Jason Grebely – Conference Co-convenor
Jason Grebely is a Professor in the Viral Hepatitis Clinical Research Program at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney.
Jason’s training and research is based in the field of epidemiology, with a specific focus on clinical epidemiology. Jason has a BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a PhD in Pharmacology and Therapeutics, both from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Jason is also the President of the International Network on Hepatitis in Substance Users.
Kelly Hosking – Conference Co-convenor
Kelly is the Director of Sexual Health and Blood Viruses for the NT Department of Health. She has a long history in SHBBV in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and in South East Asia. She lives on beautiful Larrakia country where she has held senior nursing roles in public health, remote sexual health, primary health care – in continuous quality improvement, program management for the Hep B PAST and in COVID emergency management and preparedness. She is completing her PhD and is an investigator on several public health research projects through Menzies School of Health Research. The broad focus of Kelly’s work is to improve the cascade of care for people living with chronic hepatitis B, with a foundation step of determining everyone’s status and allocating a care pathway. Her passion is building the capacity of the health workforce, with a specific focus for the Aboriginal workforce, to manage and care for people living with chronic hepatitis B and to decrease shame and stigma.
Jess Howell – Conference Co-convenor
Dr Jessica Howell MBBS(Hons) FRACP PhD MSc (Epi) PGDip PH is a gastroenterologist and senior research fellow in the Department of Gastroenterology, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne/ University of Melbourne and leads the Hepatitis B research group within the Disease Elimination program at Burnet Institute. She combines clinical, basic science, epidemiological and public health expertise in translational research projects in liver cancer and viral hepatitis, focused on marginalized populations including people who inject drugs and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. She currently leads several national and international multi-centre studies in rapid point-of-care diagnostics in viral hepatitis, biomarker development in liver cancer, health systems research and international health programs for viral hepatitis and liver disease in low resource settings. She is a regular invited panel for multiple national and international clinical guidelines and technical advisor to the WHO (WPRO).
Mark Stoové – Conference Co-convenor
Mark Stoové is Head of Public Health at the Burnet Institute and has researched the transmission and impact of blood borne viruses among key risk populations for almost 20 years. A primary focus of his work is understanding the epidemiological, behavioural and biological drivers of infections and the translation of research evidence into effective public health policy and practice.
Joshua Anlezark
Joshua is the General Manager of Hepatitis Australia. Joshua is experiencing in the design and delivery of services to support communities whose intersectional experiences result in increased structural and systemic disadvantage.
Scott Bowden
Scott Bowden is the former Head of the VIDRL Molecular Microbiology Laboratory at The Doherty Institute and senior scientist in the WHO Regional Reference Laboratory for Hepatitis B. Scott has held a number of academic position and is presently an adjunct Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Monash. He has served on several Government committees, including the expert reference committee for the National Hepatitis C Testing Policy and chairing the expert reference committee developing the National Hepatitis B Testing Policy. He has published over 180 papers in the international literature as well as several book chapters and is an expert on applications of molecular technology to the diagnosis of the hepatitis viruses.
Loren Brener
Associate Professor Loren Brener (Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney): Loren has published extensively on stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with blood-borne viruses such as HIV and viral hepatitis and the impact of this on health outcomes and quality of care. Loren is a chief investigator on the Stigma Indicators Monitoring Project and on the program of research at CSRH to design interventions to address and reduce stigma towards the priority populations among the general public and health workers.
Edan Campbell-O’Brien
Edan is a proud Yulluna man from North West QLD, and is currently a Senior Programs Officer in the Communicable Diseases team at NACCHO.
Olivia Cullen
Clinical Nurse Consultant
Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital
Jane Davies
Dr Jane Davies is a NHMRC clinical research fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research and Co-Director of Infectious Diseases at Royal Darwin Hospital. Her research focuses on Hepatitis B spanning molecular and clinical epidemiology as well as translation and implementation of holistic and sustainable clinical care. She is the CIA on the Hep B PAST partnership grant and a CI on the National Eliminate C program. She leads the clinical viral hepatitis service for the Top End of the NT.
