Committees
Convenors
Kelly Hosking
Kelly is the Director of Sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses for Northern Territory (NT) Health. Her PhD research aims to eliminate CHB in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the NT and focuses on improving clinical care, systems and health education.
Jane Davies
A/Prof Jane Davies is a Principal Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research and Co-Director of Infectious Diseases at Royal Darwin Hospital. Her research focuses on Hepatitis B spanning molecular and clinical epidemiology as well as implementation of holistic and sustainable clinical care.
Executive Committee
Edan Campbell-O'Brien
Edan is a proud Murri and Yulluna man from North-West QLD and proud Polynesian from the Cook Islands. Edan is passionate about advancing health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and leads ASHM's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander portfolio as the organisations Indigenous Health Engagement Advisor.
Adi Mondel
Adi Mondel is a Project Manager at ASHM. Adi works across both the hepatitis B and hepatitis C programs and is the Project Lead of ASHMs Beyond the C clinical auditing and case-finding program. 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 hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
Thomas Tu
Associate Professor Thomas Tu leads a research group at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research focusing on developing an HBV cure and mitigating the associated liver cancer. He also lives with chronic Hepatitis B, providing him with unique perspectives as a researcher, patient, and advocate.
Melinda Hassall
Melinda is a Registered Nurse with experience in acute care, primary health care and public health, has completed a Graduate Certificate in Health Promotion and a Masters degree in Public Health. Melinda is the Clinical Nurse Lead with ASHM and is responsible for the management and ongoing development of ASHM’s Nursing Program. Ensuring nurses have access to high quality and relevant BBV/STI education to enhance their professional development, advocating for policy and practice change for nurses to work to their full scope of practice are priorities.
Isabelle Purcell
Isabelle is a Senior Project Officer with the Hepatitis B team at ASHM. Isabelle 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.
Benjamin Riley
Benjamin Riley is the Policy and Public Affairs Manager at ASHM, leading the organisation’s policy advocacy and public engagement relating to HIV, viral hepatitis and sexual health. Benjamin has worked across clinical and community organisations, with a focus on advocating for LGBTIQ communities, and for the needs of people living with and affected by blood-borne viruses.
Jaclyn Tate-Baker
Jaclyn Tate-Baker is a Nurse Practitioner based in the Northern Territory. Working with patients that are living with complex chronic conditions, with a focus on Viral Hepatitis and patient centred health. Additionally Jaclyn is on the board of directors for the Australasian Hepatology Association, liaising with ASHM to advise and update clinical guidelines and deliver education. Jaclyn has implemented various Nurse Practitioner led models of care, been involved in updating NT Hep B policies and collaborative research projects -Hep B PAST and INFERR- with Menzies School of Health.
Teresa De Santis
Joshua Davis
Professor Josh Davis is an infectious diseases physician at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Newcastle, and a senior research fellow based at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin. He is the co-director of the Menzies Viral Hepatitis Research Program. He is also a clinical trialist, and is currently a chief investigator on several large multinational trials investigating treatments for Staph aureus bacteraemia, severe sepsis, and COVID-19. Josh is also the immediate past president of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases and a member of the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.
Harriet Doran Edmunds
Harriet is the Program Manager for Asia in ASHM’s Global Division. She has extensive international health experience with international organisations and national departments of health on maternal and child health, HIV, viral hepatitis, STI and sexual and reproductive health programs in resource constrained settings. Harriet has designed, implemented and managed health programs in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific with a focus on health system strengthening to prevent and eliminate mother to child transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis in pregnancy.
Program Committee
Nicole Allard
Dr Nicole Allard is a post-doctoral researcher WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis at VIDRL and a general practitioner at cohealth. She has a special interest in refugee health, triple elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV Syphilis and Hepatitis B and hepatitis B monitoring and treatment in primary care in Australia and the Pacific.
Tammy Fernandes
Tammy is a Registered Nurse and is the Clinical Coordinator for the Hepatitis B PAST Project working towards the elimination of chronic Hepatitis B from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in the Northern Territory. Born in Darwin, A proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Women, with family connections in North Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands.
Loren Brener
Loren Brener an Associate Professor at the Centre for Social Research in Health. Her research focuses on stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with blood-borne viruses such as HIV and viral hepatitis and the impact of this on health outcomes and quality of care. Her research is grounded in social psychology and aims to advance theoretical understanding as well as practical outcomes for marginalised and vulnerable groups.
