The Speakers
Professor Brett Sutton
Professor Brett Sutton is Victoria's Chief Health Officer. The Chief Health Officer undertakes a variety of statutory functions under health and food-related legislation. He also provides expert clinical and scientific advice and leadership on issues impacting public health.
Professor Sutton has extensive experience and clinical expertise in public health and communicable diseases, gained through emergency medicine and field-based international work, including in Afghanistan and Timor-Leste. He represents Victoria on a number of key national bodies including the AHPPC (Australian Health Protection Principal Committee). He is also Chief Human Biosecurity Officer for Victoria. Professor Sutton has a keen interest in tropical medicine and the incorporation of palliative care practice into humanitarian responses.
Professor Sutton is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, a Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine and a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (AFPHM). He is also a member of the Faculty of Travel Medicine.
The Honourable Jaala Fulford
Jaala is a Member for the Western Victoria Region and is the Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small Business and Minister for Resources.
After serving as the first female Agriculture Minister; and Minister for Regional Development in the previous term of the Andrews Labor government, Jaala took on the role of Minister for Roads; Road Safety and the TAC; and the Minister for Fishing and Boating. In 2020 Jaala was appointed Minister for Employment; Small Business; Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, and Jaala was sworn in as Minister for Resources in August 2021.
Jaala has played a significant role in the government’s COVID-19 response, which has included record investment in small business support, massive investment in COVID-19 and other vital medical research, the establishment of the Australian Institute for Infectious Disease and support for local mRNA manufacturing. Jaala has overseen employment programs that are providing a career lifeline to thousands of Victorians displaced from work by the pandemic, while also supporting social enterprises and small to medium sized employers. Jaala has been a strong advocate for the innovation and tech sector, recognising the sector’s role in improving people’s lives and generating the jobs of the future.
During previous terms of government, Jaala oversaw significant reform including the establishment of Regional Partnerships and a medicinal cannabis industry, mandatory electronic tagging of sheep and Victoria’s first digital agriculture program, greater animal welfare protections and making Victoria a mecca for recreational fishers.
Jaala has been a Member for Western Victoria since 2006 after spending more than a decade as an official of the National Union of Workers. Having grown up in Castlemaine, she now lives in Ballarat with her husband, her son, two greyhounds, and the everlasting memory of her beloved daughter Sinead.
Professor Serena Spudich
Serena is Gilbert H. Glaser Professor of Neurology and Chief, Division of Neurological Infections and Global Neurology at Yale University. Her clinical and translational research explores effects of HIV and other viral infections in the nervous system, focusing on effects of acute infection, antiviral and immune treatments, and cure strategies on viral pathogenesis and persistence in the central nervous system (CNS). She collaborates with colleagues of multiple disciplines in studies in the United States and in international settings, exploring questions of inflammation, injury, and viral reservoirs within the central nervous system. She has been active in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Neurology and HIV Reservoirs and Eradication committees, co-leads the International NeuroHIV Cure Consortium, serves on the US DHHS Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines Committee, CROI Program Committee, and leads multidisciplinary projects addressing the pathobiology of HIV and SARS-CoV-2 in the CNS. She also is a neurology physician who cares for patients with viral infections and neurological disorders in clinics at Yale.
Professor Jenny Hoy
Prof Hoy has over 30 years’ experience in HIV clinical research and patient care, and established the Clinical Research Unit at The Alfred. Prior to this, she established and directed the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit from 1988-2008, building it into an internationally recognized research program.
She has been Principal Investigator for over 175 clinical studies at The Alfred and has collaborated widely on investigator-initiated pathogenesis studies.
Prof Hoy has been co-principal investigator on five large studies investigating ARV therapy and bone loss, including the SMART and START studies on which she was the Principal Investigator for Australia.
Prof Hoy has been a productive member of the IAS-USA Antiretroviral Guidelines Panel since 2012. Her current research interests include the comorbidities associated with ageing and HIV, especially bone and cardiovascular disease, and finding better ways to prevent and manage them.
Professor Mark Stoove
Professor Stoové is Head of Public Health, co-Head of the HIV Elimination Program at Burnet Institute where he also and heads research groups in HIV Prevention and Justice Health. He has undertaken research on the epidemiology and prevention of blood borne viruses and sexually transmitted infections and the health and wellbeing of affected populations for over 20 years. His research focuses is on generating evidence for effective public health policy and practice.
He has strong interests in developing novel and innovative approaches to epidemiological research to inform clinical and public health policy and practice He has led the development and maintenance of innovative sentinel surveillance systems for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and blood borne viruses in developed and low and middle income countries.
He has also led large bio-behavioural prospective cohort studies of people who inject drugs and other groups disproportionately affected by viral hepatitis, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. I has helped lead large-scale sexual health and sexually transmitted infection prevention program implementations and randomised controlled trials in Australia and low income settings internationally.
He has published over 200 peer reviewed paper and assumes various editorial roles for international peer review journal editorial roles as well as conference convening roles. Over the past five years he has attracted in excess of AUD$30 million in research funds as a lead investigator.
Dr Miranda Smith
Dr Miranda Smith is passionate about scientific communication and evidence-based public health interventions. She is the Project Officer for the Australian Partnership (for) Preparedness Research on Infectious (disease) Emergencies (APPRISE), and part of the HIV Cure Community Partnership. Miranda has a background in laboratory research, with a PhD in immunology from The University of Melbourne, and postdoctoral experience in basic and clinical HIV research at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland and at Monash University. She also holds a Masters in Public Health from Monash University, and has worked as a medical writer, including for the website hivcure.com.au.
David Menadue AO
David Menadue is a long term survivor with HIV having been diagnosed in 1984 and lived through numerous AIDS defining illnesses with no or ineffective treatments until the protease inhibitors arrived in 1996.
David helped establish People Living with AIDS Victoria - later Living Positive Victoria and was one of the first speakers from the Bureau to go out speaking to schools, Universities and health bodies about the virus. He took up leadership roles with local and National HIV organisations over three decades.
In 1995 David was awarded an Order of Australia for his work educating others about the virus.
Bev Greet OAM
Diagnosed with HIV in 1984 I was the first woman to be diagnosed at Fairfield hospital. In 1985 I joined the positive friends group where I was the only woman. In 1988 I co-founded Positive Women Vic.
I am also a founding member of PLWHA(People living with Hiv/Aids Vic ).
I have been in governance positions for many years of numerous peer support based oganisations: Founding member of NAPWHA(NationalAssociation of people living with Hiv/Aids including Femfatales, founding member of PATSIN(Positive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Network) with NAPWHA, founding member of ICW(International Community of women living with Hiv/Aids) as founding member of GNP+(Global Network of People with Aids).
In 1999 I was awarded an OAM for my voluntary service to Women living with Hiv/Aids.
As an Aboriginal woman I have worked in Community Controlled Aboriginal sexual health for 25 years .In 2014 I was awarded the Rodney Junga award for my services to ATSI (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sexual health.
In 2016 I was awarded life membership of VAC now Thorne Harbour
Carlos Araya
Carlos Araya is a 30-year-old pansexual man from Chile, who was diagnosed with HIV in 2020. Since then he has tried to contribute to the HIV community by sharing his experiences. Carlos expects to create safe networks, and hopefully increase positive representation of people living with HIV to inspire others that still struggle with HIV stigma