Invited Speakers
Keynote Speakers
I am a geriatrician whose research, clinical, and teaching career has focused on the integration of medicine, exercise physiology, and nutrition as a means to improve health status and quality of life across the lifespan. I have held the inaugural John Sutton Chair of Exercise and Sport Science in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and Professorship, Sydney Medical School, at the University of Sydney since 1999, with continuing appointment as Senior Research Associate at Harvard-Affiliate Hebrew Institute for Aging Research since 1987. The focus of my work over 35 years has been the prevention and treatment of sarcopenia and its clinical sequelae in older adults, in particular both physical and cognitive frailty, with anabolic exercise-high intensity progressive resistance training (PRT)- and other lifestyle interventions. I have designed and led many clinical trials and longitudinal studies in Australia, the USA, Norway, and France, including large multi-centre trials of exercise and chronic disease prevention and treatment. From the beginning of my career, as a practicing geriatrician I have recognized the need for timely and evidence-based dissemination of my work, translating the results of my trials into clinical programs, health care professional courses and accreditation standards, position stands, education of lay consumers with multi-media materials, and policy recommendations regarding government funding for exercise as medicine.
Maria Antoinette Fiatarone Singh
University of Sydney
Kenneth Rockwood, MD, FRCPC, FRCP, is Professor of Medicine (Geriatric Medicine & Neurology) and the Kathryn Allen Weldon Professor of Alzheimer Research at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A member of the Senior Leadership team at Nova Scotia Health, he is the inaugural lead of the Frailty & Elder Care Network. Ken has key roles on numerous studies in Canada and elsewhere. In 1985 he received his MD from Memorial University in St. John’s, NL, completed training in Internal Medicine at the University of Alberta (1989), and in Geriatric Medicine from Dalhousie University (1991). He is a leading international authority on frailty.
Kenneth Rockwood
Dalhousie University
Invited Speakers
Born and raised in Wagga Wagga NSW, Paul trained with Beverley Waters, Robert O’Kell, The Bryan Lawrence School of Ballet in Canberra, The Australian Ballet School and Marika Besobrasova in Monte Carlo.
Paul’s professional dance career spanned over 25 years dancing as a Principal Artist in 3 German Opera Houses, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf/Duisburg, Oper der Stadt Bonn, Stadtische Buhnen Dortmund, Basel Ballet in Switzerland and Queensland Ballet.
Paul received the German Critics Award for ‘Best Up and Coming Artist in Europe’ and ‘Best Established Artist in Europe’ while as a dancer in Dusseldorf.
In 1993 Paul danced the title role of ‘Spartacus’ at the Summer Arts Festival at the famous Arena di Verona in Italy and was a Guest Artist throughout Europe during those years.
His extensive repertoire as a Principal Artist included all the major classics and works from Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, John Neumeier, Erich Walter, William Forsythe, Roland Petit, Youri Vamos, Peter Breuer, Natalie Weir, Francois Klaus, Judith Jamison amongst others.
As a choreographer his ballets have been in the repertoires Queensland Ballet, Australian Ballets Bodytorque season, Basel Ballet, Oper der Stadt Bonn and the Royal Ballet School in London performed ‘Uneven Ground’ at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2005 and 2012 and toured that work to Japan and New York.
At the invitation of John Neumeier, Paul was invited to create a new work, ‘Songs of the Auvergne’ for his Bundesjugendballett in Hamburg which was presented in Hamburg, Heidelberg and Berlin in 2013.
Paul has been a Guest Teacher and Choreographer at the Royal Ballet School in London, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Hong Kong Ballet, Suzhou Ballet Theatre in China, Semper Oper in Dresden, Architanz in Tokyo, Dresden International Ballet Summer School
Paul is currently Ballet Master & Resident Choreographer at Queensland Ballet Academy and Character Artist for Queensland Ballet.
Paul Boyd
Queensland Ballet
Genevieve Dingle is a Professor and Director of the Clinical Psychology Programs at the University of QLD who researches how music activities can influence health and wellbeing. She leads the development of the Tuned In program which teaches young people how to listen to music for emotional and cognitive effects. She also researches the health effects of choir singing with various populations including healthy older adults; adults with cognitive decline; adults with mental health problems; and international students. Genevieve is an associate editor of the journal Psychology of Music, and she serves on the executive committees of the Australian Music & Psychology Society and the Arts Health Network QLD. For more information see: https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/30
Genevieve Dingle
University of Queensland
Len Gray is a health services researcher and Professor in Geriatric Medicine at the Centre for Health Services Research at the University of Queensland. His research focusses on systems of care, assessment, quality improvement, telehealth and clinical informatics. Recently, he has contributed to the development and testing of quality indicators and design of the Star Ratings infrastructure for residential aged care in Australia.
