Dr Brett Knowles completed training in General Surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital Melbourne in 2007. He then completed a year-long Australian fellowship in Upper Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary surgery at Box Hill Hospital before heading to the United Kingdom for two years.

The first year was spent as a clinical fellow in Hepatobiliary and Transplantation Surgery at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh working for Regius Professor James Garden. The second year was spent as the clinical and research fellow in the Hepatobiliary unit at Basingstoke NHS working for Mr Myrddin Rees. Basingstoke NHS is one of the leading European centres for liver and cytoreduction surgery in Europe.

Upon returning to Australia in late 2010, Dr Knowles commenced specialist practice in Melbourne with public appointments at St Vincent’s Hospital, Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
He has an active involvement in teaching, surgical training and research and is committed to providing the highest standards of patient care.

As a licensed clinical psychologist working in forensic psychiatric care at one of Sweden’s largest forensic psychiatric facilities, I possess extensive hands-on experience in managing and treating individuals with severe mental illness. Currently pursuing my doctoral studies at Karolinska Institutet in clinical neuroscience, I am deeply invested in the field of adolescent mental health, particularly focusing on reducing suicide rates and enhancing recognition and access to evidence-based treatments for youth with severe mental illness. My research background primarily lies in psychiatric epidemiology and clinical trials, where I have contributed to advancing knowledge in adult psychiatric disorders. However, my recent focus has shifted towards understanding the importance of direct clinical approaches in addressing the mental health needs of adolescents. Drawing from my clinical expertise and research insights, I bring a unique perspective to the field, challenging notions of single therapy as the sole solution for severe mental illness. Recognizing the crucial role of medical treatment as a foundation for successful psychotherapeutic interventions in severely affected psychiatric patients, I aim to bridge the gap between various perspectives and contribute to the holistic and comprehensive care of individuals struggling with mental health challenges.

As a resident physician specialising in child and adolescent psychiatry at Stockholm Healthcare Services, I bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to my role. With a PhD and a background as a postdoctoral researcher in clinical neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet and Umeå University, my expertise lies in implementing direct clinical approaches to tackle the alarming rates of adolescent suicide and enhance the recognition and accessibility of evidence-based treatments for youth with severe mental illness. My research experience encompasses diverse areas such as psychiatric epidemiology, clinical trials, and genetics/epigenetics, providing me with a comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between biological, environmental, and social factors in mental health. By combining my clinical skills, academic achievements, and research acumen, I am dedicated to making a tangible impact on the lives of young individuals struggling with severe mental illness, working to ensure they receive the best possible care and support.

Dr Malinda Itchins BMedSci, MBBS(Hons1), PhD, FRACP, is a thoracic medical oncologist at Royal North Shore Hospital, GenesisCare, and North Shore Private. In 2020 she graduated from University of Sydney in her doctoral studies investigating drug resistance in ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer both preclinically and clinically. Malinda is a Board Director and the Lung Cancer Chair of the Clinical Oncology of Australia (COSA), and Advanced NSCLC Co-Chair for the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia (TOGA) Scientific Committee. She is Primary Investigator on multiple lung cancer clinical trials and her research focus to date has been in patterns of care, the real-world experience and drug resistance in oncogene driven lung cancers. She is passionate about the evolution of precision medicine and equity of access to care in thoracic cancers.

Dr Katherine Kenny is Deputy Director of the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies, and an ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at The University of Sydney. She gained her PhD in Sociology and Science Studies from the University of California, San Diego in 2015. Prior to joining The University of Sydney, she held positions as Postdoctoral Research Fellow, then Research Fellow at the Practical Justice Initiative and Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW Sydney. Her research draws on social theory and qualitative methodologies to better understand how health and disease, (or illness and wellness) are understood, ‘treated’, experienced and made meaningful in clinical contexts and in everyday life.

PhD UC San Diego
MA UC San Diego
BSc(Hons) UNSW
BA UNSW

Alex Broom is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney. He is recognised as an international leader in sociology, with a specific interest in health, illness and care.

Dr. Jianni Tien is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies at the University of Sydney. Jianni works at the intersection of science and technology studies, the feminist environmental humanities, and sociology of health. She researches the ontologies and epistemologies at work in our Anthropocene era and the power structures that underpin them, including questions of situated and enforced Western knowledges. Jianni’s doctoral research examined the affective power of scuba diving in cenotes – naturally occurring sinkholes – and how to harness such affective power in order to ethically respond to the complex dilemmas of the Anthropocene. Her current research projects include the social dimensions of innovations in nanosensing biotechnology; human-microbial relations, and the politics of the transcorporeal in lung cancer stigma.

Dr Cher McGillivray is a registered Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor at Bond University. Cher has disseminated research in areas including complex trauma, childhood sexual abuse, mindfulness, and resilience in children and families. She is currently active in developing complex trauma parent interventions, assessment measures of moral injury; and research areas of self-compassion, posttraumatic growth, and recovery from adverse childhood experiences.

Dr Lucy Bates gained her Medical Degree from The Australian University Medical School and completed her O&G training in Canberra. She has extensive subspecialty training in Urogynaecology at St George Hospital (Sydney) and Robina Hospital (Gold Coast).

Special interests
* Management of prolapse
* Overactive bladder
* Incontinence
* Vaginal mesh complication

Dr Bates’ research interests lie in obstetric trauma and the pathogenesis of the overactive bladder.

Hospitals
Private: Westmead Private Hospital
Public: Westmead Hospital

Stephen Touyz is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney and Director of the Inside Out Institute, Sydney Local Health District /University of Sydney. He is also a visiting Senior Consultant at Westmead Hospital and a Clinical Psychology Adviser to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Emeritus Prof Touyz is a member of the Technical Advisory Group on Eating Disorders of the Department of Health and a member of the steering committee of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration. He is the co-founding editor in chief of the Journal of Eating Disorders. His qualifications include a Bachelor of Science degree and PhD from the University of Cape Town and an honours degree in psychology from the University of Witwatersrand. Emeritus Prof Touyz is a Fellow of the Academy of Eating Disorders and the Australian Psychological Society. He is the editor/author of seven books over 450 book chapters/peer reviewed publications. He was the first ever recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders and the recipient of a Leadership in Research Award by the Academy of Eating Disorders. In 2014, he was awarded the Ian Campbell prize in Clinical Psychology by the Australian Psychological Society.

Prof Wong is Senior Staff Specialist Rheumatologist at Westmead Hospital, Sydney. He has worked professionally in Melbourne and Sydney and regularly visits the regional centre of Coffs Harbour to see patients, where he previously lived and worked. He is passionate about bone health and improving osteoporosis management in Australia.

Professor Joe Torresi is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Practitioner Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and a Professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne. He is an infectious diseases physician at the Austin hospital, Knox Private Hospital, a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, has a PhD in Microbiology and is co-director of the Australian GeoSentinel Surveillance network site. Joseph heads a hepatitis virology laboratory at the Doherty Institute, which is focused on vaccine and immunology research for hepatitis C and hepatitis B and C pathogenesis.