Program

Professor Lynne Turner-Stokes

Keynote speaker

DM FRCP MBE

Northwick Park Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, King’s College London Director, Regional Hyper-acute Rehabilitation Unit, Northwick Park Hospital

Lynne Turner-Stokes is a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine, Director of the Regional Hyper-acute Rehabilitation Unit at Northwick Park, and Professor at King’s College London. She leads the UKROC programme and has helped shaped UK rehabilitation policy over the last 30 years, publishing influential work demonstrating rehabilitation’s cost-efficiency and long-term savings.

Professor Natasha Lannin

Keynote speaker

PhD, BSc, GCIS, FAOTA, FOTARA 

Head, Brain Recovery and Rehabilitation Research, Heart Foundation Fellow, Chair (Research) Rehabilitation and Allied Health, Alfred Health, Monash University and Bayside Health (Alfred Care Group)

Professor Natasha Lannin is an internationally recognised rehabilitation researcher and implementation scientist whose work includes improving long term outcomes for people with ABI through a program of clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of rehabilitation and vocational interventions. She is currently coordinating the PI for a project piloting the Northwick Park Dependency Scale in inpatient rehabilitation with postdoc researcher Dr Amanda Baker. Professor Lannin’s work has directly informed service design, policy development, and implementation strategies across Australia and internationally.

Dr Angela Davenport

Invited speaker

Director of Nursing (ABI and Evolve), ABI Rehabilitation New Zealand Ltd

Angela Davenport is Director of Nursing at ABI Rehabilitation and an RN with more than 30 years’ experience, including leadership in acute neuroscience services. Her doctoral research explored how rehabilitation nurses document their contribution. She is Vice President of ARNA and co-leads neuro nursing education and professional development initiatives across New Z/ealand.

Dr Rachel Milte

Invited speaker

Dr Milte regularly undertakes economic evaluations alongside clinical trials, and is currently leading the economic evaluation component of many NHMRC/MRFF-funded clinical trials. She is currently supported by an Australian Research Council Industry Fellowship undertaking a project developing quality assessment for the aged care sector for people living with dementia.

Dr Bruce Powell

Invited speaker

Honorary Researcher, Monash University

Dr Bruce Powell is a former intensive care specialist and WA State Medical Director of DonateLife, now a writer, Headway UK Ambassador and Honorary Research Fellow at Monash University. Following a severe traumatic brain injury in 2018, he brings clinical expertise and lived experience to improving rehabilitation and care.

Dr Ng Yee Sien

Invited speaker

Dr Ng Yee Sien is Senior Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at the Singapore General Hospital. He is Associate Professor and Associate Dean at Duke-NUS Medical School, Lead Scientist at the Geriatric Education and Research Institute (GERI), and Senior Research Scientist at SingHealth’s Centre for Population Health Research and Implementation. His research focuses on neurorehabilitation, frailty prevention, muscle health, and life-space mobility. He advises the Ministry of Health on rehabilitation services in Singapore and Co-Leads the national One-Rehabilitation Strategy.

Dr Sue-Ann Davidson

Invited speaker

Honorary Research Associate

Sue-Anne Davidson is a manager, physiotherapist and researcher and leads CONNECT-CP, improving equitable access to early detection of cerebral palsy across Western Australia. CONNECT-CP connects clinicians, services and families in rural, remote and metropolitan communities, strengthens referral pathways and reduces geographical barriers to specialist care and support. 

Dr Kelly Dungey

Invited speaker

Rehabilitation Medicine Physician

Kelly Dungey is a Gold Coast-based Rehabilitation Medicine Physician focusing on neurorehabilitation with interests in Spinal Cord Injury, ABI, and Stroke. Kelly serves as Medical Director Rehabilitation for Gold Coast Hospital & Health Service (GCHHS) and Co-Chair of the Queensland Clinical Rehabilitation Network. She advocates for rehabilitation through her roles as Board Member for RMSANZ, Committee Member for the Queensland Branch of AFRM and on the Clinical Councils for the GCPHN and GCHHS. Her research collaborations with Griffith, Southern Cross, La Trobe, and Western Sydney Universities, across topics from sexual wellbeing post acquired neurological injury or illness, the use of co-design in developing interventions within rehabilitation, to use of brain computer interface integration into rehabilitation technology, and she supervises Rehabilitation Medicine Advanced Trainees and Medical Doctorate candidates’ research projects. Kelly is passionate about outcome measures with research in adverse outcomes during inpatient rehabilitation admissions, and is Co-Chair for the Australian Stroke Coalition Stroke Rehabilitation Taskforce and the ACHS Rehabilitation Clinical Indicators Multidisciplinary Working Group.

Tara Alexander

Invited speaker

AROC Senior Research Fellow and Data Manager, AROC

Tara Alexander is the AROC Senior Research Fellow and Data Manager. Tara has over 30 years experience working in health data and research. 

Hannah McGhee

Qld Rehabilitation Clinical Network Coordinator, Clinical Excellence Queensland | Queensland Health

Hannah McGhee is the Coordinator of the Queensland Rehabilitation Clinical Network within the Healthcare Improvement Unit, Clinical Excellence Queensland. Prior to working in project and system improvement roles, she was a speech pathologist working across Southeast Queensland. Hannah has a strong interest in rehabilitation, stakeholder engagement, and improving health services through evidence-based practice and collaboration.

 

Sally Nicklin

Clinical Lead, Redcliffe Hospital and Project Lead, Clinical Excellence Queensland | Queensland Health

Sally Nicklin is an Occupational Therapist - Clinical Lead at Redcliffe Hospital and Project Lead for the In-reach Rehabilitation Toolkit within the Healthcare Improvement Unit, Clinical Excellence Queensland. Drawing on rehabilitation experience across Queensland Health and the UK NHS, she led development of the Toolkit to support evidence-informed rehabilitation in acute settings.

Dr Dane Halliwell

Psychologist, Bendigo Health

Dr Dane Halliwell is a psychologist with nearly 20 years’ experience across military, occupational and clinical rehabilitation, including pain and neurological rehabilitation at Bendigo Health since 2014. He holds a PhD in Business Psychology and postgraduate qualifications in behavioural economics and statistics, with research focused on understanding and predicting healthcare engagement.

Owen Howlett

Occupational Therapist, Bendigo Health

Owen Howlett is an Occupational Therapist working in an adult outpatient rehabilitation service. His clinical interests include supporting individuals to optimise participation, function, and quality of life through evidence-based rehabilitation. Owen combines clinical expertise with academic and research skills, with a focus on research translation, capacity building, and improving outcomes.

Johanna Goodwin

Physiotherapist, Bendigo Health

Johanna Goodwin is a Physiotherapist working in an adult neurorehabilitation service. She is passionate about delivering evidence-informed, person-centred care. Johanna values the collaboration of multi-disciplinary teams to optimise patient outcomes, support sustainable healthcare behaviour change, and drive meaningful improvements in rehabilitation practice and service delivery.

Dr Laura Jolliffe

Allied Health Research Lead, Bayside Health

Laura is an occupational therapist and allied health research lead at Bayside Health, Peninsula Care Group. Her research interests include novel models of rehabilitation delivery, quality of stroke rehabilitation and implementation of best practice care.  

Dr Jessica Nolan

Senior Lecturer (Teaching and Research), Curtin University

Jess works at Curtin University in WA. She is an early career researcher, with a long clinical background as a physiotherapist. She is a World Stroke Organisation Future Leader, member of the WSO Rehabilitation Committee, Secretary of the ANZSO Emerging Stroke Clinician Scientist Committee and member of the Stroke Foundation Living Guidelines working group.