Len Gray
University of Queensland
Emma is a Consultant Geriatrician and works for Te Whatu Ora at Burwood Hospital, Christchurch. Her interest areas include continence care for older people, service improvement and patient safety initiatives, including medication safety. She is the local director of training for Geriatric medicine in Christchurch, and lectures for the University of Otago on continence management in older people. Emma is the co-convenor for the ANZSGM ASM 2024 to be held in Christchurch. Outside of work Emma enjoys time with her young family and likes skiing, tramping, gardening, cooking and entertaining.
Emma Losco
Burwood Hospital
MBBS, FRACP, PhD, MMed (Clin Epi), Grad Cert Med Ed
Vasi Naganathan is Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Sydney and a Consultant Geriatrician at Concord Hospital in Sydney. He is co-director of the Centre of Education and Research on Ageing (CERA). His research interests are wide including: health of older men, oral health, falls, fractures and osteoporosis, pharmacology in older people and the application of evidence-based medicine to older people. He is author on more than 250 publications. Vasi collaborates with and exchanges ideas with some of Australia’s leading researchers and thinkers in Geriatric medicine and Ageing Research. He is the president of the Australian New Zealand Society of Geriatric Medicine. His clinical work mainly involved looking patients on the acute Geriatric Medicine wards and rehabilitation wards. He also does a monthly 2 days clinic in regional NSW in the Murrumbidgee where he lived for a few years during high school years.
Vasi Naganathan
University of Sydney
Barbra Timmer, PhD, MBA is a Lecturer in Audiology (Teaching & Research) at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland and Senior Scientist at Sonova AG. Prior to starting her academic career, Barbra worked in clinical audiology in Australia and The Netherlands and gained hearing care industry experience in Switzerland. She aims to build a stronger bridge between research and clinical practice and as President of Audiology Australia, the peak professional organisation representing over 3,300 audiologists in Australia, Barbra regularly contributes advice to shape the profession as well as government and health policy.
Barbara Timmer
The University of Queensland
Adrienne is an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian at RBWH and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. Her research to date has focused on improving care of older inpatients, with increasing attention to co-designing these improvements with patients and their families.
Adrienne Young
University of Queensland
Debbie Brittain is Project Officer at The Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane. Debbie is part of the gallery’s Learning team, and her role involves working alongside students and educators from early years to secondary levels, as well visitors of all ages and abilities.
Debbie developed and facilitates QAGOMA’s Art and Dementia program. The program aims to support psychosocial wellbeing and quality of life of people living with dementia and their care partners. She completed a Bachelor of Dementia Care at the University of Tasmania during the program’s evolution. This has enabled her to translate evidence into practice around non-pharmacological intervention strategies within the therapeutic setting of an art museum.
In 2021, QAGOMA was recognised by Dementia Australia as a Dementia Friendly Organisation, the first institution in Brisbane’s Cultural Centre Precinct to be acknowledged for their work with visitors living with dementia. QAGOMA’s Art and Dementia program won the large workplace award category at the 2022 Queensland Mental Health Week Achievement Awards.
Debbie Brittain
The QLD Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art
Dr Claire Ellender BSc MBBS FRACP, is a Respiratory and Sleep specialist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Her areas of research include evaluating health literacy and sleep education materials, integrating telehealth into sleep care, narcolepsy and complex sleep disorder management. Dr Ellender works closely as a conjoint appointed academic within the School of Medicine, University of Queensland at the PA Southside Clinical unit.
Claire Ellender
Princess Alexandra Hospital
Sarah Hilmer AM FAHMS is a Geriatrician and Clinical Pharmacologist working at Royal North Shore Hospital; and Conjoint Professor of Geriatric Pharmacology at the University of Sydney. Her translational research program in Ageing and Pharmacology at the Kolling Institute includes basic, clinical and population studies to understand the effects of medications and of deprescribing in ageing and frailty. Her clinical, research, education and policy work all aim to improve outcomes of medications for older people.
Sarah Hilmer
Royal North Shore Hospital
Dr Bill Lukin is an Emergency Physician and a Palliative Care Physician working in Metro North. He is a staff specialist in the Residential Aged Care District Assessment and Referral Service and the Director of the Metro North Community Palliative Care Service including the Metro North Specialist Palliative Care in Aged Care. He works across the continuum of care in the inpatient space, emergency and in community including in residential aged care.
