Speakers

Cancer Council SA

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Dr Jennifer Baldock is a researcher in the Behavioural Research and Evaluation Unit at Cancer Council SA, with expertise in cognitive science, health equity, cancer survivorship, and mixed methods research. Her work focuses on improving cancer outcomes and service accessibility for priority populations whose needs are often under-recognised in mainstream cancer services — including people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, incarcerated South Australians, and people with intellectual disability.

She is currently a Chief Investigator on the MRFF-funded project co-producing cancer survivorship resources with and for people with intellectual disability, working alongside community researchers with intellectual disability. She holds an adjunct position with Flinders University.

University of Sydney

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Professor Haryana Dhillon is a Professor in Psycho-Oncology and Chair and Executive Director of the Psycho-Oncology Cooperative Research Group. They co-led the Co.21 CHALLENGE Trial In Australia.

Haryana has more than 30 years experience in cancer clinical research and is passionate about rigor in research, practical solutions to tricky problems, and doing what they can to help humans make it to the 22nd century.

University of Melbourne

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Mei Krishnasamy is Professor of Cancer Nursing at the University of Melbourne, Research and Education Lead for Nursing at the VCCC Alliance and, Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Health Services Research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She is an internationally recognised cancer nurse-researcher who has built a leading program of consumer-informed cancer supportive care research that has been translated into health policy. Her work is defined by a commitment to addressing equitable access to cancer care, with particular focus on older people and those with poor outcome cancers. She is past President of the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia and the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia and in 2022, was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

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Dr Julia Lai-Kwonis a Consultant Medical Oncologist and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Health Services Research in Cancer at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She practises clinically in melanoma and cutaneous malignancies having trained at the Royal Marsden Hospital (UK) and Melanoma Institute Australia.  Dr Lai-Kwon’s research focuses on embedding patient perspectives and experiences across research and routine care using patient-reported outcomes (PROs).  Her PhD (University of Melbourne, 2025) co-designed an electronic PRO system for monitoring immune checkpoint inhibitor toxicities.  She has published widely on survivorship, quality of life in metastatic cancer, and the use of PROs in research and routine care.  She leads Peter Mac’s PRO program, contributes to national policy through the COSA PRO Working Group, the Cancer Australia/Movember Real World Cancer Evidence Network Steering Committee, and the Cancer Quality of Life Expert Service Team Steering Committee, and is an active member of the EORTC Quality of Life Group.

Western Sydney University, NSW


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Dr Rosalie Power is a Senior Research Fellow at the Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University. Their research focuses on the health of underserved and marginalised populations, with a specialisation in sexual health, disability, and LGBTIQ+ health, using arts-based, mixed-methods, and co-creation approaches. Rosalie served as a Research Associate on the Australian Research Council Linkage-funded Out with Cancer Study, a four-year project examining LGBTIQ+ people's experiences of cancer survivorship and care.

Australian National University, ACT

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Associate Professor Ashley Schram is a public health and policy researcher in the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University. Her research examines the root causes of health inequities, using complex systems thinking and critical policy analysis to explore how governance, institutions, ideas, and power shape the conditions in which health and inequity are produced – and how those conditions might be transformed. Ashley will also speak from her lived experience as a metastatic breast cancer survivor. Her academic perspective profoundly shaped how she approached treatment and survival: exploring the root causes of her diagnosis and looking beyond any single site to consider the totality of medical care, biology, behaviour, emotional wellbeing, relationships, social conditions, and the environments in which healing takes place. Her experience has deepened her interest in holistic complex systems design and how healthcare systems can better support who is able to access the time, knowledge, resources and choices such an approach requires.

Patient Advocate

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Peter is a metastatic lung cancer patient diagnosed in 2021, and PhD student at the University of Technology Sydney with a particular focus on public involvement in cancer research. He has actively pursued opportunities to better understand his cancer and its treatments, and engage with clinicians, academics and researchers. He sees his role as bringing a better understanding of the practitioner/patient relationship, especially as it applies to cancer research. Peter is a member of Lung Foundation Australia’s Lung Cancer Consumer Advisory Committee, a recent graduate of two of the International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer STARS programs for Patient Research Advocacy, a member of the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia (TOGA) Consumer Panel, a member of the Australian Lung Cancer Conference Scientific Committee for 2027, and a participant in a variety of consumer events with a cancer research or cancer survivorship focus.

University of New South Wales.

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Professor David Thomas is the inaugural Director of the Centre for Molecular Oncology at the University of New South Wales and Chief Strategy and Science Officer at Omico. As a clinician-scientist, his focus is on the application of genomic technologies to the understanding and management of cancer, particularly sarcoma. He established the not-for-profit company, Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre, trading as Omico, to lead a national precision medicine program for patients with rare and early onset cancers.  He has over 300 research publications, including lead or senior author papers in Science, Cancer Cell, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Lancet Oncology.

Australian Research Centre for Cancer Survivorship
University of New South Wales

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Prof Janette Vardy BMed (Hons), FRACP, PhD is research lead of Health and Behaviour at the Australian Research Centre for Cancer Survivorship at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. 

She is a medical oncologist and served as Director of the Sydney Cancer Survivorship Centre at Concord Hospital for over 12 years. She founded and co-leads the Sydney Survivorship Research Group with Prof Haryana Dhillon. She is an International study co-chair and the Australian chair for the CHALLENGE study. Her research interests focus on survivorship issues, particularly cognitive function, physical activity and multidisciplinary delivery of care. 

Live Work Cancer

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Sue Woodall brings more than 30 years of executive leadership in procurement to her second career: advocating for people affected by cancer. She led Australian and global organisations, culminating in her appointment as NSW Chief Procurement Officer in 2018.

While in that role, Sue was diagnosed with breast cancer (ER+/HER2) in 2020, and the long-term impact of treatment led her to leave executive life in 2022.

In 2023, Sue founded LiveWorkCancer to create a supportive care pathway for people affected by cancer to stay connected with meaningful work, through coaching, peer support and employer education across Australia. In 2026, LiveWorkCancer became an ACNC-registered charity.

Sue is an active contributor to cancer survivorship research, most recently collaborating with Macquarie University, UTS and UNSW's ARCCS, on employment and caregiving, ensuring those with lived experience have the opportunity to participate in studies.

Sue has presented at MASCC/ISOO 2026 Annual Conference, and at Financial Counselling Australia 2025 conference. She has also presented several Posters at COSA, Cancer Survivorship and Cancer Institute NSW conferences.

Sue is a member of the COSA Financial Toxicity Working Group, a Consumer Representative and inaugural Consumer Advisory Group member for BCNA and MASCC Patient Partner. On behalf of LiveWorkCancer she recently made a submission, endorsed by Rare Cancers Australia and Redkite, for reform to Australia's employment standards for people with cancer.

Sue is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.