Professor Rodgers has a track record in cardiovascular disease prevention, innovation and public-private partnerships, with an interest in scale-able interventions to address major risks to health. He is currently Acting Director of the Cardiovascular Division at The George Institute, Australia and Chair of Clinical Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of London.

After graduating in medicine in the United Kingdom he trained in epidemiology and public health in New Zealand. He was the Principal Author of the 2002 World Health Report, the main annual publication for WHO. Professor Rodgers has led developments of an affordable four-in-one cardiovascular combination pill ('polypill'). He led a clinical trial program in economically developed and developing countries, funded by the Wellcome Trust, European Union and others.  

Professor Rodgers also developed a world first cell phone based smoking cessation programme for youth, which disseminated proven health support messages in an age-appropriate, affordable medium.  Over 6,000 patients were involved in clinical trials that demonstrated a 50% increase in quit rates. The service has been rolled out by Departments of Health in NZ, UK and India, with over 2 million users to date. A follow-on program delivering cognitive behavioural therapy for depression prevention was successfully trialled among 1,200 at-risk teenagers.

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 Anna Palagyi is a health systems scientist with expertise in co-design methodology and implementation studies with mixed-methods evaluation. She holds positions as Program Lead - Ageing & Health Systems in the Centre for Health Systems Science at The George Institute for Global Health and Conjoint Associate Professor at UNSW Sydney.

Anna's research centres on the co-design of effective implementation strategies to strengthen primary health care services in resource-constrained settings of the Asia-Pacific region. She has a particular interest in the development of appropriate health system responses to population ageing: Anna previously implemented a national longitudinal study on aspects of healthy ageing in older Australians with cataract, and currently collaborates with governments, civil society organisations and academic institutions across several Pacific Island countries to identify national healthy ageing policy, program and service priorities.

Anna is committed to evidence-informed health policy and practice. She has a strong track record of partnering with government stakeholders in the design and implementation of policy-relevant research, has co-authored commissioned reports for government bodies and advocacy groups, and has produced policy briefs for government departments.

Bindu Patel is a Senior Research Fellow in the Health Systems Science division at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia, and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine at University of New South Wales.

Bindu leads programs evaluating implementation of health innovations to improve non-communicable disease (NCD) outcomes that include team-based models of primary care, institutionalisation of multisectoral collaboration and evidence based, cost-effective NCD interventions (WHO PEN). The evidence generated will be used to inform decision makers on strategies for long term adoption and scale up. Bindu has an interest in multisectoral approach to implementation of health innovations that address combination of social, physical, and behavioural determinants of health.  Her ultimate aim is to improve population health outcomes by eliminating disparities through achieving equity, efficiency and effectiveness of services, interventions, governance and policies.

Bindu has over 20 years of experience in epidemiological, health systems and clinical research in primary health care settings worldwide. She has a unique combination of theoretical knowledge, quantitative and qualitative methodological skills, quality improvement and implementation science expertise, complemented with extensive practical experience implementing interventional studies particularly complex health information technology.

Bindu’s educational background include a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health from University of Sydney, a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from Columbia University (NYC) and Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign.  

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.

Dr Kate Hunter, PhD, MPH is a senior research fellow with Guunu-maana (Heal), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health program at The George Institute and conjoint senior lecturer at the University of NSW. She is elected chair of Kidsafe NSW (2018-current) and an elected Executive member of the Australasian Injury Prevention Network (2019-current). Working at the knowledge interface – bringing together Indigenous and western knowledges - Dr Hunter’s expertise is in applying an equity lens across the injury prevention spectrum through the conduct and evaluation of complex community and hospital-based programs, ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices are central to her work.

Dr Hunter prioritises translational research. She has a track record in scale-up of successful programs, with her research being cited in policy and national guidelines. Dr Hunter is committed to supporting the next generation of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal researchers working in partnership with Aboriginal communities and organisations. She has supervised four Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD candidates to completion.