Bill Lukin
Metro North
Dr Stacey Naughton MBBS Hons FRACP ClinDipPallMed, is a Geriatrician and Palliative Care Consultant in Brisbane, Queensland. She works with the Residential Aged Care District Assessment and Referral (RADAR) service at The Prince Charles Hospital, and the Transition Care Program for Metro North Health. Dr Naughton is a recipient of the ANZSGM RM Gibson Prize, RACP Jameson Investigator Award, and ANZSGM Queensland Annual Scientific Meeting Presentation Award for her advanced trainee paper on gender differences in older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Dr Naughton is passionate about improving care for older adults in residential aged care by ensuring respect for patient choice, prioritisation of future care planning, and access to good quality end-of-life care.
Stacey Naughton
Prince Charles Hospital
Dr Stephanie Ward is a geriatrician at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital and a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, UNSW. She is the Clinical Lead for the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT) Clinical Quality Registry.
Stephanie Ward
Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital
Dr Diana Conrad attended medical school at the University of Qld and graduated with first class honours and University medal. She undertook general training at RBWH, then Ophthalmology training in Qld. She completed a Uveitis Fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and a Uveitis Fellowship at the Proctor Foundation at the University of California in San Francisco. She is currently the director of the Uveitis Service at the RBWH - the only specialty uveitis service in Qld. She is deputy director of Ophthalmology at RBWH, and in private practice at the Wesley Hospital. She is an examiner in Ophthalmology for RANZCO, and a director on the board of RANZCO. Outside of Ophthalmology she enjoys trudging through wilderness on multiday hikes, and singing in the Queensland Medical Choir. She has 3 sons - none of whom are in jail.
Diana Conrad
Conrad Eye Care
Michelle is the Director and Founder of Wound Specialist Services Pty Ltd. A nurse practitioner with extensive experience in wound management across the continuum of healthcare and well known both nationally and internationally for her expertise in the field. With a Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Nursing Science (Nurse Practitioner), Masters of Wound Care, Bachelor of Nursing and 20 years' career experience in the specialty of wounds, Michelle has a proven ability to inspire, motivate and develop others in the specialty of wounds with a special interest in aged care.
Michelle Gibb
Wound Specialist Services Pty Ltd
Kristen Jacklin, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health and Director of the Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team, at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth. Dr. Jacklin is a medical anthropologist with research focusing on Indigenous experiences of aging and dementia. Dr. Jacklin holds research awards from several sources including the National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Jacklin is the founder of the International Indigenous Dementia Research Network and the Indigenous Cognition Awareness and Aging Awareness Research Exchange (I-CAARE.ca).
Kristen Jacklin
University of Minnesota Medical School
Fabiola trained in Vienna and London and lives in Brisbane. She is a sexual, reproductive health, HIV, viral hepatitis and HTLV specialist, a clinical academic, a medical educator and a passioante advocate for her patients. In her clinical role she provides gender affirming therapy, STI screening and treatment, manangment of sexual function and long-term care for people living with HIV, HTLV and HBV/HCV. Fabiola is deeply engaged in this sector as the President of the Sexual Health Association QLD and the President of International Retrovirology Association and her collaborations with Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine, ASHM and ASHRA amongst others. She is the Medical Director of Norther NSW HIV and Related Programs, Sexual Health in Lismore and Tweed Heads, affiliated with School of Public Health at UQ.
She is also the editor of the BMJ STI Podcasts which you can listen to on your favourite app.
Fabiola Martin
The University of Queensland
Ann Rahmann has been a physiotherapist for over thirty years and is passionate about the role of physiotherapy in optimising function for older adults. Ann currently works for Metro North, balancing a clinical role with the Community Rehabilitation team and a part-time research support role. Ann was awarded her PhD in 2012 from the University of Queensland and is an Honorary Fellow of the School of Allied Health at the Australian Catholic University. Her research interests include optimising sub-acute rehabilitation outcomes including the transition back to home, and the assessment and management of older people with vestibular and balance dysfunction.
