The following are the Committee for the 16th Australasian Viral Hepatitis Conference (VH 2026)
Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia
WA Country Health Service
Dr Marisa Gilles is a Public Health Physician and Director of Public Health Medicine at WA Country Health Service.
With 30 years’ rural experience, extensive work with Aboriginal communities, and strong epidemiology, research and data skills, she has published 32 papers and champions partnership approaches to reduce rural–metropolitan health inequities.
Hepatitis WA
Rebecca is the CEO of HepatitisWA, and a member of the Hepatitis Australia Board.
She brings over 20 years’ experience in the for-purpose health sector in both executive and board director roles, including positions at Sexual Health Quarters, Health Consumers’ Council WA and the Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing.
ASHM Health
Cherie is a passionate healthcare professional and educator who has been working in the HIV, Sexual Health, and Viral Hepatitis sector for over a decade
Her portfolio of work spans a range of government, non-government, research, and healthcare settings. Cherie works in multiple roles which includes;
Harm Reduction WA
Julie is Peer Based Harm Reduction WA’s Nurse Practitioner Candidate; working across both the Perth & Bunbury fixed sites as well as conducting outreach in the greater Metropolitan and beautiful South West WA regions. She is passionate about equitable access to healthcare and the peer-based team model of care.
ASHM Health
Hayden is a proud Kalkadoon man from North Queensland with links to the Jirrbal people in the Far North Queensland rainforest, currently living and working in Narm. Hayden is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lead at ASHM with experience in the community-controlled health sector, working as an Community Liaison Officer, a Aboriginal Health Worker in Cardiology at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
Most recently Hayden gained experience in Molecular Point-of-Care testing research in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities, helping support around 90 remote communities to combat respiratory infections like COVID, RSV, Flu A & Flu B. He’s passionate about culturally safe healthcare and strengthening the Aboriginal Health Worker workforce.
ASHM Health
Harm Reduction WA
Peta has been a lived experience peer worker at PBHR WA for 10 years and also sits on the AIVL board. Peta has designed and implemented peer education projects, worked in mobile health clinics, developed health promotion campaigns, and provides work force development training to other agencies and guest lectures to universities.
Currently, Peta’s main roles are Overdose Prevention & Peer Naloxone Project Officer, and she manages PBHR WA’s Communications.
Hepatitis Australia
Grace Hogan is the Communications and Partnerships Manager at Hepatitis Australia. She brings nearly seven years’ experience working in hepatitis communications and partnerships, including delivery of major national initiatives such as World Hepatitis Day in Australia, The Juice and the New You campaign.
Grace has significant expertise in executing communications, social media strategy, event management, media and health literacy strategies. Her deep understanding of community research and engagement methods is bolstered by her qualifications in anthropology and sociology.
ASHM Health
Adi Mondel is the Program Manager for Hepatitis B and Strategic Projects at ASHM. Adi is passionate about ensuring primary-care providers are equipped with the skills and knowledge to provide care that is innovative, patient-centred, culturally responsive and safe for all people living with viral hepatitis. In her spare time, she is the Volunteer Coordinator at Hepatitis B Voices Australia.
ASHM Health
Isabelle is the Hepatitis B Program Manager at ASHM. She is passionate about equitable and safe access to care for all members of the community. With a background in nursing, Isabelle has a range of experience working in community health and health promotion including education, policy and advocacy and research.
ASHM Health
I hold an advanced Master’s in Public Health with six years of research experience in diagnostics, focusing on medical technologies for HIV and Hepatitis C. As a Program Manager in the Hepatitis C space, I coordinate education and training programs to expand and strengthen the healthcare workforce.
Burnet Institute
Jacqui Richmond is a registered nurse with a PhD working at the Burnet Institute in the Eliminate hepatitis C Australia partnership. Jacqui is recognised for her expertise in developing and implementing nurse-led models of care for marginalised communities.
A recurring theme of her work is highlighting the role of nurses in viral hepatitis testing and treatment, and the importance of workforce development and interprofessional collaboration in achieving viral hepatitis elimination.
Hep B Voices Australia
A/Prof Thomas Tu leads a research group at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research focusing on hepatitis B cure and associated liver cancer.
