Senior Research Fellow and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University

Dr Jocelyn Jones is a Nyoongar woman, with Wadjuk, Ballardong and Palyku connections to the land in Western Australia (WA). She has extensive experience working in health and justice, in both Aboriginal community controlled health services and in senior management positions in the Department of Health in WA. Jocelyn holds a Doctorate in Philosophy and a Masters in Applied Epidemiology. She is an early career researcher and in the last 10 years has made significant contributions to Aboriginal health and social wellbeing through her work with Aboriginal prisoners and juvenile justice. Jocelyn has participated in, and led, high quality research projects, and has played a key role in overseeing data analyses, interpretation of results, conceptualisation of publications and dissemination of results. She is leading the adaptation of a mainstream high intensity violence program for incarcerated women. The program titled Beyond Violence was developed in the US, and Jocelyn is responsible for adapting the program to ensure it is culturally safe for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. She has also been key to consultations and negotiations with other Aboriginal leaders in the community around elements of various research projects. Jocelyn has mentored and built capacity of non-Aboriginal researchers through provision of cultural mentorship. Her expertise in the prison health system has been acknowledged through her ongoing involvement in Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services prison inspections as an expert health consultant, and she advises government through her membership on the National Prisoner Health Data Collection committee. Jocelyn is a current member of the Ombudsman’s advisory group, and volunteers as an official visitor for the WA Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services.

Head, Justice Health Unit, University of Melbourne

Head, Justice Health Group, Murdoch Children's Research Institute

Professor Stuart Kinner is Head of the Justice Health Unit at The University of Melbourne, and Head of the Justice Health Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He holds Honorary appointments at Monash University, The University of Queensland, and Griffith University, and in 2019 was a Visiting Professor at The University of British Columbia in Canada. He is experienced in longitudinal studies, multi-sectoral data linkage, randomised controlled trials, program evaluation, policy analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis. He has produced >250 publications (including 176 peer-reviewed papers) and attracted >$26 million in research and consulting funds, mostly from nationally competitive schemes. His work has influenced policy reform in the youth justice, corrections, mental health, alcohol and other drug, and disability sectors. Stuart Chairs Australia’s National Youth Justice Health Advisory Group, and the WHO Health in Prisons Programme (HIPP) Technical Expert Group. He serves on a number of state, national, and international committees including the WHO Steering Group on Prisons Health, the Worldwide Prison Health Research & Engagement Network (WEPHREN) Steering Committee, the Australian Child Rights Taskforce, and the Victorian Department of Justice Human Research Ethics Committee.

Assistant Director and Research Lead, National Centre for Cultural Competence, The University of Sydney

Associate Professor Megan Williams is the Research Lead and Assistant Director of the National Centre for Cultural Competence at The University of Sydney. From 2017 to early 2020 she was Head of Girra Maa, the Indigenous Health Discipline at the Graduate School of Health, UTS. Megan is Wiradjuri through her father’s family and has over 20 years’ experience working on programs and research to improve the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system. Megan has government and industry funding and collaborations for research, including about health service delivery, workforce development and facilitation of community driven research. For program evaluation Megan uses her Ngaa-bi-nya (said naarbinya) Aboriginal framework published in the Evaluation Journal of Australasia. Megan is Chair of the Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network Human Research Ethics Committee and a trained Aboriginal Family Wellbeing Program facilitator. Being active in research translation, Megan has conveyed Indigenous people’s research, stories and expertise to professional bodies, communities, parliamentarians, students and the media. Megan is a Director and contributing editor of health media organisation Croakey.org, and Associate Editor of Health Sociology Review. She is affiliated with UNSW’s School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNE’s Centre for Rural Criminology and the Sydney Institute of Criminology. Her research projects and outputs are here: https://meganwilliamswulanha.com.au

Professor and Program Head, Justice Health Research Program, The Kirby Institute 

Since completing my PhD into the epidemiology of prisoner health, I have continued to conduct research into offender populations.  I have conducted numerous studies examining the health of adult and juvenile offenders and have co-authored many peer-reviewed journal articles on the health of offenders.  Areas of interest include: mental illness, the role of traumatic brain injury in offending behaviour, blood-borne viral infections, smoking cessation, health surveillance, the development of health indicators for prisoners, sexual health, and violence (including domestic violence).  The Justice Health Research Program (JHRP) has an interest in the ethics of offender health research and examining the public’s views of offenders.  We are currently undertaking a randomised control trial of a pharmacotherapy for impulsive-violent offenders.  I currently lead the NHMRC Australian Centre of Research Excellence in Offender Health.