Ann Rahmann
Metro North
Associate Professor Elizabeth Whiting is a geriatrician and general physician at The Prince Charles Hospital (TPCH). She completed her medical training in Ireland at Trinity College Dublin and then moved to Australia where she completed her physician training in Brisbane. She was appointed to the position of Director of Internal Medicine Service at TPCH before taking on the position of Executive Director Clinical Services in Metro North Hospital and Health Service. Reflecting a long standing commitment to education and the development of junior doctors, she has chaired the Advanced Training committee for Geriatric Medicine and the Adult Medicine Clinical Examination committee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She also chaired the Geriatric Medicine Education and Training Committee of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine. She is passionate about improving patient care for older people. She led the Queensland Health Frail Older Person Collaborative which resulted in the statewide introduction of models of care to support care in emergency departments, inpatient wards and Residential Aged Care Facilities. Associate Professor Whiting is now leading the Reform Program for Queensland Health which is focussed on reforms that will enable sustainability of health services over the next decade.
Elizabeth Whiting
The Prince Charles Hospital
Kelly currently works as the Advanced Vestibular Physiotherapist at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane. She works with vestibular patients predominantly in the Emergency Department and outpatient clinic setting, including functioning as a first-contact Physiotherapist for Neurology-waitlisted patients. Kelly has over 10 years experience working with vestibular patients. She holds a Doctor of Physiotherapy degree from Bond University and an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Kelly Costa
Prince Charles Hospital
Melissa Gill is a singer, conductor, workshop facilitator, singing teacher and voice coach who has over 30 years’ industry experience working in Australia and overseas.
Melissa’s work as a Community Arts Practitioner began in 2014 with her appointment as the Program Leader of the Absolutely Everybody choir program for Upbeat Arts, a nationally accredited provider of mental health services. In 2022, Melissa combined her professional experience with her lived experience caring for a family member with dementia to create SING SING SING, Queensland’s first choir for people living with dementia. The choir meets weekly to sing, socialise, share stories, develop singing skills and share the joy of making music together. SING SING SING aims to tap into the well understood benefits of group singing, to improve mental health and wellbeing for people with dementia and their carers, provide meaningful opportunities for social connection and participation and to reduce stigma.
Melissa Gill
Sing Studio
Richard Lindley is a Professor of Geriatric Medicine, University of Sydney and Honorary Professorial Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health. He runs a large portfolio of clinical research in stroke, rehabilitation, vascular disease, global health, frailty and more recently, dementia. He is the Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Stroke Trial Innovation and Translation. He provides 2 days a week clinical service in acute geriatric medicine, acute stroke and rehabilitation at Blacktown Hospital in western Sydney.
Richard Lindley
University of Sydney
Oliver Menzies is a Geriatrician and General Physician at Auckland Hospital, Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). His research includes working with a group developing a cognitive assessment tool for use in Māori, and a mate wareware (dementia) prevalence study in Māori. Oliver has affiliation to Ngāti Kahungunu, an Iwi (tribe) in the North Island of NZ.
Oliver Menzies
Auckland Hospital
Eddy Strivens is a Geriatrician and Clinical Director for Older Persons, Subacute and Rehabilitation in Cairns, Far North Queensland, a Professor and Lead of the Health Ageing Research Team (HART) with James Cook University School of Medicine and a former President of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine.
Clinically, Eddy is based in Cairns and his medical interests include integrated and sub-acute care, dementia in acute care and regional outpatient memory clinics, including outreach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities in the Torres Strait and Cape York.
His clinical research interests with the Healthy Ageing Research Team include Successful Ageing and Dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities and Models of Integrative Service Delivery, including transitions in Sub-Acute Care and Community Care. He leads the Healthy Ageing Research Team at James Cook University, with 8 years of continuous NHMRC grants and over $6 million in Category 1 competitive grants funding from both the NHMRC and MRFF.
Eddy was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant services to Geriatric Medicine and professional organisations in the 2023 Australia Day Honours. Previously in 2015 Eddy was awarded the Public Service Medal in the Queens Birthday Honours for services to Queensland Health in the area of Aged Care and the biennial Louis Ariotti Award for Excellence and Innovation in the field of Rural and Remote Health.
Eddy Strivens
Older Persons Sub-Acute & Rehabilitation
Associate Professor Michael Woodward is Head of Aged Care Research and the Memory Clinic at Austin Health in Melbourne, Victoria. He is a specialist in geriatric medicine with major interests in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias. He is Principal Investigator for numerous research trials of new therapies for AD and related disorders. He is Board member of the national Dementia Australia Research Foundation, as well as one of the 3 Honorary Medical Advisors to Dementia Australia.
