Climate change is a defining public health challenge for our generation and beyond. Find out how Australia has progressed on this issue and the action needed to prevent further risks to human health at our free launch event.
The panel discussion will conclude at 7:00 pm, and we invite you to stay on to enjoy canapes while networking with colleagues and friends.
*The Lancet Countdown works to ensure that health is at the centre of how governments understand and respond to climate change. Their work ranges from ensuring policymakers access high-quality, evidence-based guidance to providing the health profession with the tools they need to improve public health.
In 2014, her international peers voted her one of the world’s most influential female leaders in global health. Her interests are in the political economy of health equity; governance related to the social determinants of health inequities; trade and investment, food systems, urbanisation, climate change.
Hilary is Director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University in Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country (Canberra). She is an environmental epidemiologist and bioanthropologist researching the health impacts of global heating, especially on more vulnerable populations, and has expertise in the development, implementation and evaluation of adaptation strategies.
She has consulted for WHO and UNDP on climate adaptation strategies for health, and she led the health impacts assessment for Australia’s national climate change review (The Garnaut Review, 2008) and previously worked as the Head of the School of Public Health and Social Work at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
One of Australia’s most highly-qualified doctors, Professor Steve Robson has been practising medicine for 35 years.
A Professor at the Australian National University Medical School, Steve works in both public and private practice in Canberra.
Steve is passionate about equitable access to healthcare, the economics of preventive care, and the mental health and wellbeing of doctors. He holds two research doctorates and master’s degrees in public health and genetics. He is currently researching the effects of socioeconomics on access to healthcare.
Professor Robson first joined the AMA in 1984 as a medical student in Queensland. He has served as ACT President and is in his fifth term on the AMA ACT Board and is a Federal Councillor.
Dr Jacqueline Small
In May 2022 Jacki assumed the Presidency of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Jacki qualified as a paediatrician in 1997. For over 25 years she has worked in multidisciplinary disability health teams that provides care across the lifespan for people with developmental disabilities. Her role has involved provision of clinical care for young children suspected to have a disability, older children with severe and complex conditions associated with their disability and transition to adult health services.
She was President Australian Association Developmental Disability Medicine (AADDM) from 2015-2021. Other leadership roles include membership of both state and national intellectual disability strategic and COVID pandemic response initiatives.
Dr Alice McGushin
Dr Alice McGushin is a public health registrar based in East of England and has been working in health and climate change for almost 13 years.
Alice was the Programme Manager for the Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change and is co-author of the annual global, Australia, and China reports, as well as other publications. She also works as Technical Expert to the Greener NHS, supporting England’s National Health Service in its international collaborations and work on air pollution.
Alice trained as a doctor in Tasmania and Western Australia, whilst working with Doctors for the Environment Australia and the Australian Medical Students’ Association. She has also worked with several other actors, including the World Health Organization, the World Organization of Family Doctors, and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
Dan Ilic
‘Investigative Humourist’ Dan Ilic is one of Australia’s most prolific comedy voices, known for his work across TV, film, radio and stage.
Host of the popular podcast and live comedy show A Rational Fear, Dan brings together industry leaders, journalists, comedians and politicians, to use comedy to explore big issues such as climate change, press freedom and the intersection of culture and the internet. A Rational Fear won Best Comedy Podcast at the Australian Podcast Awards in 2020 and 2021.
Known for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to shame the Australian Government’s record on climate action in Times Square, New York City before the Glasgow climate talks in 2021.
Assoicate Professor Aparna Lal
Aparna is an ecologist and public health scientist interested in how the influence of environmental variability, including past and future environmental change, affects the geographical and seasonal patterns of infectious disease spread. As a mother of three young children, she is passionate about communicating her science to the next generation.
Aparna's research focuses on how the physical environment, broadly defined, impacts human health and well-being. Her projects combine public health surveillance with remote sensing, and land and water quality monitoring data to quantify, monitor and understand the processes that shape disease patterns.
Francis Nona
Francis Nona is a proud Badulaig man from the Torres Straits who is a lecturer and researcher at The University of Queensland’s School of Public Health. His work in the School is informed by a strong cultural upbringing, balanced with a career as a Registered Nurse and Director of an Indigenous community controlled health service.
He brings to academia a strong understanding of cultural engagement and protocol from his Country, an understanding of the health system as it applies to First Nations and other Australians. His non-traditional academic path has been developed recently with strong outputs for community engagement and an emerging academic track record, particularly regarding climate change impacts on health in the Torres Straits in terms of food security and infectious diseases.
Mr Nona holds a Masters of Public Health.
Dr Kerryn Coleman
Dr Kerryn Coleman is the ACT’s Chief Health Officer, she was appointed to the role in December 2019. Dr Coleman leads the Population Health Division, within the ACT Health Directorate, which provides a range of services and programs aimed at improving the health of the ACT population through interventions which promote behaviour changes to reduce susceptibility to illness; alter the ACT environment to promote the health of the population and undertake interventions that remove or mitigate population health hazards.
When Dr Coleman took on the role of ACT Chief Health Officer in 2019, unprecedented bushfires and smoke, followed immediately by an international pandemic were not on her to-do list. But Dr Coleman has taken it in her stride and is taking many of the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 response into future planning for other public health risks and hazards that may arise in future.
Professor Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery is one of Australia’s leading writers on climate change. An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, Professor Flannery was named Australian of the Year in 2007.
Professor Flannery has held various academic positions including Professor at the University of Adelaide, director of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum and Visiting Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.
A well known presenter on ABC Radio, NPR and the BBC for more than a decade, he has also written and presented several series on the Documentary Channel including The Future Eaters (1998), Wild Australasia (2003), Islands in the Sky (1992) and Bushfire (1997). His books include Here on Earth (2010) and The Weather Makers (2005).
His latest book is ‘Life: Selected Writings’.
Sharon is an ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor of Health Equity and Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Governance at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia and co-Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity.
