Meet the Speakers


Clinical Associate Professor Deborah Bateson

Clinical Associate Professor Deborah Bateson is Medical Director of Family Planning NSW and Clinical Associate Professor in the Discipline of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Neonatology at the University of Sydney. She has worked as a clinician, researcher, educator and advocate in sexual and reproductive health for 20 years and is a past-Chair of the Australasian Sexual Health Alliance. Deborah’s work focuses on contraception and abortion, HPV and cervical screening, and the genital microbiome including the management of bacterial vaginosis (BV). Deborah provides frequent expert commentary to the media on a wide range of women’s health issues.

Professor Catriona Bradshaw


Professor Catriona Bradshaw [MMBS(Hons), FAChSHM, PhD] is a clinician researcher and Head of Research Translation and Mentorship and Head of The Genital Microbiota and Mycoplasma Group at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Central Clinical School, Monash University and Alfred Hospital. Her programme focuses on translational research to improve treatment and control of Mycoplasma genitalium, an STI which has developed resistance to available therapies, and bacterial vaginosis (BV), a common dysbiosis that is refractory to current treatment and associated with adverse reproductive and sexual health outcomes. 


Associate Professor Eric Chow


Associate Professor Eric Chow is an STI Epidemiologist and Biostatistician based at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. He is currently the Head of the Health Data Management and Biostatistics Unit at MSHC and is an Associate Professor at Central Clinical School, Monash University. He is also an Honorary Principal Fellow at the Melbourne School of Population & Global Health, The University of Melbourne. Eric's research interests focus on STI epidemiology and prevention, with a particular focus in kissing, exploring mouthwash as a novel intervention for gonorrhoea and HPV vaccination.


Dr Ian Denham

Dr Ian Denham is the visiting Medical Officer at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. His presentation will explore and describe the available treatment options in cases where trichomoniasis persists after treatment. 

Dr Belinda Hengel

Dr Belinda Hengel is an early Career Researcher with the Surveillance, Evaluation and Research Program at the Kirby Institute at UNSW. She has worked alongside Aboriginal communities for 15 years, primarily focused on reducing STIs and improving reproductive and pregnancy outcomes for women.  

Dr Rhys Jones

Dr Rhys Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu) is a Public Health Physician and Senior Lecturer in Māori Health at the University of Auckland. As Director of Teaching and Learning, he oversees the Māori Health curricula across programmes in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. His research addresses Indigenous health and cultural safety in health professional education, and he recently led the international collaboration, Educating for Equity.

Associate Professor Lewis Marshall

Associate Professor Lewis Marshall is Head of Service at South Terrace Clinic - Sexual Health, Fremantle Hospital in Perth. 


Dr Teena Mathew

Dr Teena Mathew is a Sexual Health Physician working part-time at MidCentral DHB, Palmerton North, New Zealand. She is a General Internal Medicine registrar and the lead author of the New Zealand Sexual Health Society's (NZSHS) Syphilis in Pregnancy Guidelines. Teena is also the current Secretary for NZSHS.  

Conjoint Associate Professor Anna McNulty

Dr Anna McNulty is the Director of Sydney Sexual Health Centre, the largest public sexual health clinic in NSW. Dr McNulty is also a Conjoint Associate Professor at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at UNSW. Her research interests include bacterial sexually transmissible infections, marginalised populations and innovation in health service delivery. 

Associate Professor Clare Nourse

Associate Professor Clare Nourse is a Paediatric Infection Specialist at Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Paediatrics at the University of Queensland. She qualified in medicine from Trinity College Dublin and trained at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin, Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and Mater Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. Her particular interests are in tropical medicine, HIV and turberculosis (TB) infection and health in resource-limited countries. Clare travels regularly to Timor Leste and is a Board Director of Maluk Timor, a not-for-profit organisation in Dili, for whom she chairs the Medical Advisory Committee.

Associate Professor Jason Ong

Associate Professor Dr Jason Ong is a Sexual Health Physician and Health Economist based at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. His work focuses on the public control of sexually transmitted infections, and he is passionate about improving access to sexual health services in Australia and beyond.

Adjunct Professor Darren Russell

Adjunct Professor Darren Russell is a Sexual Health Physician and the Director of Sexual Health at Cairns Hospital. He holds the positions of Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at The University of Melbourne and Adjunct Professor in the College of Medicine and Dentistry at James Cook University in Cairns.Darren is a past-President of the Australasian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Victorian AIDS Council, and the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations. Darren was also the Principal Investigator for the Queensland HIV Prevention Study – ‘QPrEPd’. His interests include Indigenous sexual health, transgender health, and the elimination of Hepatitis C infection and HIV transmissions in Australia.


Associate Professor Louise Stone

Associate Professor Louise Stone is a Canberra GP with a clinical, research, teaching and policy interest in mental health and complex trauma. She has been Clinical Lead in two Masters of Psychiatry programs, from Monash University and NSW Health. She is currently a Clinical Associate Professor at the ANU Medical School where she works in the Social Foundations of Medicine Unit. Louise is also leading an international group of authors in writing a book on the sexual abuse of doctors by their colleagues, building on her research in this area.  


Dr Alison Ward

Dr Alison Ward is a Sexual Health Physician, who has trained and worked in Sexual Health Medicine in Australia, Singapore and the UK. She is currently Head of Unit at the Adelaide Sexual Health Centre.

Professor Deborah Williamson

Professor Deborah Williamson is a Clinical and Public Health Microbiologist, Deputy Director of the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory at the Doherty Institute, and Director of Microbiology at Royal Melbourne Hospital. Her research group at the Doherty Institute focuses on the application of genomic technologies to public health, with a strong focus on sexually-transmitted and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens.