KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

INVITED SPEAKERS

**Professor Robert Schoevers**
Netherlands

Clinical Update Speakers

Mr James Hill

James Hill is an accomplished lived experience mental health advocate, who has used his journey to influence significant positive change. James spent most of his career in the electricity industry, however after his own experience with poor mental health and suicide ideation he decided it was time to change the narrative. He began volunteering and sharing his story through a mental health charity, from there he introduced the first ever fulltime mental health advocate position in the energy industry. His lived experience advocacy has seen him provide advice to the sector and gain recognition through several awards and journal publications.

Professor Colleen Loo

Colleen Loo is a psychiatrist, Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Leadership Fellow and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and the Black Dog Institute, Sydney; Australia. She is a clinical and research expert in the fields of electroconvulsive therapy, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and ketamine, and led the first Australian RCTs of these interventions in depression. She is now also researching psychedelic assisted therapy. She has published over 300 peer reviewed papers and has received competitive grant funding from the Australian NHMRC, MRFF and major overseas grant funding agencies.

Professor Maree Toombs

Professor Toombs has advanced Indigenous mental health through pioneering work. She developed culturally validated assessment tools, leading to a landmark prevalence study of mental disorders in Indigenous populations. Toombs created a therapy approach integrating traditional healing with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Her most significant achievement is I-ASIST, a culturally adapted suicide intervention program with mobile app support. This initiative has trained over 10,000 individuals across 95 communities, expanding suicide prevention in Indigenous areas. Her work has earned notable recognition, including the 2023 Australian Mental Health Prize and the 2021 Suicide Prevention Australia Queensland LiFE Impact Award. NHMRC's 2024 "10 of the Best" featured her community-designed suicide intervention research.

Professor Milton Wainberg

Dr. Milton Wainberg is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Co-Director of the Division of Translational Epidemiology and Mental Health Equity of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. He is the Director of the Columbia University Mental Wellness Equity Center and the founding Chair of the APA Caucus on Global Mental Health & Psychiatry. Prof. Wainberg has dedicated his career to bringing research-to-practice to sustainably decrease the mental health research and treatment gaps in the US and multiple countries in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South America while training the next generation of implementation scientists.

Professor Iris Sommer

Iris Sommer studied public health in Maastricht and medicine in Amsterdam. Later she obtained her PhD (cum laude) in Utrecht on language in schizophrenia. She trained there as a psychiatrist and learned from prof Rene Kahn and prof Jean Paul Selten. She started the Voices Clinic in Utrecht and investigated the cerebral basis of auditory verbal hallucinations. She also assembled a multidisciplinary team to study language as a biomarker for schizophrenia using computational linguistics.

In 2017 she moved to the north of the Netherlands to become director of the Research Institute Brain and Cognition in UMC Groningen. She started the HAMLETT-OPHELIA cohort to study effects of maintenance medication in 350 FEP patients. She also investigated optimal treatment for women with psychosis and leads several studies to investigate the influence of nutrition and the microbiome on brain health. She now leads a team of some 25 PhD students and 5 postdocs.

In 2021 she was appointed distinguished Lorentz fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies and in 2022 she won the Huijbregtsen prize for Science and Society. Together with three European colleagues (prof Philipp Homan, prof Wolfram Hinzen and prof Brita Elvevag) she leads two large projects funded by EU to study how speech and language can be used as a biomarker for psychosis. Iris authored six popular scientific books from which three became best-sellers.

Professor Grant Sara

Grant Sara is the Director of NSW Health’s InforMH unit, which is responsible for data collection, analysis and reporting for NSW mental health and suicide prevention services. His work and research aim to develop health service data to support and improve mental health care, and to understand physical health and mortality gaps in people who use our mental health services. He is a Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney University, Adjunct Professor in the School of Psychiatry, UNSW, and Honorary Professor, Faculty of Health, Macquarie University.

