Dr Rohan Beresford

Rohan Beresford is an an infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist at the department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Concord hospital. He has an interest in the treatment of mycobacteria and fungal infections.

Professor Asha Bowen

Associate Professor Daniel Capurro

Professor Sharon Chen

Professor Sharon Chen is the Director, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services, Westmead Hospital, which incorporates the Clinical Mycology Reference Laboratory. She is also a Senior Staff Specialist in Infectious Diseases Her ongoing contributions to mycology stem from a PhD (2000) in molecular epidemiology and basic mycology on characterization of cryptococcal phospholipase and virulence which she has built on since. 

The current secretary and past co-chair of the Australia and New Zealand Mycoses Interest Group (ANZMIG), ASID, she has been on the steering committee for the inaugural and present national guidelines for antifungal drug use. She has collaborated with the European Confederation of Medical Mycology and ISHAM on guidelines for managing rare yeast infections, mucormycosis, candidiasis, and COVID-associated aspergillosis. She is a member/past Secretary of the Board, Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium and member of its Scientific Committee. 

Her interests are in novel diagnostics, drug resistance and epidemiology of fungal diseases. She is an investigator on several antifungal drug trials evaluating their efficacy, safety, and including use of various dosing regimens of new antifungals within existing, and novel, drug classes. She is the present Editor-in-Chief of Medical Mycology, the societal journal of ISHAM.

Dr Christopher Coulter

Dr Chris Coulter is medical microbiologist and infectious diseases physician. He is Director of the Qld Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory, (Pathology Queensland) a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre and SupraNational Reference Laboratory. He is medical lead for the Qld TB programme (Communicable Diseases branch, Dept of Health) and maintains clinical work in the area of mycobacterial diseases. He has served on various WHO groups regarding molecular diagnosis of TB, the setting of critical concentrations for new and repurposed anti-TB drugs and PkPd assessment of second line agents.

Associate Professor Gabrielle Haeusler

Associate Professor Gabrielle Haeusler is a paediatrician and infectious diseases physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She is also a post-doctoral researcher with the National Centre for Infections in Cancer (NCIC) and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI). Gabrielle’s program of research focuses on optimising infection prevention, diagnosis and treatment in children with cancer.

Associate Professor Sarah Kidd

Sarah Kidd is the Head of the National Mycology Reference Centre at SA Pathology, and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide. She has worked in medical mycology for 25 years, from her Honour’s research and PhD at the University of Sydney, and postdoctoral studies in Vancouver, Canada. She is a Fellow of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology and the Australian Society for Microbiology. 

Sarah co-ordinates the RCPAQAP mycology module, convenes the biennial Mycology Masterclass, and has recently been involved with the World Health Organization (WHO) Fungal Priority Pathogen List, and WHO Fungal Diagnostics Landscape expert groups. She has authored more than 100 journal articles, books and chapters, and was a recipient of the Howard Morris Quality Use of Pathology Award in 2023.

Dr Tony Korman

Tony Korman is Director, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases physician at Monash Health, Victoria's largest health service, and Adjunct Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University.

Professor Monica Lahra

Monica Lahra is a Senior Staff Specialist Microbiologist and Medical Director of the Division of Bacteriology and the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Sexually Transmitted Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance (WHO CC for STI and AMR) New South Wales Health Pathology, Microbiology based at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia. She completed her medical degree at the University of Sydney and trained in Microbiology at the Prince of Wales Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; then completed her PhD on intrauterine infections in pregnancy at the University of Sydney. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, and the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit. Her research focuses on epidemiology of infections with the pathogenic Neisseria spp. and antimicrobial resistance. She is a Conjoint Professor at University of New South Wales Medicine; and leads the team at the WHO CC for STI and AMR responsible for surveillance programmes for the pathogenic Neisseria spp. nationally and internationally. The WHO CC for STI and AMR is Australia’s National Focal Point and National Coordinating Centre for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System.

Cindy Lau

Cindy is the Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. She completed her PhD in antimicrobial toxicity and therapeutic drug monitoring. Her research interests include clinical implementation of antimicrobial therapeutic drug monitoring, and infections in immunocompromised hosts.