Rachel Sacks-Davis
Doctor Rachel Sacks-Davis is a Senior Research Fellow in the Modelling and Biostatistics working group at the Burnet Institute and the Senior Manager of the International Collaboration on Hepatitis C Elimination in HIV Cohorts (InCHEHC).
Jess Doumany
Jess Doumany is the current Research Lead with AIVL who in addition to identifying as a peer in this space has worked within and across a broad range of community controlled health and social service sectors and organisations for the last 15 plus years.
Kate Seear
Professor Kate Seear is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and a Principal Fellow in the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University. She is a practising solicitor and the lead of the Gender, Law and Drugs (GLaD) program at La Trobe.
Dan Hunt
Dr Daniel Hunt is a Jaru and Yindjibarndi man, and is the Deputy Medical Director of Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service, and has a keen interest in Aboriginal Health and Sexual Health. Daniel is the Clinical Lead for Syphilis/STI/BBV team at Derbarl, part of the NACCHO guidelines advisory group for HTLV-1. In 2022 Daniel was GP RACGP Registrar of the Year for Western Australia.
Margaret Littlejohn
Dr Littlejohn is an expert in HBV molecular virology and the role of HBV genotypes in pathogenesis and treatment response and is currently leading a project to develop a new RNA-based therapy for chronic hepatitis B, using CRISPR technology. She is also involved in a long term collaboration examining the molecular epidemiology of HBV in Indigenous Australian populations.
Alison Marshall
Alison Marshall is a Lecturer at the Kirby Institute and Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW Sydney. Her quantitative and qualitative research primarily focuses on increasing access to hepatitis C related care to people with a history of injection drug use.
Jeffrey Ngu
Dr Jeffrey Ngu is working as a consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist at Christchurch Hospital and is a senior lecturer at the University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. His research interests include viral hepatitis, autoimmune liver diseases and gastrointestinal haemorrhage.
Genevieve Dally
Genevieve is a Nurse with over 15 years’ experience in sexual and reproductive health care. A passion for advocacy, education and addressing gaps in services for marginalised communities has led Genevieve to a career in sexual health and blood borne viruses. Working across health both from within Government and the Not for profit sector has given Genevieve unique insight into the importance of service delivery that is led by peers but supported by the wider community. Genevieve has a Master’s in Public Health and a Master’s in Business Administration and since 2019 has held enviable position of Executive Director for the Northern Territory AIDS and Hepatitis Council (NTAHC).
Jillian White
Jillian is a Registered Nurse with over eight years’ experience in Hepatitis B Community Nursing. Nurse Manager for The Hepatitis Foundation of New Zealand (HFNZ), Jill manages a team of up to eight Hepatitis Nurses who care for New Zealand’s HBV population. She holds a Bachelor of Nursing and Post-Graduate Certificate in Advanced Nursing. Jillian is committed to The Hepatitis Foundation of NZ meeting WHO’s Hep B elimination goals by 2030 and believes this will be done by increasing awareness, testing and diagnosis of Hepatitis B and continued recruitment into HFNZ’s National HBV Surveillance Programme. She hopes this will reduce the current burden of Hepatitis B which is carried by Māori, Pasifika and Asian New Zealanders in our country. Jillian is of Māori descent and from the Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu and Te Arawa tribes of Aotearoa/New Zealand. With a strong background in Māori language and culture she understands the complexities of NZ’s indigenous people’s health needs and inequities, Jill works with her community on a daily basis and is therefore able to help enable better understandings for all.
Lorraine Anderson
Dr Lorraine Anderson is the Medical Director at Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services where her primary role is in clinical governance for the ACCHO sector in the Kimberley region. Lorraine is proudly linked through her father to the Palawa people of Tasmania. She gained her primary degree in Medicine at The University of Auckland in New Zealand, followed by post graduate qualifications in Public Health, Child Health, Palliative Medicine and General Practice. She has also been involved in research, medical education and business development in health (private, public and NGO sectors). Lorraine is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practice. She has been working in Aboriginal health and remote rural practice in the Pilbara, Indian Ocean Territories and now the Kimberley for the past 16 years. Lorraine sits on several national, state and regional subcommittees within health - with a passion for bringing as much investigation, diagnosis and treatment to the patient in rural and remote areas.
We acknowledge that the conference is being held on the traditional lands of the Larrakia people. We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' continuing connection to land, water, and community and we pay our respects to Elders past and present. ASHM acknowledges Sovereignty in this country has never been ceded. It always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.