Chair 

Melissa Le Mesurier
Chair, VCCC Alliance Cancer Consumer Advisory Committee

Melissa Le Mesurier has a long-held passion for medical research. She was the founding Chair of the Royal Children’s Hospital Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust (1999-2009), which has raised more than $3m for research and funded about 20 clinical fellows.

In 2017, Melissa received an unexpected diagnosis of bladder cancer, and following successful treatment (thanks to early detection and participation in a clinical trial), her commitment to make a difference for other patients only grew. She became involved with the Australian and New Zealand Urological and Prostate Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP) and still serves on their Consumer Advisory Panel.

Speakers

Gillian Mason
Patient Advocate 

Gillian is a non-executive director, strategic leader, disabled healthcare consumer representative, clinician-researcher and science communicator. Her lived experience expertise and health system knowledge are built from over 20 years of accessing the health and social care programs and services across many settings, whilst working within some of them.

She has improved consumer participation across the organisations she has worked within, as well as found opportunities to make an impact as an individual consumer, contributing to health system change in her own time.

Associate Professor Eliza Hawkes
Lymphoma Lead at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Austin Health

Professor Hawkes is the Lymphoma Lead at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research & Wellness Centre, Austin Health and Associate Professor in the Lymphoma and Related Diseases Registry, School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne Australia.

After completing Medical Oncology training in Melbourne, she undertook a fellowship at the Royal Marsden Hospital, UK and doctoral studies at Melbourne University. She is founder and past president of the Australasian Lymphoma Alliance, chaired the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Trials Group Lymphoma Working Party from 2017-202.

Associate Professor Femke Buisman-Pijlman
Academic Director, Innovation and Quality, The University of Melbourne

Professor Femke is a leader in online education and curriculum development, specialising in continued education and has been awarded the South Australian Early Career STEM Educator of the Year - Tertiary Education and several teaching scholarships.

As the Academic program Director (health) at MSPACE, she supports a teaching portfolio for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Associate Professor Edwin Hawkins
Centre Head, New Medicine and Diagnostics, WEHI

Professor Edwin is a prominent leader in the field of immunology, focusing on understanding how immune signals are interpreted by lymphocytes to generate protective immunity. His work combines quantitative approaches, including computer models and single-cell imaging techniques, to study the immune response both in vitro and in vivo. Edwin heads a laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), where his team investigates how immune signals and genetic variations impact lymphocyte function and explores therapeutic interventions for immune disorders.

In addition to his role at WEHI, Edwin holds honorary academic positions at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and is the Theme Leader at The Dalgleish Centre for Myeloma and Related Blood Cancers.