Health + Climate Forum 2025 Speakers

Kate Thwaites MP

Kate is the Federal Member for Jagajaga and the voice in Canberra for our local community. She lives locally with her family and is passionate about supporting people across Jagajaga. Kate understands...

Dr Cassandra Goldie

Dr Cassandra Goldie AO, CEO of ACOSS and Adjunct Professor with UNSW Sydney, has held senior roles in the NFP and public sectors, including with the Australian Human Rights Commission, where she...

Senator David Pocock

ACT Independent Senator David Pocock migrated from Zimbabwe with his family as a teenager and went on to captain the Wallabies and Vice-Captain the Brumbies as part of a stellar rugby career...

Professor Nicholas Talley

Distinguished Laureate Professor Nicholas J. Talley AC is a gastroenterologist and public health physician, researcher and educator. Nick is currently the Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Digestive Health...

Dr Kerrie Aust

Dr Kerrie Aust, FRACGP MChD BAu BSc DCH Kerrie is a Canberra General Practitioner and President of the ACT AMA. Prior to becoming a doctor she worked as the business manager for the...

Arabella Douglas

Arabella Douglas is a Minjungbal Bundjalung woman, legal scholar, and climate justice advocate focused on the health impacts of displacement, water insecurity, and ecological breakdown. She has led UN submissions on river...

Dr Monique Ryan MP

Prior to entering parliament in May 2022, Monique was a paediatric neurologist, medical researcher, and head of neurology at the Royal Children’s Hospital. She also held professorial appointments at Melbourne and Monash...

Dr Kate Wylie

Dr Kate Wylie is a GP and Executive Director of Doctors for the Environment Australia. Based in Adelaide (Tarndanya), Dr Wylie knows that climate change is a health issue and believes that...

Dr Sophie Scamps MP

Dr Sophie Scamps is the Independent Federal Member for Mackellar on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Before being elected in 2022, Dr Scamps worked as an emergency doctor at Mona Vale Hospital and as...

Francis Nona

Mr Francis Nona is a descendant of the Dhoebow clan of Saibai Island and has strong ties to Badu Island in the Torres Straits. He is a lecturer and researcher at Queensland...

Dr Richard Denniss

Executive Director of the Australia Institute, Dr Richard Denniss is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and has spent the last twenty years moving between policy-focused roles in academia,...

A/Professor Chris Leung

A/Professor Chris Leung is a clinician-educator-researcher-advocator. For the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) he has been on the RACP College Policy and Advocacy Council (CPAC), where Climate Justice, First Nations Health...

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young

Since first being elected in 2007, Sarah has worked hard to represent her home state of SA and to give a voice to those who are too often forgotten in Canberra. Sarah...

Allegra Spender MP

Allegra Spender is an accomplished business leader, clean energy advocate, and the independent Federal Member of Parliament for Wentworth. With a background in economics from Cambridge and advanced studies at Harvard and...

Dr Jemesa Tedravu

Dr Jemesa Tudravu is the Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services, Fiji. He is an orthopaedic surgeon and health administrator. Dr Tudravu has 30 years of experience working in health services....

Dr Richard Brennan

Rick Brennan AO, MBBS, MPH, FACEM, FIFEM is an emergency medicine and public health physician specialising in humanitarian assistance, pandemic preparedness, and emergency management. He has experience in over 50 counties across...

Dr Carolyn Orr

Dr Carolyn Orr trained at the University of Glasgow, qualified as a physician and neurologist in Sydney, and has a PhD from the University of New South Wales in Parkinson’s disease. She...

Dr Aditya Vyas

Dr Aditya (Adi) Vyas MBBS MPH FAFPHM FHEA GAICD is a public health physician with expertise in health system climate resilience and environmental sustainability, global health, and medical education. He has deep...

Professor Steve Robson

Steve Robson is one of Australia’s foremost advocates for, and leaders in, health and health policy. He has been a practicing doctor for 35 years. Steve is a Professor of Obstetrics and...

Professor Stephanie Kelton

Stephanie Kelton is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Stony Brook University and a Senior Fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research....

Dr Louise Woodward

Dr Louise Woodward is a Northern Territory paediatrician living in Darwin who has grown frustrated by the lack of action on climate change and the wilful disregard of public safety by fossil...