He was awarded his MD on the overlap between the dementia syndromes and how memory clinic data bases contribute to our understanding of the dementias. More recent research interests have focussed on characterizing the frontal (dysexecutive) variant of Alzheimer’s Disease.
He is Chair of the (adult) Training Accreditation Subcommittee of the RACP and has been extensively involved with training bodies of the College and the ANZSGM for over 30 years.
On Australia Day 2016 he was honoured with the award of Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) for his work in dementia and geriatric medicine, his contribution to these numerous professional bodies and his body of publications and other writings.
Michael Woodward
Austin Health
Advanced Trainee Weekend Invited Speakers
Dr Aisling Fleury is a senior specialist geriatrician working in Logan Hospital, where she leads the perioperative medicine unit. She is also deputy chair of the Queensland Dementia Ageing and Frailty Network. Outside of work she enjoys cooking, open water swimming and rock climbing.
Aisling Fleury
Logan Hospital
Christy Noble is the Clinical Learning and Assessment Lead in the Academy for Medical Education at The University of Queensland. Through her work Christy seeks to foster the development of learners’ capabilities to effectively learn through practice.
She started her career as a hospital pharmacist and through her pharmacist educator experiences, in the UK, her interest in health profession education grew. She completed a Masters of Education (Clinical Education), University of Leeds, 2006. When she returned to Australia, she completed a PhD at the University of Queensland (2014) exploring pharmacy students professional identity formation.
Christy has more than 40 publications aligned to her research interests including practice-based learning (especially in clinical settings) and workplace pedagogic practices including feedback and clinical supervision. She has generated more than $1 million in postdoctoral research funding as both chief and co-investigators through several national and international collaborations.
Christy Noble
The University Queensland
Jeremy Hayllar has been the Clinical Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service of Metro North Mental Health since 2014. Prior to that he had a most interesting and varied careers spanning from the UK to regional Queensland in Mt Isa. It was in the hard drinking mining community of Mt Isa that he became interested in the care of people with substance use problems.
His interests include the management of patients with opioid use disorder and patients with co-occurring disorders. He represented the RACP during the planning for implementing real time prescription monitoring (QScript) and was a member of the Queensland Medicinal Cannabis Expert Advisory Panel.
He has been involved in the updating of Queensland Health guidelines into withdrawal management, opioid use disorder, and contributed to updating of the National Pharmacotherapy guidelines and Alcohol and Drug related resources with ACRRM
Jeremy Hayllar
Metro North Mental Health
Tracy has gained extensive experience in relation to medico-legal complaint management and litigation over more than 22 years. She is responsible for identifying and responding to emerging medico-legal issues which impact on Avant’s members. Tracy regularly presents at educational seminars and is actively involved in the medico-legal community in Queensland.
Tracy’s significant experience has been recognised by her peers in 2020 and 2021 by her listing as a Leading Queensland Defendant Medical Negligence Lawyer in the Doyle’s Guide. She is the immediate past president of the Medico-Legal Society of Queensland, former director of the Queensland Doctors’ Health Programme and currently a committee member for the Uniting Care Health Human Research Ethics Committee. She is also a member of the Steering committee for HEAL – Health, Ethics and Law in Queensland.
Tracy Pickett
Avant Law
Ruth E. Hubbard is a Consultant Geriatrician at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane and the Masonic Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Queensland.
Based on the impact of her publications, she is currently ranked number 4 in a list of frailty experts worldwide.
She is currently supervising 6 clinicians undertaking PhDs as well as numerous student projects. In the last 5 years, she has has generated $19.9M in grant income: including as CIA on the recent MRFF Dementia Ageing and Aged Care Mission ($5M), a Centre for Research Excellence in Frailty ($2.5M), an Ideas Grant ($1.6M) and the NHMRC Targeted Call for Frailty Research ($1.5M).
Ruth E. Hubbard
Princess Alexandra Hospital
Dr Catherine Yelland is a general physician and geriatrician who is the Medical Director of the Medicine Service Line at Redcliffe Hospital. She is a past president of both the RACP and ANZSGM. Her interests are in service development, geriatric rehabilitation and dementia.
Catherine Yelland
Redcliffe Hospital
Dr Kristen Lefever is a Neurologist at the Princess Alexandra and Mater Private hospitals Brisbane. She is currently under taking a PhD in the neuroimaging characteristics of patients with pain as a complication of multiple sclerosis. Outside of medicine Kristen enjoys coffee, gardening and spending time with her young family.
Kristen Lefever
Princess Alexandra & Mater Private Hospitals