Kylie McIntosh

Dr Kylie McIntosh BPharm (Hons), PhD, is a pharmacist and pharmaceutical scientist with an interest in antimicrobial resistance and stewardship. After working as a pharmacist in hospital and community pharmacy, Kylie completed her Honours and PhD at Monash University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship as a drug development scientist in the Monash team working on a WHO international collaborative developing novel drugs to treat malaria. Over the last 20 years, she has worked on a variety of hospital quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, including working on AMR Awareness Week campaigns since 2012. 

Kylie is now the Principal Policy Advisor for Medicines at Safer Care Victoria and represents Victoria on the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care's Health Services Medication Expert Advisory Group and the Antimicrobial Stewardship Jurisdiction Network. She also has a keen interest in sustainability and the health impacts of climate change & is currently President of the Bayside Climate Crisis Action Group.

Elise Mitri

Elise Mitri is a Drug Allergy Pharmacist within the Antimicrobial Stewardship Team at the Centre for Antibiotic Allergy and Research and Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at Austin Health,Victoria. Elise co-ordinates the Austin Health inpatient antibiotic allergy delabeling service which aims to facilitate antibiotic allergy testing while concurrently optimising antimicrobial prescribing. 

Elise is the Project Manager for the International Network of Antibiotic Allergy Nations (iNAAN) study and is a PhD candidate at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne, examining implementation of multi-disciplinary health service antibiotic allergy programs.

Associate Professor Norelle Sherry

A/Prof Norelle Sherry is a medical microbiologist and infectious disease physician with special interests in antimicrobial resistance and pathogen genomics in clinical and public health microbiology. She is deputy director of the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory, member of the WHO Collaborating Centre for AMR at the Doherty Institute, and deputy chair of the Communicable Diseases Genomics Network.

Professor Andrew Steer

Professor Andrew Steer (MBBS BMedSci MPH FRACP PhD FAHMS) is Director of Infection, Immunity and Global Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Group Leader of the Tropical Diseases Research Group at MCRI (founded 2012). He is an Honorary Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne, as well as a paediatric infectious diseases physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Medical Sciences and was awarded the 2024 Sir Gus Nossal Medal for Global Health from the Australian Academy of Science. 

He has an established international profile in Strep A epidemiology and vaccinology, and in field trials for the control of neglected tropical diseases including rheumatic heart disease and scabies. Prof Steer is the originator of the human challenge model for Strep A pharyngitis. 

Professor Steer holds several international leadership positions related to Strep A and Strep This includes being President of the Lancefield International Society for Streptococci and Streptococcal Diseases, Co-Director of the Strep A Global Vaccine Consortium, and Co Director of the Australian Strep A Vaccine Initiative.

Dr Sophie Stocker

Dr Stocker, a Senior Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, Sydney University, also holds an Honorary Senior Hospital Scientist appointment at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Dr Stocker has experience in industry, healthcare and academia and her research focuses on understanding variability in response to medicines and how this can be managed to optimise patient care. Her research program involves the application of clinical pharmacology, pharmacogenomics, pharmacometrics, health service delivery and qualitative research to optimise medicine use in several therapeutic areas including anti-infectives, gout, diabetes and transplant. 

She is nationally and internationally recognised for her leadership in the implementation of precision dosing software and other precision medicine approaches. Dr Stocker has co-authored more than 120 papers and holds several committee positions in national and international societies.

Associate Professor Lars Westblade,
PhD, D(ABMM)

Lars Westblade is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medicine, and Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, US. He is also the Medical Director of the Clinical Microbiology Services at NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, US. He did his undergraduate and postgraduate training in biochemistry at the University of Birmingham, UK; followed by postgraduate training in molecular biophysics at Rockefeller University in New York City, US. He completed a fellowship in medical and public health laboratory microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, US.

Anita Williams

Dr Michelle Yong

Dr Michelle Yong is an Infectious Diseases Physician and Post-doctoral researcher at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and the National Centre for Infections in Cancer (NCIC), University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on CMV and viral infections in transplant and immune-compromised hosts, in particular, understanding CMV-related transplant outcomes and cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific immunity. Her PhD was undertaken at the Doherty Institute, Melbourne and Hopital Pitie-Salpetriere, Paris. She currently holds several competitive NHMRC and MRFF Australian grants and sits on a number of national and international guideline writing panels. She also co-leads a clinical trials unit exploring novel viral and fungal therapeutics.