Co-Convenor, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health SIG, PHAA

Michael is a Bardi Aboriginal man, the Bardi people are from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research Excellence in Indigenous Health and Alcohol, in the Discipline of Addiction Medicine at the Central Clinical School. His research focuses on alcohol and other drug treatment for men involved in the criminal justice system.

Justice Health Research Program, School of Population Health, NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Offender Health, UNSW 

Paul is a research fellow of the Justice Health Research Program at the School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney, and the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Offender Health. His research activities, both quantitative and qualitative, have centered on health, marginalisation, and ethics among justice system involved populations with a focus on violence, sexual health, infectious disease in prisons, and prison alternatives. He has an interest in advancing deliberative research methods within the justice health field having conducted various national deliberative forums with diverse stakeholders including, the public, incarcerated people, prisoner health service directors, and government, consumer and NGO stakeholders.

CEO, Public Health Association of Australia

Terry Slevin has been Chief Executive Office for the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) since May 2018.  He is Adjunct Professor in the School of Psychology at Curtin University an Adjunct Professor in the College of Health and Medicine at the Australian National University.  He is a Fellow of PHAA and was the first Vice President (Development) of the Association.

Adj Prof Slevin is a regular media commentator on all aspects of public health and cancer, ranging from causes and early detection, to broader chronic disease prevention including nutrition, physical activity, weight control, alcohol, sun protection and gun control.  He also has a special interest in Occupational and environmental cancer risks.

Until April 2018 he was Director, Education and Research at Cancer Council WA where he worked since 1994. Mr Slevin holds a Masters in Public Health and an Honours degree in Psychology.

As well as serving as Chair of Cancer Council Australia’s Occupational and Environmental Cancer Risk Committee, Mr Slevin has previously chaired Cancer Council's Skin Cancer Committee and was founding Chair of Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee, where he served for 10 years.  He has contributed to the planning of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) World Cancer Congress from 2012 to 2016 and was Co Chair of the Scientific Committee for the World Cancer Congress in Kuala Lumpur in 2018.

He is the editor of a book on skin cancer Sun, Skin and Health, released by CSIRO Publishing in 2014 and has published over 70 papers in the peer reviewed literature and a series of 15 articles on cancer myths.  

His current focus is on promoting evidence based public health policy in Australia with a focus on equity and improved health outcomes for the most disadvantaged Australians.

University of Melbourne

Melissa Willoughby is an early career researcher specialising in violence prevention and the health of marginalised populations with expertise in quantitative and qualitative methods. She is a PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne examining violence-related deaths and morbidity among adults and young people involved in the criminal justice system. She is supervised by Professor Stuart Kinner, Associate Professor Rohan Borschmann, Associate Professor Matt Spittal and Dr Jesse Young. Melissa is supported by a competitive National Health and Medical Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship. She also holds a Research Assistant position at the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

PhD MPH BSc

NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne
 

Dr Jesse Young is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow in the Justice Health Unit at The University of Melbourne specialising in psychiatric epidemiology with leading expertise in data linkage methodology. He holds Adjunct positions at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia, and the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University. He is a member of the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare’s National Prisoner Health Information Committee and Technical Expert Group. Since 2014, Dr Young has authored over 100 scholarly works including 61 peer-reviewed publications. His research has been cited in and informed national and international guidelines for the treatment of substance use disorder, the prevention of overdose, access to health services for people released from prison, and pandemic management and preparedness. In recognition of the quality and impact of his work, Dr Young was conferred the 2020 Victorian Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research in Public Health Research.