He also lives with Hepatitis B, providing him with unique perspectives as a researcher, patient, and advocate. He has established both HepBCommunity.org and Hepatitis B Voices Australia.
WA Health
Hepatitis Foundation New Zealand
Nicola Caine is a Nurse Practitioner with Hepatitis Foundation NZ and Bay of Plenty, passionate about nursing through a socially just lens. UK-trained, Nicola has lived and worked in Aotearoa/New Zealand for 20 years. She serves as Secretary of the Australasian Hepatology Association and on the NZ Hepatology Nurses Committee.
Centre for Social Research in Health
Elena Cama is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW Sydney. She is an early-career researcher with a background in criminology, social sciences, and public health. Her work focuses on experiences, impacts, and responses to different forms of marginalisation, discrimination, and violence.
Liver Foundation
Sally Castle is an internationally recognised strategist with more than two decades of senior leadership across medical research institutes, health charities, and national peak bodies, with a career distinguished by her ability to align organisational growth with measurable health and social outcomes.
Since her appointment in 2022, Ms Castle has led the Foundation through a transformative period of growth, positioning it as a trusted voice for people living with liver disease and liver cancer.
Ms Castle’s leadership is guided by an unwavering focus on inclusion, collaboration, and impact. She has strengthened partnerships between clinicians, researchers, patients, and policymakers to ensure that patient perspectives drive national liver health priorities. A core part of her work is advancing equity for populations disproportionately affected by liver disease, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and those facing socioeconomic barriers.
Menzies School of Health Research
Prof Jane Davies is a Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research and Co-Director of Infectious Diseases at Royal Darwin Hospital. Her research focuses on understanding and optimising care for viral infections with a focus on First Nations peoples in the Northern Territory of Australia.
She leads the Hepatitis B PAST program, a holistic model of care co-designed with First Nations Australians to deliver care on country for viral hepatitis and liver cancer screening. Prof Davies works clinically as an Infectious Diseases and General Medicine Physician at the Royal Darwin Hospital and leads the clinical Viral Hepatitis Service .
Royal Perth Hospital
Adam Gregson is a Hepatology and Primary Care Nurse Practitioner based in Perth, Western Australia with a special interest in Hepatitis B and C, as well as HIV.
Adam’s significant experience in viral hepatitis and blood-borne viruses is broad, having worked in various settings including UK and Australian hospitals and prisons, sexual health and HIV NGOs as well as contributing to both state and national policy and strategy.
Adam is leading a revolutionary WA-based project, the Hep B Hub WA, with a focus on transforming approaches to chronic hepatitis B care and supporting GPs and NPs to provide this care in the local community without the need for onward referral.
Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney
A/Professor Behzad Hajarizadeh is a clinical epidemiologist and an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow in the Kirby Institute (UNSW). His main areas of research include epidemiology and clinical management of viral hepatitis, particularly in prison, and among people who inject drugs.
Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney
Dr Bethany Horsburgh is an early career researcher at the Kirby Institute, and the current secretary of the Australian Centre for Hepatitis Virology. She leads the viral sequencing component of H2Seq, working with diagnostic laboratories to implement methods of viral sequencing to help track the HIV and hepatitis C epidemics.
WA Primary Health Alliance
AIVL
Richard has dedicated over 25 years to the community services sector, beginning his career in the HIV field as a Case Worker before advancing to Programs Manager at The Bobby Goldsmith Foundation (BG). There, he facilitated workshops in Art, Writing, Cooking, and Nutrition, and presented a poster abstract at the ASHM Conference in Adelaide. He is a Master Trainer in Chronic Disease Self-management for PLWHIV, certified by Stanford University.
Richard has organised multiple art exhibitions and book launches, showcasing client talents. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as a Case and Contact Tracer at the NSW Ministry of Health, focusing on the LGBTIQA+ community. Since then, he has worked at NUAA and co organised PAC forums 2022/2023 and has NSP experience. Currently employed at AIVL, as the Admin and Events Lead. Richard is a HepC peer as well as living with HIV and was previously Vice-President and Acting President of Positive Life NSW.
Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID)
Dr Sushena Krishnaswamy is an Infectious Diseases Physician in Naarm with an interest in infections (including blood borne viruses) in pregnancy.
