Robert Stirling

Chief Executive Officer, The Network of Alcohol and other Drugs Agencies

Robert Stirling is CEO for the Network of Alcohol and other Drugs Agencies (NADA) and is responsible for representing the interests of the NSW non-government AOD sector across policy, sector and workforce development, and research. He sits on a number of national and NSW boards and committees representing the NGO AOD sector. Robert has worked in the AOD sector for 15 years across the government and NGO sectors and holds qualifications in public health and community management. He is currently undertaking a doctorate exploring performance measurement of AOD treatment.

Robert Skeen

Chief Executive Officer, Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council NSW

Robert Skeen has traditional ties to the Gubbi Gubbi of the Sunshine Coast, Mununjarli of Southeast Qld, and Waanyi of Northwest Qld.
He has worked in the Government and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation Sector for almost 25 years. Prior to being the AH&MRC CEO, he was a member of the AH&MRC Human Research Ethics Committee and was also a member of the NSW Working Party for the NACCHO constitution reform.
Robert has developed into a Strong Leader who has a proven track record of high-level Leadership, Change Management, and Innovation. His focus as a CEO now, is to use his talents to rebuild Organisations. Ensuring the Organisation is viewed by all stakeholders as a viable business that is healthy and smart.

Lotta Dann

Writer, Blogger, Story Teller, Lived Experience | New Zealand

Lotta Dann has a Master’s degree in communications and media studies. She worked for 25 years as a TV journalist and producer while also developing a nasty addiction to alcohol. She got sober in 2011 with the help of an anonymous blog called 'Mrs. D Is Going Without' which became a best-selling memoir of the same name. She has since published 'Mrs D Is Going Within' and 'The Wine O'Clock Myth: The truth you need to know about women and alcohol'. She now manages the large online peer support community Living Sober funded by the New Zealand Drug Foundation and Health Promotion Agency, and works as a Lived Experience Facilitator of Addiction 101 workshops through Blueprint for Learning.

www.allenandunwin.co.nz/authors/d/lotta-dann
www.livingsober.org.nz
www.blueprint.co.nz/workshops/50-addiction-101-webinar/

John Ryan

Chief Executive Officer

John is a leader in public health whose expertise is widely recognised in Victoria and overseas.
He is currently a member of the North Richmond Medically Supervised Injecting Room Review Panel and, in 2012, won a Churchill Fellowship to travel to the United States and study ways of improving public health approaches to drug policy.
As a former Needle and Syringe Program worker, university researcher and policymaker, John is deeply committed to promoting better approaches to substance use and leading Penington Institute’s work to create change for the better.

Dr Stephanie Merkouris

Lecturer, School of Psychology, Deakin University

Dr Stephanie Merkouris is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Deakin University and is currently the recipient of a New South Wales Office of Responsible Gambling Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr Merkouris has been working as a researcher in the gambling field for 12 years. Her main research interests relate to the examination of factors associated with the development, maintenance and treatment of gambling-related problems, and the development and evaluation of evidence-based treatments for gambling. She is particularly interested in how advances in technology can be used for assessment, intervention, and dissemination purposes, with her recent research focusing on the application of e-mental health in the gambling field.

Chris Wilkins

Associate Professor, SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, College of Health, Massey University | Auckland, New Zealand

Associate Professor Chris Wilkins is the leader of the drug research team at SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, Massey University, New Zealand. Chris has research expertise in drug trends, drug markets, and drug policy. Over the past twenty years he has completed a range of studies of drug use in New Zealand with particular focus on cannabis, methamphetamine, NPS, ecstasy, and organised crime and the economics of illegal drug markets. He recently co-editing a book on cannabis legalisation (Legalizing Cannabis: Experiences, Lessons and Scenarios, with Tom De Corte, Simon Lenton). He leads the online New Zealand Drugs Trends Survey.

Tony Clarkson

Principal Clinical Advisor, Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation

Tony trained as a psychodynamic psychotherapist for six years in London. He is the Vice-President of PACFA (Psychotherapy & Counselling Federation of Australia) and a board member with the South Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network, where he also chairs the Clinical & Community Council.

Tony also co-chairs the National Mental Health Commission’s Self Stigma Technical Advisory Group, which contributes to the development of a National Stigma & Discrimination Reduction Strategy.
He currently works as the Principal Clinical Advisor at the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation (Victorian Department of Justice & Community Safety), where he provides clinical advice for a state-wide gambling addiction service system.

