- member to the Community and Consumer Advisory Group (CCAG) for the current triennium. She is also the consumer representative Board Member for the South Metropolitan Health Service (SMHS) and sits on the both the Safety and Quality, and the People, Culture and Engagement Committees of the Board.
As a consumer leader, Yvonne currently represents the interests of consumers on two WA Department of Health Executive Steering Committees focussed on Safety and Quality and the implementation of Recommendation4 of the WA Sustainable Health Review. She is also a consumer representative for the Harry Perkins Centre for Medical Research.
Yvonne has a long history of consumer leadership in public health, and more recently health research, at a State and Federal level, that evolved as a result of her own lived-experience of cancer. She has been a CEO working in the disability sector for the past 15 years.
Mitch Messer
Mitch has been a health consumer advocate for over 40 years. He has a passion to see the silos in health care dismantled and replaced with a coherent system that supports consumers. While there has been progress, there is still much more to be done for consumers to be true partners in co-designing, implementing and reviewing the systems and services that are meant to support them.
Mitch is President of Cystic Fibrosis Australia and a Trustee of the Australian CF Research Trust. He is a founding member and past Chair of the Heath Consumers’ Council of WA and a past Chair of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF).