Cassandra Wright
Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin
Peter Burnheim
Association of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies, Northern Territory
Peter is the Chief Executive Officer for the Association of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies NT (AADANT) – the peak body for non-government AOD services in the Northern Territory. He has over 15-years’ experience working in various roles across the social services sector in alcohol and other drugs, mental health and suicide prevention and sexual and reproductive health. He has a strong interest in drug and alcohol policy and legislation, harm reduction and equitable access to healthcare for marginalised groups.
Sarah Clifford
Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin (Student Convenor)
Amy Peacock
Dr Amy Peacock (BA Hons, PhD) is an Associate Professor and Program Lead for Drug Trends at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, and an Adjunct Researcher in the School of Medicine, University of Tasmania. Her program of research is focused on: i) monitoring systems for detecting trends in illicit drug use and communicating risks to people who use drugs and other stakeholders and ii) epidemiology of alcohol-related risk behaviour, morbidity and mortality.
Anke van der Sterren
Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Association ACT (ATODA)
Annalee Stearne
Annalee Stearne, a Nyungar woman from Western Australia, is a drug and alcohol researcher with a commitment to improving the health and social inequities faced by First Nations Australians and empowering them with the knowledge to address alcohol and other drug issues in their own communities.
Briony Larance
University of Wollongong
Caroline Salom
Institute for Social Science Research, University of Queensland
Colleen Blums
Drug and Alcohol Nurses of Australasia
In a nursing career spanning five decades Colleen Blums has worked in a variety of clinical and hospital management settings. She also provides consultancy and project management services to organisations across Australia.
Sixteen years ago, she began what was intended to be a short-term management role in the AOD sector. Inspired by the people she met she developed a passion for all aspects of nursing patients with AOD issues.
She is a Council member of the Coalition of National Nursing and Midwifery Organisations.
Colleen is an active member of her professional association, Drug and Alcohol Nurses of Australasia. Formerly President of DANA she is now the Executive Officer.
David Newcombe
The University of Auckland, New Zealand
David Newcombe is Associate Professor of Alcohol and Drug Studies at the University of Auckland. He is currently Head of the Department of Social and Community Health in the School of Population Health, Director of postgraduate addiction studies, and Associate Director of the Centre for Addiction Research. David has had over 20 years’ experience working in the addiction sector in New Zealand and Australia in clinical, research and education roles. Prior to moving to New Zealand he was Senior Project Officer at the WHO Collaborating Centre at the University of Adelaide. David was the co-convenor of the 2018 APSAD conference held in Auckland.
Jackie Hallam
Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council (Tas Inc)
Jackie has worked in a variety of roles within the Tasmanian alcohol, tobacco and other drugs sector since 2001. These have involved policy analysis, conducting research interviews with people who use drugs, implementing workforce development initiatives, conducting evaluations and frontline work in needle and syringe programs. Jackie graduated with a PhD in public policy from the University of Tasmania, in 2006. Her thesis, ‘The Rise and Stall of Harm Reduction policy in Australia’, examined change in illicit drug policy in Australia from 1980 to 2000. Jackie is currently the Policy Manager at the Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council.
Jake Docker
Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL)
Janie Sheridan
The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Professor Jane Sheridan (Janie) was the inaugural Director of the Centre for Addiction Research, at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. After completing her Bachelor of Pharmacy Degree at the University of Bath, UK, she completed her PhD at the University of London, UK in 1995. Janie’s research has included exploring harm reduction service provision through primary care, new psychoactive substances, pharmaceutical drug misuse, methadone prescribing patterns, the role of community pharmacy in screening and brief interventions, older adults alcohol consumption, and treatment for stimulant dependence. She is also involved in undergraduate pharmacy education in the management of opioids dependence, and health issues related to substance misuse.
Janni Leung
The University of Queensland
Dr Janni Leung, an epidemiologist, is a Global Substance Use and Mental Health Research Fellow at the National Centre For Youth Substance Use Research (NCSYUR) and affiliated with The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) in Australia. They have qualifications and training in public health and psychology. They have research and teaching experience in epidemiology and biostatistics. They have published over 100 scientific papers and conference presentations in the substance use epidemiology field. Janni is committed to conducting high quality rigorous research to generate empirical scientific evidence to inform decisions to prevent substance use related harms in the population.