Doherty Institute
Senior medical scientist at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, and Honorary Fellow in the Department of Infectious Diseases, based at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Littlejohn is currently leading a project to develop a new RNA-based therapy for chronic hepatitis B, using CRISPR technology. She is an expert in HBV molecular virology and the role of HBV genotypes in pathogenesis and treatment response. She is also involved in a long term collaboration examining the molecular epidemiology of HBV in Indigenous Australian populations.
Curtin University
Associate Professor Roanna Lobo from the School of Population Health at Curtin University leads sexual health and blood borne virus research and evaluation exploring barriers and enablers to accessing health services for underserved populations, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and migrant communities. She has published over 75 peer-reviewed papers.
Hepatitis WA
Ali Lori is the Clinic Coordinator and HepLink Officer at HepatitisWA. With over a decade of experience, Ali has contributed in diverse capacities, including facilitating the Hip Hop program within WA prisons, NSP and volunteer coordination, and Hepatitis B program delivery with CaLD communities. For the past five years, Ali has specialised in clinical service delivery.
Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service
Summer has been a Clinical Nurse/Midwife for 19yr, working across 3 Australian states with a strong focus in Aboriginal & Women’s health. She currently works in Primary health Care at Derbarl Yerrigan Aboriginal Health Service as part of the Sexual Health Team.
Burnet Institute
Dr Alisa Pedrana is a principal research fellow and public health practitioner at the Burnet Institute. Her work combines BBV/STIs epidemiology and surveillance, program evaluation and implementation science to design evidence-based interventions and improve health service delivery for key populations. She currently leads the Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia Partnership, a national collaboration of >75 stakeholders that is partnering to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030.
WHO Centre for Viral Hepatitis
Nicole Romero is an epidemiologist and program manager at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis at the Doherty. Nicole has been involved in Victorian, national and international viral hepatitis research, and currently leads the Surveillance for Hepatitis B Indicators Project.
National Prisons Hepatitis Network
Dr Yumi Sheehan is a public health researcher at the Kirby Institute, UNSW with a research focus on hepatitis C elimination in prisons. She leads both the National Prisons Hepatitis Network and the global counterpart, the Global Prisons Infectious Diseases Network.
National Prisons Hepatitis Network
Dr. Thompson is a gastroenterologist and hepatologist and Professor-Director of Gastroenterology at St. Vincent’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne (2014+), and Honorary Adjunct Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology, Duke University Medical Center (NC). Dr. Thompson is a Board Member and President of the Gastroenterology Society of Australia (GESA); co-Deputy Chair of the National Prisons Hepatitis Network in Australia and past Executive Council Member of the Asia Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL).
Dr. Thompson is a leading Australian clinician researcher, with international recognition for his research in relation to hepatitis C and hepatitis B. He has made significant academic and clinical contributions to the development of models of care for hepatitis in people who inject drugs, including people in prison. He was the clinical lead for the development of the state-wide hepatitis program in Victorian prisons under contract to the Department of Justice and Community Safety, demonstrating the efficacy of a nurse-led decentralised model of care for hepatitis. This clinical model was awarded an Innovation Award by the World Health Organisation in 2016. Dr. Thompson has been a principal investigator in phase 3 clinical studies demonstrating the efficacy of sofosbuvir-based regimens for genotype 3 hepatitis C, now standard of care and recommended by international guidelines. In the laboratory, Dr. Thompson’s work has led to a number of important translational breakthroughs. Thompson was a clinical lead for the GWAS that identified IL28B polymorphism as the key host determinant of outcome of interferon treatment for hepatitis C. CI-Thompson continues an active translational research program in hepatitis B.
Dr.Thompson led the development of the Australian Consensus Statement on the Management of Hepatitis C, has been a Steering Committee Member for the development of Australian
Recommendations for the Management of hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma. He has published widely in journals including Nature, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Gut, and Journal of Hepatology, including more than 200 original articles which have been cited 30,397 times (Google scholar, 11,959 since 2019). His h-index is 71 (Google scholar, 49 since 2019). He has presented > 40 invited lectures at international/national meetings. He is currently an Associate Editor of the journal Hepatology.
Cancer Council WA