Warren Ward is Director of the Queensland Eating Disorders Service (QuEDS) and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Queensland. He is Chair of the Queensland Health Eating Disorder Advisory Group and co-author of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry (RANZCP) Clinical Practice Guidelines for Eating Disorders. In 2017 he received the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders (ANZAED) Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2018 he was elected a Fellow of the International Academy of Eating Disorders. He has published more than forty articles and book chapters, most of them on eating disorders. He was recently appointed Medical Director of Wandi Nerida, Australia’s first residential program for eating disorders.

Dr Desmond Graham is a Geriatrician who graduated from the University of Newcastle and completed specialty training at Westmead and North Shore Hospitals. He is actively involved with the Australia and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine and holds an academic appointment as a Clinical Lecturer with the University of Sydney. Dr Graham has a special interest in healthy ageing and peri-operative medicine. He provides holistic, patient-centred care for all patients with major geriatric syndromes including dementia, delirium, frailty, falls and end of life care. He participates in a monthly Healthy Ageing segment with Deborah Knight on 2GB radio and holds regular forums for the Northern Beaches community.

Dr Sarah Catford, endocrinologist and andrologist with a special interest in male infertility. Sarah is an expert advisor for Healthy Male. Sarah recently completed her PhD on the genetic basis and broader health implications of male infertility. A major part of her PhD was an NHMRC-funded study investigating the implications of male infertility on offspring health and fertility by clinically evaluating a cohort of ICSI-conceived young men of infertile fathers.

Prof. Sam Berkovic is Laureate Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, and Director of the Epilepsy Research Centre at Austin Health.

His early work was in neuroimaging where he was a pioneer in the application of MRI and single photon emission computed tomography in epilepsy, and especially epilepsy surgery. This work was rapidly applied to routine clinical use and remains so today. In the late 1980s he realised the potential for clinical genetic research in epilepsy, utilising the NHMRC twin registry and working with large pedigrees. This led, together with molecular genetic collaborators in Adelaide and Germany, to the discovery of the first gene for epilepsy in 1995.

Subsequently he and his group have been involved in the discovery of many of the known epilepsy genes. This has changed the conceptualisation of the causes of epilepsy, is having a major impact on directions of epilepsy research and has directly translated to impacting daily clinical diagnosis and counselling, as well as refining treatment.

He heads a large group integrating genetic, imaging and physiological studies in epilepsy. His current passions are completing the understanding of the complex genetic architecture of epilepsies and developing precision therapies for severe genetic epilepsies.

He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2005, Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 2007, Companion of the Order of Australia in 2014 and a member of the National Academy of Medicine (USA) in 2017. Together with Ingrid Scheffer, he was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science in 2014.

Vicki’s key area of expertise is paediatric food allergy. She is the dietitian for the Department of Allergy and Immunology at the Royal Children’s Hospital where her role involves patient care, teaching, training, resource development and research.
Vicki’s expertise in food allergy sees her involved in food allergy training of dietitians, nurses and doctors and she is a frequently invited to participate in conferences, training sessions, and resource development in the area of food allergy.
She is the current Victorian convenor of the Dietitian food allergy interest group and is a past chair of the dietitian subcommittee of ASCIA. She has also contributed a chapter to a textbook on food allergy and has been in involved in food allergy research. She is currently completing her PhD in food allergy with the Centre for Food and Allergy Research based at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the University of Melbourne.
Vicki has extensive experience in all areas of paediatric food allergy including not only how to safely avoid the foods that your child is allergic too but how to ensure your child receives the optimal nutrition they need from the foods they can eat. She focuses not only on the nutritional side of eating but the developmental issues as well. Many of the children she sees have limited diets and or difficult eating behaviours. Vicki has a very practical approach with lots of meal and snack ideas as well as how to source specialised food products and interpret food labels correctly for food allergies.
Being a dietitian Vicki, not surprisingly, has a passion for food and loves to cook or eat out with friends and family. She tries to balance a love of food, wine and chocolate with running and group training sessions!

Dr Yasmin Tan is a gynaecologist and women’s ultrasound specialist based in the Sydney CBD. Her training and experience lie in the areas of general gynaecology, gynaecological surgery (including laparoscopy), paediatric & adolescent gynaecology, abnormal pap smears and obstetric and gynaecologic ultrasound.

Professor Alta Schutte is a hypertension and heart disease specialist, who is Principal Theme Lead of Cardiac, Vascular and Metabolic Medicine in the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia with a joint appointment as Professorial Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health. She was the Director of Hypertension in Africa Research Team and Director of the Medical Research Council Extramural Unit for Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease at the North-West University in South Africa. She has fulfilled several leadership roles, including the President of the Southern African Hypertension Society, and President of the International Society of Hypertension.

Celia Zubrinich is a Consultant Physician with special interest in all aspects of allergy, with particular expertise in food, drug and venom allergies, and she continues active involvement in clinical research at the Alfred Hospital. She see adults and adolescents 16 years or older in the practice. Dr Celia Zubrinich obtained her medical degree from Monash University with First Class Honours, and undertook her training years across Melbourne teaching hospitals, gaining fellowship of the RACP in 2006. She subsequently undertook a clinical research fellowship at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada. Celia has undertaken dedicated allergy fellowship training at the Alfred Hospital Allergy and Asthma unit and continues to consult there. She is a member of the Alfred Health Adverse Drug Reactions Committee, as well as being an investigator in clinical trials and contributing to teaching within the unit. She has participated in the National Allergy Strategy and is a member of the ASCIA Allergen Immunotherapy Working Party as well as being a member of a new collaboration, the Australian Registry of Severe Cutaneous Adverse Reactions (AUS-SCAR). She is involved in clinical research through the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Masters Program. She is a current Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), Member of the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA), the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ), the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS).

Julia Kittscha has been a Clinical Nurse Consultant in Stomal Therapy for 23 years. Her current role at Wollongong Hospital in NSW Australia encompasses the acute setting, nurse led clinic, periphery hospitals and community. During her career she has presented at national and international conferences. She has several Journal publications and has been Editor and peer reviewer for the Journal of Stomal Therapy Australia.

Julia has conducted research as part of a team and whilst completing her Masters by research. The research for her Master degree explored the experiences of patients discharged home from hospital with a newly formed ileostomy. Currently she is undertaking her PhD on adjustment to a stoma over time with a focus on the role of support groups and peer support. She is passionate about Stomal Therapy Nursing and relishes sharing her skills to empower others.

Dr William Smith MBBS (Hons) PhD FRACP FRCPA Specialist Immunology and Allergy Physician and Immunopathologist, Adelaide, South Australia William has more than 20 years of experience as a specialist Immunology and Allergy physician. He currently works in private practice as well as being a senior staff specialist in the Department of Allergy and Immunology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. His clinical and research interests include allergic rhinitis, allergen immunotherapy, drug allergy, urticaria and angioedema. He has published many studies in allergy and immunology. William completed his medical degree from Adelaide University in 1985 and completed his advanced training in immunology and allergy in 1993. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP) and Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) since 1994.