Dr Renee Testa is a clinical neuropsychologist with previous experience within public and private settings. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Behavioural Science, Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology and a Doctorate in Clinical Neuropsychology. Renee previously co-ordinated the multidisciplinary Learning Difficulties Clinic and Neurodevelopmental Clinic for the Western Health Network for eight years and has a long history working collaboratively with allied health professionals (social work, speech pathology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy), and with professionals within the school and education system. She has also run information and education sessions for teachers and schools on learning difficulties and intervention strategies and techniques. She currently practices clinically within a private practice focused upon children with neurodevelopmental disorders and works as a Senior Neuropsychologist in the Neurodevelopment Clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Renee is also lecturer at Monash University within the Doctoral Clinical Neuropsychology Program teaching the paediatric neuropsychology course curriculum. Renee has provided expert consultation to government departments such as Specialist Children’s Services and the Department of Education.

Professor John Olynyk is a consultant Hepatologist in the Department of Gastroenterology at Fiona Stanley Hospital Group and Dean of Clinical Research, Edith Cowan University.
He is also the Honorary Director of Research, Spinnaker Health Research Foundation.
He is a medical advisor to the Haemochromatosis Australia and a consultant for the Lifeblood Australia. He has established internationally recognized research programs in Hereditary Haemochromatosis and disorders of iron metabolism, chronic liver injury, hepatocellular carcinoma and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. He has published over 230 original articles and has a H index of 60.

Vince Carroll has more than 40 years of experience in nursing in aged care, hospital administration, education and clinical nursing in medical, surgical, critical care, and operating theatre settings in both urban and rural areas of Australia and the United Kingdom. Since 2015 Vince has worked with the Mid North Coast Health District of New South Wales and Parkinson’s NSW as a Parkinson’s Clinical Nurse Consultant caring and supporting people with Parkinson’s disease across the continuum in the acute hospital, aged care, and community settings. He is also studying research at Charles Sturt University. The focus of his studies is Parkinson’s Support Groups. Vince has been instrumental in developing services and partnerships to enhance the quality of life for people affected by Parkinson’s disease.

Stephanie works as a GP Educator for a national training body – Dementia Training Australia – who deliver Dementia focused education for nurses, allied health professionals and medical professionals across Australia.
She is also recording her first podcast series – Dementia in Practice – covering a wide range of topics within the sphere of Cognitive Impairment.

Locally, Stephanie has experience in working with people impacted by Dementia within the wider Adelaide community through her work with SA Health in the Central Adelaide Multi-Disciplinary Geriatric Service (CALHN MCGS).

The next stage of Stephanie’s journey is through Sensus Cognition – a Specialist GP consultancy service for people and their families seeking advice, guidance and assessment where concern exists around Cognitive Health & Dementia. If you would like to find out more about booking an appointment

Stephanie will continue to practice as a traditional GP in the northern suburbs, whilst through Sensus Cognition, providing focused services direct to patients, raising awareness and hosting educational events for local agencies

Sensus Cognition aims to work in a Multi-Disciplinary way, collaborating with Allied Health colleagues such as Occupational Therapists, Community Nursing Teams, GPs & Geriatricians.

Prof Nancy Baxter is the Head of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne.

Nancy is a clinical epidemiologist, general surgeon and health services researcher. She was previously a Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Professor of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

As a strategic and dedicated leader, Nancy has been responsible for academic programs and innovative student experiences in her role as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. In this capacity, she led the development of a new Master of Public Health in Indigenous Health and an Advanced Standing Master of Public Health in Family and Community Medicine.

Registered Nurse Cathy Melton manages the Parkinson’s NSW 1800 InfoLine which provides advice and support for people living with Parkinson’s, caregivers, GPs, and Allied Health professionals. Cathy has more than 40 years of nursing experience across clinical management, nurse education, aged care, and community nursing. She is a member of the Australian Neurological Nurses Association, NSW Nurses Association, and the Movement Disorder Society both the ANZ and International chapters.