Professor Kimberlie Dean

Prof Kimberlie Dean is UNSW Chair of Forensic Mental Health and holds both clinical and research positions with Justice Health NSW, as Clinical Research Lead for Forensic Mental Health and Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist. At UNSW Prof Dean is also Head of the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health within the School of Clinical Medicine and Academic Program Director for the Master of Forensic Mental Health.

Dr Anne Buist

Anne Buist is the Chair of Women’s Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, based at Austin Health, and has over 30 years clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry; she was director of mother-baby units for much of this time, more recently overseeing an outreach team that works to improve attachment. She was director of the beyondblue PND initiative which resulted in Australia wide screening for perinatal depression and anxiety. She also works in forensic perinatal cases and with Protective Services and writes fiction including a series set in a mental health service.

Dr Dinesh Palipana

Dinesh was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland. Dinesh is a doctor, lawyer, disability advocate, and researcher. While in medical school, he was involved in a car accident that caused a spinal cord injury.

Dinesh works at the Gold Coast University Hospital. He is a senior lecturer at Griffith University and assistant professor at Bond University. Dinesh is a researcher in spinal cord injury, co-leading the BioSpine research team.

Dinesh was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019. Dinesh was the Queensland Australian of the Year for 2021. His autobiography, Stronger, was published in 2022.

A/Prof Anthony Korner

Anthony Korner works in Sydney as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He is Director of the Master of Medicine (Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy) Program at the University of Sydney. He is active in teaching, research and clinical practice. Research interests are in psychodynamic psychotherapy, linguistics and philosophy. He completed a PhD on psychotherapy process in 2015 and has published widely. He is author of a book on psychotherapy, Communicative Exchange, Psychotherapy and the Resonant Self (Routledge, 2021). He has been president of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychotherapy since 2022 and currently also a Vice-President of the World Council for Psychotherapy.

Professor Paul Fitzgerald

Professor Paul Fitzgerald is the Head of the School of Medicine and Psychology at the Australian National University. He is an academic psychiatrist with a MBBS degree, Masters of Psychological Medicine and research PhD. He has conducted an extensive series of clinical trials and experimental studies developing new treatments for patients with mental health conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, PTSD, autism and Alzheimer’s disease. He now leads an innovative School of Medicine and Psychology developing education and research programs integrating these traditionally diverse health disciplines.

Professor Valsa Eapen

Valsa is Professor and Chair of Child Psychiatry, UNSW Sydney and Clinical Academic at South-Western Sydney Health District. She is a NHMRC Senior Leadership Fellow focussing on research into neurodevelopmental disorders and leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in child and family health. She is Stream Director for Early Life Determinants of Health (ELDoH) with SPHERE, a NHMRC Advanced Health Research and Translational Centre. Valsa is President, International Neuropsychiatric Association; Co-Chair, Section on Developing countries and Oceania Zonal representative, World Psychiatric Association; and Chair, Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, RANZCP. She has >450 publications and grants totalling >A$40Million.

Professor Henry Brodaty

Henry Brodaty is a researcher, clinician, policy advisor and strong advocate for people with dementia and their carers. At University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), he is Scientia Professor of Ageing and Mental Health, and Co-Director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA). He has published extensively, is a senior psychogeriatrician at Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney and serves on multiple committees for the New South Wales and Australian governments and WHO.

Leanne Hides

Leanne Hides is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor at The University of Queensland. She is Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Meaningful Outcomes in Substance Use Treatment, and Deputy Director of the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research. With over 25 years of experience, Professor Hides specialises in the co-design, evaluation and implementation of treatments for youth substance use and comorbid mental health disorders. She has been a chief investigator on 20 NHMRC/MRFF grants and published over 280 peer-reviewed articles.