Carrie Fowlie
Carrie Fowlie is the CEO of Hepatitis Australia, the national peak body representing the state and territory hepatitis organisations and the interests of 350,000 Australians impacted by viral hepatitis. Carrie has two decades of peak body, policy and social justice experience. Her collaborative work has resulted in policy, programs and law reform consistent with the evidence and the priorities of her constituencies.
Susan Hay
Susan Hay is the Chief Executive Officer of the Hepatitis Foundation of New Zealand. Susan joined the foundation in January 2012 as part of the team delivering the hepatitis C pilot. She then held hepatitis B programme manager and operations manager roles within the organisation. Initially from an allied health background in medical radiation technology, Susan spent seven years at the Ministry of Health prior to joining the foundation, working in the breast screening and bowel cancer screening programmes. She has a Master’s in Health Science and project management qualifications, is a PEMBOK and Prince2 practitioner and belongs to the Institute of Directors.
Megan Hughes
Megan Hughes is a Clinical Nurse Consultant on the Tasmanian Eliminate Hepatitis C Australian Outreach Project. Megan is the 2021 recipient of the Levinia Crooks Emerging Leaders Award. Megan’s background is in mental health, she has completed a Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Nursing. Megan is passionate about person-focused care and reducing barriers to Hepatitis C care in Tasmania.
Sushena Krishnaswamy
Sushena is an Infectious Diseases Physician at Monash Health and the Royal Womens Hospitals in Naarm (Melbourne). She has a special interest in HIV and viral hepatitis, particularly in pregnancy. Sushena is the Deputy Chair of the ASID Viral Hepatitis Special Interest Group.
Burglind Liddle
Burglind Liddle is a hepatology nurse practitioner in Queensland having worked in the field of hepatology for almost 20 years. She has established the liver service for the organisation she works in. She remains passionate and agile by innovating models of care to strategically deliver contemporary and culturally relevant patient focused therapies for people with viral hepatitis and liver disease.
Winnie Nguyen
Winnie is the Program Manager for Hepatitis Queensland, responsible for overseeing the planning, implementation and management of key programs aimed at scaling up the coverage of viral hepatitis and liver health services across Queensland. Winnie Nguyen has over a decade of experience in the health sector and extensive cross-sector involvement spanning government, not-for-profit and primary healthcare. Passionate about harnessing the workforce and community, Winnie strives to develop opportunities and solution-based projects to create positive social change for people affected by viral hepatitis.
Lien Tran
Lien is an epidemiologist and PhD scholar at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, Doherty Institute, Melbourne. Her research focuses on hepatitis B care delivery in primary care. She is an active advocate for people and communities affected by hepatitis at national and international level. Lien currently serves as Regional Board Member for the World Hepatitis Alliance, representing the WHO Western Pacific Region.
Thomas Tu
Dr. Thomas Tu is the president of the Australian Centre for Hepatitis Virology and a molecular biologist whose research focuses on the Hepatitis B virus. He leads a research group at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research (Sydney) investigating how chronic hepatitis B infection is maintained and, over time, causes liver cancer. He also lives with chronic hepatitis B himself, now acting as a public advocate for the affected community.
Shelly Kerr
Shelley Kerr is the Hepatitis C Program Manager at the Australasian Society of HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine. She is responsible for the management of the Hepatitis C program in Australia and internationally, providing strategic direction for the program to build capacity in the health workforce through collaboration, partnerships, and high-level policy contributions.
Melinda Hassall
Melinda is a Registered Nurse with experience in acute care, primary health care and public health, has completed a Graduate Certificate in Health Promotion and a Masters degree in Public Health. Melinda is the Clinical Nurse Lead with ASHM and is responsible for the management and ongoing development of ASHM’s Nursing Program. Ensuring nurses have access to high quality and relevant BBV/STI education to enhance their professional development, advocating for policy and practice change for nurses to work to their full scope of practice are priorities.
Phoebe Schroder
Phoebe is the Acting Hepatitis B Program Manager with the Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine (ASHM). She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Science and a Master’s degree in Public Health, specialising in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