He was previously Clinical Manager at Connect Health & Community and Executive Manager of Psychological Services at Better Place Australia. Tony continues to work in private practice as a psychotherapist with long term patients who present with trauma, addiction and relationship issues.

Simon Ruth

Chief Executive Officer, Thorne Harbour Health Simon Ruth is CEO at Thorne Harbour Health (THH), formerly the Victorian AIDS Council. Simon has spent most of his career working in, or managing, alcohol and drug programs. THH provides LGBTI specific AoD programs in Victoria and South Australia. Simon has previously worked in AoD services for the Salvation Army, YSAS, Monash Health and Peninsula Health. Simon was VAADA President from 2007-2012. He was previously awarded a Victorian Traveling Fellowship to investigate older adult AoD treatment in the USA and Canada. He currently sits on the Boards of the AIDS Trust of Australia and Pride Cup Australia.

Jack Nagle

Real Drug Talk Founder

Jack is an everyday Australian passionate about finding and creating solutions for service consumers in the Alcohol and Other Drugs sector. His passion comes from his own experience of substance addiction and consuming services in some of his most vulnerable moments.

After sharing his story extensively in all forms of National media, Jack created Real Drug Talk. In his role as founder and director, he sits on a number of National government, non-government and research advisory committees, advocating for the importance of developing the lived and living experience workforce.

Dr Yvonne Bonomo

Director, Department of Addiction Medicine, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne

Dr Yvonne Bonomo MBBS FRACP PhD FAChAM is Director, Department of Addiction Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital and Head of Unit, Women’s Alcohol & Drug Service, Royal Women’s Hospital.

She leads a number of research projects exploring approaches to the prescription opioid problem, with related publications in international journals.

Yvonne facilitates the Victorian Opioid Management ECHOTM, supporting a community of practice in rural and remote areas of Victoria in the management of patients on opioids.

Ms Carol Daws

Chief Executive Officer, Cyrenian House

Carol Daws has been working in Non-Government AOD sector since 1988. Carol has worked at Cyrenian House in a variety of roles from clinical work through to management and is currently the CEO of Cyrenian House.

Cyrenian House operates two Therapeutic Communities (TC) the Rick Hammersley Therapeutic Community (RHTC) in a semi-rural setting in the outer northern suburbs of the Perth Metropolitan area and the other, Serenity Lodge in Rockingham. Within the RHTC it also offers the Saranna Women’s Program to support women with dependent children.

Cyrenian House also offers a comprehensive non-residential service that includes outpatient counselling services, prison programs and aftercare for people with drug and alcohol use and associated problems.

Dr Michael Doyle

Senior Research Fellow, The University of Sydney

Michael is a Bardi man (WA) and Wingara Mura Fellow at the University of Sydney. He has a particular interest in prison-based alcohol and other drug treatment, which is the topic of his PhD thesis (completed in 2018).

He has extensive experience in Indigenous Australian health service delivery, policy/planning and research.

Dr Stefan Gruenert

Chief Executive Officer, Odyssey House Victoria

Dr. Stefan Gruenert is a psychologist with 20 years of experience in the AOD sector as a clinician, researcher, and manager. He is currently CEO of Odyssey House Victoria, a Board Director of VCOSS, and past President of VAADA.

Stefan has been a counsellor in residential and community settings, conducted research on treatment effectiveness and family work, and contributed to resources on parenting and family violence.

He regularly provides advice to government, delivers conference presentations, and contributed to international drug policy for the UNODC in Vienna in 2008, and received a Harvard Fellowship to attend Harvard Business School in 2014.

Lieutenant Colonel Lynette Hutson

National Director, The Salvation Army, New Zealand Fiji, Tonga & Samoa Territory

Lynette Hutson is a Salvation Army Officer who has worked for over 30 years in the field of addictions including four years in Winnipeg Canada. For 13 years has lead the Salvation Army New Zealand national network of alcohol and drug treatment services and during this time participated in expanding the range and variety of services delivered. Included in her role have been other allied Salvation Army services including the gambling harm reduction services, homelessness services and prison reintegration services.

