Sebastian Dohm-Hansen is a PhD student in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University College Cork. He holds BSc’s in Psychology and Molecular Biology from Lund University, Sweden, and a MSc in Neuroscience from King’s College London, UK. Throughout his time in academia, Sebastian has specialized in the science of memory, adult neurogenesis, psychiatric genetics, aging, and exercise. His main interest lies in bioinformatics and data science. Prior to all of this, he dabbled in music.

Sunil Bhar is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Swinburne University of Technology. He is Director of the Swinburne Wellbeing Clinic for Older Adults, a free counselling service for aged care residents. He is a clinical psychologist and has won more than $8M in grants as chief investigator focused on mental health programs for older adults. His research and contribution to practice has been recognised through several awards. In 2014, he was awarded the Alastair Heron Prize for excellence in ageing research and practice by the Australian Psychology Society. In 2015, he was awarded a citation for outstanding contribution to student learning in geropsychology by the Office of Learning and Teaching. In 2018, he won the Swinburne Dean’s award for research, and in 2019, he won Swinburne’s research impact award. Alongside his research and teaching activities, Professor Bhar has maintained a clinical practice for 30 years.

Adjunct Professor Tanya Davison is a Clinical Psychologist, with a research and clinical background in mental health, and a particular interest in designing and evaluating psychological interventions to facilitate positive outcomes for individuals and lead to practice changes within healthcare and aged care systems.

The intestinal epithelium offers the first interaction between commensal bacteria, pathogens and our bodies’ largest immune system. Inappropriate immune responses drive inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or excessive inflammation during infection. My research focuses on the epithelial enteroendocrine cells (EECs), which release peptide hormones in response to nutrients allowing their efficient digestion. EEC alterations are strongly associated with inflammation, yet the possibility of interactions between our gut’s endocrine and immune systems remains overlooked. Understanding the mechanistic cross-talk between enteroendocrine and immune cells will identify the immunoendocrine axis as a key feature of intestinal health which could be therapeutically targeted during disease.

Prof Frank Vajda AM is a neurologist and epileptologist with a special interested in neuropharmacology. He is a leading figure in the clinical pharmacology of epilepsy. He contributed hugely to the development of epileptology globally and his contribution to the literature on the clinical pharmacology of AEDs spans over five decades.

Naomi is a PhD Candidate at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney working on advancing global food security for infants and young children. Naomi Hull is also a Registered Nurse and an IBCLC. She attained a Masters of Public Health (Nutrition) in 2017. Her passion for breastfeeding and lactation began after the birth of her first baby and led to training as a peer support counsellor in 2006. During her Master of Public Health, her interest in the ‘bigger picture’ grew stronger and for this reason, chose to look at the implementation of the Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy (2010-2015) as the topic of her Dissertation. Naomi went on from there to become the National Coordinator of the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative – bringing together the Australian team who have now completed two assessments of Australia’s policies and programs in 2018 and 2023. From 2019-2023 Naomi worked in the National Support Office of the Australian Breastfeeding Association, as a Senior Manager. She continues to feel strongly about finding a way to improve the breastfeeding experience for families by way of advocating for policy change in Australia.

Karleen Gribble has been researching and publishing on aspects of women’s infant feeding practice and beliefs for over a decade. Her research interests include adoptive breastfeeding, long-term breastfeeding, infant feeding in emergencies and peer-to-peer milk sharing. She also has an interest in children’s rights, childhood trauma, adoption and child protection. Karleen has numerous papers on these subjects published in peer-reviewed journals. She is frequently invited to speak on her research to professional and lay audiences in Australia and Internationally. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Western Sydney and a member of the international interagency collaboration the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Core Group.

Dr Jennifer McCann (PhD, RNutr) is a lecturer in nutrition sciences and a nutrition placement coordinator at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin University. Research interests include: population and public health nutrition, children’s diets, environmental influences on diet, family influences on diet, diet and academic outcomes. Jennifer has a Masters of Human Nutrition and Graduate Certificate of Public Health from Deakin University as well as a BSc and an Honours Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology.

I am a social psychologist whose research interests include emotion, culture, group dynamics, and gender. I have a long-standing interest in bridging the academic-“real world” gap. I have worked both inside and outside academia as a lecturer, public policy researcher, and research consultant. Whether in the classroom or the conference room, I enjoy communicating psychological science to a wide audience. Along with co-author Dr. Patrick Gallagher, I have co-authored a book on doctoral-level psychology careers outside academia. Together with co-author Dr. Janet Boseovski, I am currently writing a book on body image development in early to late childhood and the importance of the mother-daughter relationship in this process.

Over the past two decades, I have studied social judgments and decision making in early to late childhood (i.e., 3- to 12-year-olds). My program of research has revealed a positivity bias in children’s judgments of self and others that peaks in middle childhood and that has implications in diverse areas of social and cognitive functioning (e.g., learning, safety, critical thinking). My research has been published in the top peer-reviewed outlets in my field and it has been supported the National Institutes of Health. Recent research interests center on body image and body perceptions in childhood, with projects that examine the relation between nutrition, body size, and activity, and children’s perceptions of muscularity. Together with co-author Dr. Ashleigh Gallagher, I am also writing a book (forthcoming, Fall, 2024, American Psychological Association Books) on body image development in early to late childhood, with an emphasis on how mother-daughter transactions shape girls’ body image. I also enjoy writing about health and wellness; these are topics that I have covered in two decades of teaching about human development across the lifespan at the university level.

Based in Melbourne, Dr Julie Wehbe maintains her multifaceted international profile across the healthcare and business sectors. Her 20+ years of psychiatrist practice extend to Australia-wide and overseas coverage supporting professionals both in their home countries and abroad. Dr Wehbe is a founder of ADHD-BED Integrated® group which for the past 4 years has been coordinating multi-disciplinary treatment for adults and children with ADHD, Binge-Eating Disorder and other eating disorders across Australia. Dr Wehbe is part of the expert group who developed the first in Australia GP training module for BED, endorsed by RACGP in 2020. In her current collaboration with public and private stakeholders, Dr Wehbe focuses on implementing National Eating Disorder Standards in primary health sector and promoting GP education in this area. In her vast clinical practice, Dr Wehbe continues to manage a number of patients with Binge Eating and other Eating disorders, Mood and Anxiety disorders, and ADHD. Dr Wehbe’s professional interest extends to fitness, nutrition and health restoration as well as personal performance building. Dr Wehbe is active within Australian and international professional expert networks in the area of eating disorders and other mental health conditions.

Associate Professor Mark Green is a reproductive biologist and group leader at the University of Melbourne and a Fellow of the Society for Reproductive Biology. Following his PhD in the UK, he held postdoctoral positions in the USA and NZ before moving to Australia. His lab focuses on identifying how environmental factors, especially emerging contaminants and endocrine disrupting chemicals, impact hormone concentrations, gamete and embryo development that underpin the growing incidence of infertility and reproductive disorders in humans and wildlife.