Dr Helen Redmond

Helen Redmond is a rehabilitation medicine physician based in Sydney. She has been a member of DEA since 2006 and became a foundation member of the NSW Committee in 2010. She is...

A/Professor Ken Winkel

Associate Professor Ken Winkel, currently a teaching specialist within the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health (MSPGH), is the former Director of the Australian Venom Research Unit (AVRU) at the University...

Dr Cindy Needham

Dr Cindy Needham is a Research Fellow at Deakin University who transitioned from local government into academia, specialising in public health policy and systems science. She advises local governments, health services, and...

Professor Madeleine Skellern

Professor Madeleine Skellern is Director of the National Health, Sustainability and Climate Unit within the Interim Australian Centre for Disease Control, operating as part of the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability...

Dr Si Thu Win Tin

Dr. Si is the Deputy Director of the Public Health Division at the Pacific Community (SPC), leading health programs that support 22 Pacific Island Countries and Territories. He was previously a Research...

Dr Kristine Barnden

Kristine is an obstetrician based in Hobart. As a member of DEA, she has served as Tasmanian state representative to the DEA National Committee, as chair of the DEA Diet and Agriculture...

Dr Terry Slevin

Dr Terry Slevin is one of Australia's foremost experts on public health research and health promotion. He is a regular media commentator on all aspects of public health and cancer, ranging from...

Hamish Hudson

Hamish Hudson is known for his sharp wit and bent views on Australian life.As one the country’s top musical comedians, he has the ability to take you on a delightful journey from...

Leigh Ewbank

Leigh is acting deputy director of Solutions for Climate Australia (CANA) and a longtime grassroots activist. Leigh supports communities across the country to raise their voices and take action. Leigh has been...

Chris Post

Chris lives on a small farm with his partner and two of his three grown up kids. He has spent nearly 40 years working in community with a focus on people and...

Jess Border

Jess Border is Managing Lawyer of the WA Practice at EDO. Jess has been with EDO since 2022, and brings expertise from her early career in commercial law and litigation to the...

Kate Evans

Kate Evans is a Solicitor in the WA Practice at EDO. Kate has been working at EDO since 2023, with previous experience in the environment and planning team of a private firm,...

Ruby Hamilton

Ruby Hamilton is Special Counsel in the WA Practice at EDO. Starting at EDO in 2018, Ruby has worked in the WA team, including on uranium and forests matters, and in the...

Brett Morgan

Brett is a climate campaigner with an environmental humanities and financial services background, working to shift the flow of finance away from polluting business practices and into industries that will create a...

Dr Kim Loo

Dr Loo has been advocating for the environmental determinents of health since 2015.

April Crawford-Smith

April has a vision for empowered, creative, self-sustaining communities. Having worked in social and environmental justice for many years, April Co-Founded Pingala Community Energy, is currently Project Manager for The Valley Centre...

Christie Wilson

Christie Wilson is a Psychotherapist and the Climate Mental Health Manager at Psychology for a Safe Climate (PSC). She leads the Climate Café initiative, and professional development for mental health practitioners, as...

Dr Bronwyn Gresham

Dr Bronwyn Gresham is a Clinical Psychologist and CEO with Psychology for a Safe Climate. With experience spanning across the health, university and environmental sectors, Bronwyn understands the particular emotional, relational and...

Dr Mike Forrester

Mike is a paediatrician and a Senior Research Fellow with the Faculty of Health and The Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University, with a research focus on the comprehensive transition to...

Dr Kimberly Humphrey

Kimberly is an Emergency Medicine Specialist and Public Health medical consultant/Climate Change Lead at SA Health. A Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide, Kimberly also holds numerous committee roles within...

Helen Rawlinson

Helen is a retired public servant with over 20 years of perceiving the world through the complexity lens. She has a passion for transformation, sense making and holding spaces for emergence.

A/Professor Forbes McGain

Forbes is an anaesthetist and intensive care physician at Western Health, Melbourne, Australia, and an Associate Professor (Medicine) in the Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Melbourne and the School of...

Dr Shaun Watson

Dr Shaun Watson is a senior neurologist who works at the Prince of Wales Hospital and privately at Randwick and Norwest Specialist Services. He’s also the NSW Chair of Doctors for the...

Dr Angie Bone

Angie is an Associate Professor of Practice in Planetary Health at Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University. She is a senior Public Health Physician originally from the UK, with extensive experience in...