Ms Bridgitte Thornley

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.

Lieutenant Colonel Lynette Hutson

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

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. Eli oversees the Monash medical students during their clinical addiction rotation, and challenges the students to consider humanistic approaches to psychiatric disorders and addictions.

Eli is a member of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD). Clinically, he 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. He is founding member of the Melbourne Neuropsychoanalytic Group.

Eli worked for many years researching neurodegenerative diseases and was the principal investigator on numerous trials for novel therapeutics. He is currently the Principal Investigator in an upcoming MDMA-assisted therapy trial for PTSD (Emyria).

Due to an interest in trauma, Eli graduated from the inaugural Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies (CPAT) course in June 2021, and is a faculty member of the Mind Medicine Institute for current CPAT courses.

Dr Hester Wilson

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.

Ms Carol Daws

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.

Loretta Warburton

Tony Clarkson

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.

Michael Doyle

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.