Bernice is a senior clinical neuropsychologist, who has worked at the Royal Children’s Hospital since 1995 and in private practice since 2012. She was the founding coordinator/director of the Learning Difficulties Centre between 1995 and 2006 and has since worked in the Psychology Service (including the epilepsy surgery program).

She completed her Master of Clinical Neuropsychology in 1992 and her PhD in 2009. Her areas of special interest include specific learning difficulties, traumatic brain injury, and epilepsy (but she has helped children with a range of neurological conditions) with a focus on practical recommendations to optimise academic learning.

Dr Amy Scholes is a senior Clinical Neuropsychologist, who has endorsement with the Psychology Board of Australia and is a Member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and College of Clinical Neuropsychologists. She is also the current National Chair of the College of Clinical Neuropsychologists at the APS.
She brings to private practice an extensive background in working in specialist public health services across the lifespan, having worked in senior clinical, research and student training positions at Peninsula Health (aged and adult psychiatry), The Alfred (CAMHS and adult psychiatry); The Royal Melbourne Hospital (Neuropsychiatry Unit). This included co-founding a paediatric neuropsychiatry service at Alfred CAMHS and working with Dementia Australia in creating resources for younger onset dementia clients and families. She has more than twenty years’ experience in helping children, adolescents, adults and the aged, with particular involvement in diagnosing and managing atypical or rare conditions, learning problems, neuropsychiatric disorders, and young and late onset dementias.
Dr Scholes is committed to evidence-based practice and providing a detailed, comprehensive service that delivers manageable, real life/practical support and understanding tailored to individual needs. This includes objective assessment of cognitive function, behaviour, socioemotional functioning and academic skills where relevant, and the provision of targeted strategies and advice in relation to the client’s needs.
Since 2011 Dr Scholes has turned her skills to private practice where she works to support children, their families and schools, by providing diagnosis of developmental conditions and appropriately tailored intervention programs. She also continues to see adults and aged populations with conditions ranging from head injuries to complex psychiatric and neurological conditions, and helps them and their families to understand and manage their conditions, using sensitive, best practice. Dr Scholes uses only rigorous scientific/ evidence-based approaches in providing targeted differential diagnoses and care.

A/Prof Rene Stolwyk is an Associate Professor and Clinical Neuropsychologist at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. A passionate scientist-practitioner, A/Prof Stolwyk enjoys working at the nexus of research, clinical practice and clinical education.
From a research perspective, A/Prof Stolwyk leads Stroke and Telehealth research within the Monash-Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre. He supervises a team of 12 research fellows, research officers and doctoral students and has published over 70 scientific works aimed at improving cognitive and mood outcomes for survivors of brain injury. He is the founder and clinical lead of the Monash TeleNeuropsychology Service, a world first initiative using digital health technology to facilitate access to much-needed neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation services to rural neurology patients throughout Australia.
A/Prof Stolwyk is also convenor of the Clinical PhD (Clinical Neuropsychology) training program at Monash University. He leads a team of highly-skilled educators providing excellence in clinical training to the next generation of Australian neuropsychologists.

Associate Professor Carmela Pestell is a clinician, lecturer and researcher based at the Robin Winkler Clinic (School of Psychological Science) UWA. She has worked as a clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist for more than 24 years. Associate Professor Pestell’s experience as a clinician has led to her current research interests in Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD. Dr Pestell was the lead neuropsychologist on the Banksia Hill Detention Centre Study investigating the prevalence of FASD in youth detention. Dr Pestell was also the co-recipient of a Commonwealth grant to educate health professionals in diagnosing FASD. This involved setting up FASD clinics in the Northern Territory, Tasmania and South Australia. She had input into the Australian Diagnostic Guidelines for FASD and is now on a national working group that is reviewing these diagnostic guidelines. As a leading researcher into FASD, her work has taken her to clinics in remote locations of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Dr Pestell co-led the development of a new Graduate Certificate in the Assessment and Diagnosis of FASD at UWA from 2019 and more recently, microcredential units in FASD. She is an invited expert on commonwealth government FASD advisory committees and an invited ambassador for NoFASD