Jeff Buckley
Insight, Queensland Health
Jeff Buckley is the Director of Insight – an alcohol and drug training and workforce development initiative based within Queensland Health. He is a Social Worker with over 20 years’ experience in alcohol and drug practice, youth homelessness and community development. He has worked across government, academia and community sectors in roles including program management, casework, street outreach and providing late night health and welfare services in entertainment precincts. He has a particular interest in the art of interactive group facilitation, team problem-solving and trivia competitions!
Jocelyn Jones
National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
Kate Senior
Drug and Alcohol Services, SA Health
Kylie Lee
Centre of Research Excellence in Indigenous Health and Alcohol, University of Sydney
Kylie is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney and Deputy Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Indigenous Health and Alcohol. She has a national profile for creating culturally appropriate methods to measure alcohol and other drug use among First Nations Australians, and for supporting community-driven responses. She is part of the team that developed the Grog Survey App, which allows flexible and culturally suitable iPad-based drinking assessment. Kylie is lead editor on a clinical textbook requested by Indigenous alcohol and other drug workers nationally.
Leanne Hides
School of Psychology, The University of Queensland
Professor Leanne Hides holds an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellowship and the industry-supported Lives Lived Well Chair in Alcohol, Drugs and Mental Health at the University of Queensland. Leanne is a clinical psychologist with over 20 years of clinical and research experience in the development of new psychological treatments for substance use and comorbid mental disorders. She has led over 30 randomized controlled trial, with her most recent work focused on telehealth, web and mobile-based treatments. Her research team is also contributing new knowledge on the key mechanisms of change in substance use treatment, who they are most effective for, and how to best engage and deliver treatment to young people.
Lynette Bullen
Bloomfield Hospital, Western New South Wales Local Health District
Lynette is a Wiradjuri woman who recently completed a Health Education and Training Institute program: Rural Research Capacity Building Program (NSW Health). Lynette is employed by the Western NSW Local Health District as the Senior Drug and Alcohol Clinician at the Involuntary Drug and Alcohol Treatment Unit, Orange. She has worked in drug and alcohol for nearly 30 years in metropolitan, regional and remote NSW. She was recognised by APSAD with the Clinician Award in 2021 and was the joint winner of the Western NSW Health Research Network – Emerging Research of the Year 2021.
Mark Daglish
The University of Queensland and Royal and Women’s Hospital Brisbane
A/Prof Mark Daglish graduated in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh. He completed his psychiatry training in South East Scotland & Bristol, UK. A/Prof Daglish has been Director of Addiction Psychiatry, Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital since 2007. He is also a staff specialist in one of the city centre opioid replacement clinics in Brisbane and Associate Professor in Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Queensland.
Mark Robinson
Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland
Dr Mark Robinson is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. Mark is a public health and evaluation specialist and leads the development of evaluation frameworks across a range of topics and clients. Before joining ISSR, Mark led and contributed to numerous studies as part of the evaluation of the Scottish Government’s national alcohol strategy, including an evaluation of the impact of minimum unit pricing on alcohol consumption and related harms.
Michael Farrell
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW
Professor Michael Farrell is the Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW and Faculty Theme Lead of Mental Health, Neuroscience, Ageing and Addictions, UNSW Medicine. Prior to his appointment at UNSW, Professor Farrell was a Professor of Addiction Psychiatry at Kings College London.
His extensive research interests include evidence-based practice and treatment evaluation, in tobacco, alcohol and other drug dependence, psychiatric comorbidity, translation of new evidence into practice. He was Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. He is an editor with the Cochrane Drug and Alcohol Group. He is a member of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on Drug and Alcohol Dependence. He is current President of APSAD. He has published over 300 scientific papers and a number of books. He has been a board member or director of many different Alcohol and other Drug NGO Community Groups over the past thirty years He has been a consultant on National Drug Policy to many national Governments. He is a strong advocate for better investment and support for prevention, treatment and research.