Robert Schoevers

Professor Robert Schoevers heads the University Medical Center Groningen Psychiatry Department. His research focuses on epidemiology, prevention and treatment of (severe) mood disorders, involving cohorts such as NESDA and LIFELINES plus intervention studies. He pioneered generic oral esketamine looking at antidepressant efficacy, working mechanisms, patient experiences and maintenance treatment and studies psychedelic treatments and mechanisms. He leads the EU PsyPal study (psilocybin therapy for psychological distress in palliative care patients). He frequently appears in media, wrote/edited books for lay and professional audiences plus documentaries on mental health topics. Further information see Publications and Professional profile

Dr Peggy Brown AO

Dr Brown was one of three Commissioners appointed to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. She formerly held roles including Senior Clinical Advisor at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care; Chief Executive Officer of the National Mental Health Commission; Director-General, ACT Health; Chief Psychiatrist/Director of Mental Health in Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory; and an NHS International Fellow in the United Kingdom. She has also served on the Boards of Ahpra, Health Workforce Australia, the National eHealth Transition Authority, and Healthscope (Advisory Board).

Professor Sandra Radovini

Professor Radovini is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and the Director of Mindful, Centre for Training and Research in Developmental Health, in the Department of Psychiatry, at the University of Melbourne. Professor Radovini has combined her academic role with various other senior leadership positions in clinical services and government. She was the Inaugural Chief Child Psychiatrist in the Victorian Department of Health and the inaugural Clinical Director for headspace National. She has had a longstanding interest in Autism and the overlap with co-occurring mental health problems and has helped to set up Autism assessment clinics in various health services. Mindful has developed a model for building workforce capacity and capability via an extensive autism training calendar reaching over 1800 participants per year nation-wide and through supporting a network of Autism coordinators located in health services who help embed new knowledge into clinical practice. In partnership with health services Mindful is involved in a number of projects to skill up the broad mental health workforce to better understand Autism across the lifespan.

Professor Stephen Wood

Professor Stephen Wood is Head of Clinical Neuroscience at Orygen and the Centre for Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne. He is also Chair of Adolescent Development and Mental Health at the University of Birmingham in the UK. For the past 25 years, Stephen’s research work has focused on understanding the onset phase of severe mental illness, primarily psychosis, and investigating whether neuroscience techniques can have broad clinical utility. He has more than 400 publications over his career and is ranked in the top 0.1% of schizophrenia experts internationally by Expertspace.

Prof Wood is also a committed supervisor and mentor, with many of his students achieving awards/high distinctions. He has twice been nominated for the Larry Seidman supervision award. Stephen is the current president of the Society for Mental Health Reseach.

Dr Cathy Franklin

Dr Cathy Franklin is a psychiatrist with 20 years' experience specialising in the psychiatry of intellectual and developmental disabilities in adolescents and adults. She is passionate about improving the quality of health and mental health care for people with intellectual disability and those on the autism spectrum.

Cathy is Director of the Queensland Centre of Excellence in Autism and Intellectual Disability Health, that delivers a multidisciplinary outpatient service, education and research in this space. She leads 3 large grants, totalling $10.2M in 2020-2025, and her Centre’s involvement as the Health Service Delivery Lead for the National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health.

A/Prof Simon Stafrace

A/Prof Simon Stafrace is Chair of the RANZCP Victorian Branch and former Co-Chair of the bi-national Community Collaboration Committee. He holds an appointment as Program Director of Mental & Addiction Health at Alfred Health. He is also an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Monash University, and a non-executive director at Mental Health Victoria, a peak body for service providers; and Mental Health First Aid International, a global organization dedicated to teaching mental health (MH) first aid. From 2020-22, Simon was Chief Adviser at the Victorian Department of Health, contributing to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s MH System and early implementation of its recommendations.

A/Prof Yoram Barak

Dr Yoram Barak is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Otago School of Medicine and consultant psychogeriatrician.

Dr Barak was the medical director of Israel’s psychiatric services for Holocaust survivors. He is the associate editor for Aging Psychiatry for Frontiers in Psychiatry. Dr Barak serves on the board of the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age for the RANZCPsychiatry.

Research with special emphasis on old-age psychiatry focuses on elder abuse, dementia prevention and suicide. He has published extensively is author or co-author of over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles. His book "Preventing Alzheimer's Disease" was published in the US