International Keynote Speakers 

 

Speaker	Biography
Dr Mehlika Toy Stanford University, USA	Dr Mehlika Toy, Ph.D., is a research scientist at Stanford University. Her research focuses on developing decision models, assessment of potential impact, and cost-effectiveness analysis on chronic hepatitis B infection management. She has developed decision models to help policy making in the Netherlands, Turkey, China and the United States and is continuing to develop models to help countries with their national policies in chronic hepatitis B infection control. Dr. Toy completed her Ph.D. in Public Health at Erasmus University and was a Takemi Fellow in International Health at Harvard University. She serves as a member of the World Health Organization’s Strategic Information and Viral Hepatitis Modeling Reference Group.
Mr Michael Ninburg World Hepatitis Alliance	Mr Michael Ninburg is President of the World Hepatitis Alliance and serves as Executive Director of the Hepatitis Education Project (HEP), a U.S.-based NGO dedicated to supporting hepatitis patients. HEP works with patients, clinicians and policymakers, and provides direct services and advocacy underserved and marginalized populations, including prisoners, persons who inject drugs (PWID) and people who are homeless or unstably housed. Michael works with global partners on issues related to testing, treatment access and the development of more efficient hepatitis drugs and diagnostics. He has served as consultant or partner to a variety of governmental agencies and multilateral organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan American Health Organization/WHO, and U.S. CDC. Before joining HEP, Michael worked in the private sector with Apple Computer in the Czech Republic and Amazon.com in Seattle. He studied Philosophy at UCLA and has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Washington.
Dr Sunil Solomon Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA	Dr Sunil Solomon, MBBS PhD MPH is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also serves as the Chairman of the YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education (YRGCARE), India. He completed his medical training at the Sri Ramachandra Medical University in India and received a Masters in Public Health and a doctorate in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University, US. His research is focused on the epidemiology, clinical management and access to HIV and HCV care among vulnerable populations such as PWID and MSM. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has been elected into the Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Omega honors societies. In 2015, he was one of the first recipients of the Avenir award, a Director’s award from the NIH, USA aimed at identifying individuals who show promise of being tomorrow's leaders in the field of drug abuse and HIV.

Local Keynote Speakers

 

Speaker	Biography
Kathryn Leafe, Executive Director, New Zealand Needle Exchange Programme, New Zealand	Kathryn is the Executive Director at New Zealand Needle Exchange Programme, on the Board of Directors of the International Drug Policy Consortium and member of the Mental Health and Addiction SLA for the South Island DHB Alliance. Kathryn is a member of the Society for the Study of Addiction; Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Prof Andrew Lloyd The Kirby Institute, UNSW SYDNEY	Prof Andrew Lloyd is an infectious diseases physician and immunovirology researcher at the Kirby Institute. He is an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow. Over many years in conjunction with the Justice health & Forensic Mental Health Network, he has led the development of the Hepatitis Service in the NSW prisons. He was awarded an Australia Medal (AM) for this work, and for his research achievements in infectious diseases.
A/Prof Gail Matthews The Kirby Institute, UNSW SYDNEY	A/Prof Gail Matthews is Associate Professor in the Viral Hepatitis Clinical Research Program at the Kirby Institute, Sydney. She also holds a clinical academic appointment in HIV, Infectious Diseases and Viral Hepatitis at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. She originally completed HIV specialist training in London before moving to Australia in 2002 to take up a position at the Kirby Centre, and obtained her PhD on Therapeutic Strategies in HIV-HBV coinfection in 2009. She has a specific interest in acute hepatitis C, antiviral resistance and HIV/viral hepatitis coinfection in resource limited settings, and leads a number of national and international research projects in these areas. She is co-editor of the B positive monograph.
A/Prof kylie valentine Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney	A/Prof kylie valentine is Deputy Director of the Social Policy Research Centre. Her research interests include the application of methods and concepts from the sociology of knowledge to new areas and concerns, with a specific focus on social disadvantage and exclusion. She conducts research on how human services are delivered and how they make up populations. kylie also conducts evaluation research on integrated service delivery and programs for children and families, and has expertise in qualitative methodologies and evaluation design. These research projects in the human services investigate the impact of policies aimed to improve the lives of disadvantaged people, especially in the areas of ‘wicked’ problems such as child maltreatment, alcohol and other drug misuse, and homelessness. She is committed to collaborative research and working with the expertise of partners, and in making sure that research is informed by the insights and experiences of practitioners, policy-makers, and the people for whom policies are intended.