Blake is a health economist holding positions as Program Lead – Health Workforce economics in the Centre for Health Systems Science at the George Institute for Global Health and Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney. He is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow with expertise in health economic evaluation, health systems research and discrete choice experiments. Blake’s research examines the better use of economics in health policy, specifically focusing on vulnerable populations around the world. He has health policy experience having previously held positions at the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (Senior Economist, 2013-2017) and the NSW Treasury (Policy Analyst, 2011-2013). He currently serves as an Economics expert on the Evaluation Sub-Committee of the Medical Services Advisory Committee providing economic advice on funding applications to Medicare. Blake is involved in a number of international collaborations: he worked on the core team of the Lancet Nigeria Commission and is the lead technical advisor on discrete choice experiments for the health stream of research under the Anti-Corruption Evidence Consortium funded by UK aid.

Dr Trieu is a leading expert in global food policy and sodium reduction, currently serving as the Co-Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Population Salt Reduction at The George Institute for Global Health. With a distinguished career in public health, Dr Trieu has advanced nutrition policies and programs aimed at reducing diet-related diseases worldwide, particularly among disadvantaged populations.

Dr Trieu holds a PhD in Medicine from The University of Sydney, Australia and has received several prestigious fellowships, including the NHMRC Early Career Fellowship and the National Heart Foundation of Australia Postdoctoral Fellowship.

As Program Lead - Nutrition Implementation Research at The George Institute, Dr Trieu plays a pivotal role in shaping effective food policies and innovative nutrition programs. Her work focuses on the practical application and implementation of evidence-based nutrition approaches. This includes leading a program of work to change the world’s salt supply from regular to potassium-enriched salt as a strategy to reduce cardiovascular diseases.  As well as developing and adapting Food is Medicine programs for disadvantaged communities in Australia. Her expertise extends internationally, providing guidance and support to many low- and middle-income countries in implementing evidence-based strategies for better health outcomes.

In addition to her research, Dr Trieu serves as a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, The University of New South Wales, where she contributes to the academic development of future public health leaders.

Dr Trieu continues to make significant impact on improving global nutrition and reducing the burden of diet-related diseases through strategic policy and research.

Julie Brown heads the Injury Program at The George Institute for Global Health, Australia, is Co-Director of the Transurban Road Safety Centre at NeuRA, and Professor, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney. She works across the continuum of the public health model from defining problems, identifying risk and protective factors, developing and testing interventions to monitoring and evaluating the implementation of interventions designed to reduce the burden of injury, and has demonstrated expertise in multi-disciplinary research methods. Her career vision is to reduce the health burden attributable to injury by delivering tangible ways to prevent road crash-related injury and unintentional injury more broadly. Prior to completing her PhD at UNSW in 2008, she worked for >20 years in vehicle and equipment safety research and policy development for the NSW government. Insight into research needs for regulatory and policy development from this experience continues to frame her research.

Dr Julieann Coombes identifies as a Gumbaynggir woman and highly skilled career professional with over 27 years nursing experience working in Aboriginal Community Health. She now focuses on improving health inequalities and outcomes for First Nations people and communities through research using Indigenous Knowledges (knowing, being and doing) and methodologies which empowers First Nations people’s voices in all her work. She has extensive experience in social and cultural determinants of health research, Indigenous methodologies and applies decolonising methods to all her research projects. Julieann has a commitment to ensure that all research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is conducted in an ethical correct way and research integrity should be underpinned by equity, transparency, and self-determination.

Her work in Indigenous research methods, public health knowledge and qualitative research, work which is published, has been cited in policy, media, and academic publications.

Julieann received her PhD at University of Technology, Sydney and is a Senior Research Fellow for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at The George Institute for Global Health.