Michael White
The South Australia Network of Drug and Alcohol Services
Executive Director South Australian Network of Drug and Alcohol Services (SANDAS). Michael represents the interests of members at both state and federal level. His role is focusses on member advocacy, AOD policy development, systems planning and the engagement of the non-government sector in research and its translation to practice. He sits on a number of committees representing the non-government AOD sector. Michael has worked in the nongovernment and education sectors for over 35 years. He holds qualifications in adult and vocational education, quality improvement and management. Michael has a keen interest in systemic improvement and the enhancement of inter-sectoral practice.
Molly Carlyle
Lives Lived Well Research Group, University of Queensland
Natasha Reid
Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland
Natasha is a Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist. Her research focuses on prevention of alcohol use during pregnancy and improving assessment, diagnosis and treatment services for children and adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and their families.
Renee Bittoun
University of Notre Dame Australia
Renee has worked in Smoking Cessation for more than 35 years and is an inaugural member of the international SRNT (international Society for Research in Nicotine and Tobacco).
- She started one of the world’s first Smokers’ Clinics in Sydney, Australia in 1979.
- She was Director of the Smokers’ Clinics in the Sydney Local Health District for 15 years to 2018.
- She was Head of the Smoking Cessation Unit in the Faculty of Medicine, Brain Mind Institute, at the University of Sydney for 20 years, where she established the first University course on Nicotine Addiction and Smoking Cessation in any Australian University.
- She was President of AASCP, The Australian Association of Smoking Cessation Professionals for 10 years (now amalgamated with APSAD)
- She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the international peer-reviewed Journal of Smoking Cessation published by Cambridge University Press.
- She has published many articles and books on smoking cessation.
- She was recently a visiting Professor to the Salpetriere Hospital, at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.
- She is currently Professor at Notre Dame and Avondale Universities in Australia and at the Charles University, in Prague, the Czech Republic and is a consultant and teacher in tobacco treatment to NSW Health, National Indigenous Health groups, mental health groups and drug and alcohol treatment programmes both nationally and internationally.
Stephanie Tzanetis
Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL)
Victoria Cock
Drug and Alcohol Services, SA Health
Graduated from the University of Cape Town Medical School in 1998 and spent the first years of my career working as a Family Medicine practitioner in marginalised communities in peri-urban South African settings. I developed a particular interest in the provision of care and treatment for those affected by HIV/AIDS in these communities. I had the opportunity to lead an HIV Clinic in a peri urban township in South Africa where we got more than 7000 people engaged in care and on HAART in 3 years including 600 children ! I immigrated to Australia in 2008 and undertook physicians training with the RACP and advanced training in Addiction Medicine with Drug and Alcohol Services of South Australia. I was the clinical unit head of the DASSA inpatient withdrawal unit from 2016 until Feb 2022 at which time I was appointed as the Clinical Director of DASSA. I have a particular interest in the management of medical co-morbidities associated with substance use – in particular alcohol related liver disease and the provision of hepatitis C care and treatment. I am also a very passionate human rights advocate with issues such stigma; stigma by association and structural stigma being something I want to see eradicated from our field.
Deborah Dmoch
Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol & other Drugs (APSAD)
Liz Baxter
Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol & other Drugs (APSAD)
Elizabeth Baxter is the Executive Officer at APSAD. She has over 20 years’ experience in the health sector and joined APSAD in 2006. Liz was a Founding Director and the inaugural Chairperson of the Australian Alcohol & Drugs Council (AADC).
She has an A.Dip in Health Sciences working in pathology for eight years in Australia and the UK, before changing careers and taking up a position at the Kirketon Road Centre (KRC) in Kings Cross. Liz has also worked at the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre, and was the Centre Manager at Sydney Sexual Health Centre before APSAD. Her main interests are in; equitable access to health for all, harm reduction, stigma and discrimination among people who use drugs, human rights for sex workers, and women’s health issues.