The alignment and connection of these services along with the place of policy settings has informed designing better ways of working for the wellbeing of the whole person. Lynette is a trained and registered social worker. Her current role is oversight of all Salvation Army social services and she is a member of the bicultural Rūnanga (Māori Cultural leadership). She is married to Ian who is the Director if The Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit. She has four adult children and five grandchildren who bring great pleasure.

Dr Eli Kotler

Medical Director, Malvern Private Hospital

Eli is a consultant psychiatrist, holds an academic position at Monash University through the Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, and is the medical director of Malvern Private Hospital, the first addiction hospital in Australia.

He is a member of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD). Clinically, Eli is interested in the deep connections between trauma and addiction and works within a neuro-psychoanalytic framework.

Eli has overseen the development of a clinical program for addictions focused on trauma, particularly developmental trauma. This has led to an interest in medication-assisted trauma therapy.

Eli worked for many years researching neurodegenerative diseases and was the principle investigator on numerous trials for novel therapeutics. He is founding member of the Melbourne Neuropsychoanalytic Group and welcomes new members.

Through involvement with Monash University, Eli oversees the addiction rotation for medical students. Eli graduated from the first intake of the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies (CPAT) in June 2021. He has also been recently appointed as the Principal Investigator to lead Emyria’s upcoming MDMA trial.

Dr Christian Rowan

Chief Medical Officer, The Banyans Healthcare Group

Dr Christian Rowan is a Specialist Physician in Addiction Medicine with a strong associated interest in Pain Management. Dr Rowan is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians' Chapter of Addiction Medicine. He is also a member of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs. Dr Rowan holds specialist qualifications in medical administration and community medicine.

Dr Rowan is the Chief Medical Officer of The Banyans Healthcare Group. Dr Rowan is a Visiting Medical Officer to The Wesley Hospital, St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital as well as the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health. He has worked in a number of Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Services, including at Biala, the Peel Street Clinic, and Logan Central Community Health.

Dr Rowan’s clinical interests include prescription drug dependency, opioid substitution therapy, and co-morbidity pertaining to pain conditions and substance disorders.

Dr Rowan is an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine, Griffith University. He is a former Board Member of the Wesley-St Andrew's Research Institute and a previous member of the Queensland Mental Health & Drug Advisory Council.

Dr Rowan holds a Masters of Diplomacy and Trade from Monash University in foreign affairs, public policy, health diplomacy and trade. He completed his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree at the University of Queensland.

Dr Rowan is a former President of both the Australian Medical Association of Queensland and the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland.

Mr Todd Sellwood

AOD Nurse Navigator, Princess Alexandra Hospital

Todd Sellwood is a Registered Nurse with over 25 year’s experience in emergency, oncology, surgery and medicine in various roles. He has worked in the Addiction field for a number of years and has been employed as the Alcohol and Other Drug Nurse Navigator at Princess Alexandra Hospital for the last 2 years.

Todd has completed a Masters in Nursing: Leadership and Management at JCU and Graduate Certificate in Alcohol and Drug Studies at USQ.

Todd is a passionate advocate for the collaborative management for those presenting for care and supports empathetic and holistic management of those seeking guidance and support for Drug and Alcohol use disorders. He is also a fervent supporter of dispelling myths and quashing stigmatisation of patients accessing healthcare services.

Ms Bridgitte Thornley

National Director, PGF Group

Bridgitte is a Registered Social Worker. Her current role is National Director of PGF Services.

Bridgitte has worked in the addiction sector since 1990 and in the gambling sector since 1999.

Dr Hester Wilson

Addiction Medicine Specialist

A Fellow of Royal Australian College of GPs, Hester is also a Fellow of the Chapter of Addiction Medicine in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Hester is the chair of the RACGP Special Interest Group in Addiction. She works for South Eastern Sydney Local Health District Drug and Alcohol Service and in general practice in Newtown, Sydney.

An experienced medical educator, Hester has written widely on general practice and substance use issues including tobacco and is involved in planning and facilitating the current RACGP AOD training.

She recently convened the 6th International Medicine in Addiction Conference and is a member of a number of state and national committees looking at FASD, opioid stewardship and the roll out of real time prescription monitoring.

Hester is currently undertaking a PhD focused on GPs’ experience of patients with chronic pain and prescription opioid use disorder.