Speakers
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
The Oceania Tobacco Control Conference would like to thank the below speakers.
A/Prof Becky Freeman
Associate Professor Becky Freeman is an established global authority on the potential of the Internet to circumvent tobacco-advertising bans and enhance tobacco control efforts. As part of the Prevention Research Collaboration, she leads a program of research focused on countering the commercial determinants of health. She is a frequent commentator in the news media on tobacco control topics and the health impacts of advertising. She is the Chief Investigator of the Generation Vape research study.
A/Prof Raglan Maddox
Associate Professor Raglan Maddox’s (Bagumani (Modewa) Clans, Papua New Guinea) program of research has focused on developing and analysing population based Indigenous heath info-systems using community driven processes, focusing on commercial tobacco and nicotine use. This research has been generating primary data platforms and returning data to Indigenous communities to help better understand and improve Indigenous health and wellbeing.
A/Prof Michelle Kennedy
A/Prof Michelle Kennedy is a Wiradjuri woman raised on Worimi country. She is a Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle who partners with Aboriginal communities to place the power in their hands to address priority research areas. Michelle brings 19 year’s experience working with Aboriginal communities and Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing to the health research space to deliver health research that is appropriate, engaging and meaningful for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Michelle is leading the development of Indigenous-led evidence for smoking cessation care through the Which Way? Study. Her recent research includes the collective development and implementation of a multi-state mailout trial and group-based model of smoking cessation care for pregnancy and beyond. Michelle is the Assistant Dean Indigenous Strategy and Leadership for the College of Health Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle and the Research Advisor at the Lowitja Institute.
A/Prof Andrew (Anaru) Waa
Andrew Waa (Ngāti Hine/Ngāpuhi), is based at the Eru Pōmare Māori Health Research Centre, University of Otago. He is a Co-Director for ASPIRE Aotearoa. His research, evaluation and teaching work includes Indigenous health, public health, social sciences and tobacco control. He has worked as a public servant, consultant and academic. His current work includes Co-Principle Investigator for the Whakahā o te Pā Harakeke and Te Tupu o te Harakeke research programmes as well as a Co-Principle Investigator for the Ka Hao te Rangatahi research project. Andrew is a Deputy Editor for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, a member of Te Rōpū Tupeka Kore, a member of Hapai Te Hauora’s National Tobacco Control Advocacy Service Advisory group and a member of the Society for Research into Nicotine and Tobacco’s Indigenous Circle.
Tereapii Tumutoa
Mr. Tereapii Tumutoa is the current Manager of the Health Promotion Unit within the Ministry of Health, Cook Islands. His leadership in health promotion is driven by a commitment to fostering healthy lifestyles and creating environments that support the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of communities. Mr. Tumutoa is an advocate for youth engagement, championing activities that inspire young people to take active roles in their health and wellbeing. The Health Promotion Unit has launched several initiatives aimed at encouraging youth participation in health-related programs, sports, and educational activities, ensuring that the younger generation is equipped with the tools and support necessary to lead healthier lives.
Prof Pamela Ling
Dr. Pamela Ling is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco. Her research focuses on tobacco, media, social marketing, and young adults. The work includes analyses of thousands of previously secret tobacco industry documents detailing industry marketing strategies. Dr. Ling has special interest in the marketing of novel tobacco products including e-cigarettes, the global proliferation of U.S. tobacco marketing strategies, and using market research strategies to inform innovative clinical and public health interventions. She has contributed to three Surgeon General’s Reports on Tobacco and has been a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation since 2016. Dr. Ling has an active clinical practice in General Internal Medicine.
Melissa Davey
Melissa Davey is Guardian Australia's medical editor. She has completed a Masters of Public Health. She won a Walkley Award in 2019 for her investigation into a gynaecologist who harmed dozens of women, with her work triggering an independent inquiry into obstetric care in NSW. In 2023 the investigation she led into the science informing concussion in sport guidelines triggered an AFL inquiry and saw her and her colleagues win a Melbourne Press Club Quill award in the ‘Investigation’ category. She has also won awards from medical bodies like the Victor Chang Institute for her work reporting on rheumatic heart disease in Aboriginal children.
Prof Janet Hoek
Janet's first degrees were in English Literature. She also studied Botany, Zoology, Microbiology, and French – she is currently trying to regain her fluency in French. Her Honours research examined nineteenth century poetry and she explored irony in Beowulf, a very early medieval poem, in her Masterate thesis. She later completed a post-graduate diploma in marketing and her PhD examined question wording effects in surveys. Janet is co-Director of ASPIRE Aotearoa, a University of Otago Research Centre whose members undertake research into smokefree policy and the regulation of nicotine products. Janet has led several Health Research Council projects and is currently PI of the Whakahā o te Pā Harakeke programme, funded by the Health Research Council. Her work examining plain (or standardised) packaging and tobacco branding informed policy in New Zealand and internationally. She followed up this work by examining novel on-pack tobacco warnings and the impact of complementing on-pack warnings with efficacy messages. Janet has also undertaken several studies into vaping. She led a feasibility study assessing 'smart' e-cigarettes and explored whether and how people transition from smoking to vaping. She has also explored vaping uptake among people who smoke and young people who do not smoke, and she has tested strategies to encourage full transition from smoking to e-cigarettes among people who smoke deterring uptake among people who do not smoke. She received the 2022 Universities New Zealand Critic and Conscience of Society Award for her work documenting the harms vaping imposes on young people. She has also received funding from the Royal Society Marsden Fund. She led a project that critically evaluated tobacco industry arguments framing smoking as an “informed choice”. Subsequent work probed identity shifts among people moving from smoking to vaping, and becoming nicotine free. She has also worked on a Marsden study examining tobacco companies’ self-proclaimed “transformation”.Janet has been a member of several NGO and government advisory groups, provided evidence to government and Select Committees, and was a member of an Australian government expert advisory group overseeing the introduction and refreshment of plain packaging. She has sat on several research grant and selection committees, as well as strategy development and policy groups.
Shane Kawenata Bradbrook
Tribal affiliations: Tāmanuhiri, Rongowhakaata, Kahungunu
The tobacco industry is an impediment to meeting the dreams and aspirations of our indigenous ancestors. It is an industry that has maintained a presence despite over-whelming evidence that demonstrates it sells a product that addicts and kills its user. As such, the industry deserves to be dismantled and buried with the same cynicism and disrespect as it has shown for the millions of people’s lives that it has single-handily destroyed over the past 100 years. He is an astute change agent, innovator and creative that has consistently called out the tobacco industry for its self-serving existence. Shane is a passionate political advocate who seeks social justice for Māori through the removal of tobacco from the Māori & broader NZL communities. It is a commitment he made some twenty years ago. Progressing legislation, regulations & policy change through the NZL Parliament and relevant government departments. He was a key figure in leading the inquiry on the tobacco industry that ultimately led to a Smokefree Nation 2025. He brings a broad experience operating in development of the UN-WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, on the UN Ad Hoc Interagency Taskforce on Tobacco Control & developing an Agreement by the UN - WHO and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on tobacco use. Shane has worked with indigenous communities in Australia, Canada, USA and South America. He has also provided advocacy advice and support in the Pacific: Hawai’i, Tonga, Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Timor-Leste. Shane was awarded the prestigious Nigel Gray Award in 2009. He was the first New Zealand and indigenous recipient of this Award. He also received the Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health Fellowship and a Healthways Fellowship. Shane is a former participant in the International Visitors Programme – US State Department/Fulbright NZ: Washington DC Graduate School. Shane is currently a board member of the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (GATC).
Kylie Lindorff
Kylie is the Senior Advisor for National and International Tobacco Control Policy at the Cancer Council New South Wales. Kylie has been working in tobacco control for over 25 years, holding various positions within both government and non-government organisations. Kylie’s expertise and achievements have been recognised globally via various awards. In 2012 she was awarded a public service Australia Day award for her work in plain packaging, in 2017 she won the prestigious Nigel Gray Award for career achievement in tobacco control and in 2022 she won a WHO Western Pacific Region World No Tobacco Day award for her ongoing contribution to global tobacco control. Kylie’s areas of expertise include policy, public and political advocacy, legislative development and tobacco industry interference. She played a key role in the introduction of Australia’s world first plain packaging laws and worked intensively with colleagues in Ireland, the UK, New Zealand, France, Norway and Canada to assist them with progressing plain packaging. Until September Kylie was the long-standing Chair of the board of the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (GATC) and she is now the Treasurer. GATC is the international NGO that supports implementation of the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). As a recognised expert and leader internationally Kylie has also worked as a short-term advisor to the WHO and has been appointed to various FCTC working groups and experts groups