Bryce Cawte is a proud Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri young man through his mother’s side, and Wirangu, Kokatha, and Mirning through his father’s. With a strong passion for teaching the next generation, Bryce shares deep cultural knowledge of traditional practices, woodcarving, and colonial history. His work aims to revive cultural practices and spark meaningful conversations about identity, resilience, and the survival of First Nations cultures.

Emma is the President of the Australasian Sexual Health & HIV Nurses Association. She is an endorsed Nurse Practitioner, HIV S100 prescriber and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner working in a regional Sexual Health & BBV service. She is enthusiastic about promoting innovative practice, person-centred care, and nurse-led research.

Michael is undertaking a PhD at the Burnet Institute, with a focus on STI epidemiology and prevention among gay and bisexual men in the era of PrEP. Michael's research involves using sentinel surveillance data to monitor epidemiological trends in HIV and STIs and to evaluate large-scale public health interventions.

A/Prof James McMahon, is ASHM President. James is also Head of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit at the Alfred Hospital and an Infectious Diseases Physician at the Alfred and Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne, Australia. He is a clinical researcher with research interests in HIV cure, HIV treatment and the cascade of HIV care. He also leads research in COVID-19 focusing on the best vaccination strategies and the immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination and infection in diverse populations including people with HIV. He has 20 years of clinical experience in HIV and Infectious Diseases and is a current member of the board’s Finance, Risk Management and Audit Sub-Committee and the ASHM HIV National Board Advisory Group.

The Hon. Ian Hunter MLC is a member of the Legislative Council in the South Australian Parliament. He attended Flinders University, where he studied microbiology and genetics. While at university Ian became the president of the Flinders University Gay Society and helped found the South Australian AIDS Action Committee (later named the South Australia AIDS Council). He was instrumental in the success to include sexuality as a ground for discrimination in the Equal Opportunity Act 1984. As the first openly gay member of the South Australian Parliament, Ian continues to advocate for LGBTIQ issues, including same-sex marriage, gender-affirming care and banning conversion practices,

Rita is a New Zealand trained plastic and reconstructive surgeon who subspecialises in breast cancer reconstruction and gender affirmation surgeries. After qualifying as a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeon, Rita undertook gender fellowships in Bangkok, Gent, Amsterdam and Belgrade. In 2019, Rita was contracted by NZ Ministry of Health to provide gender affirming genital surgeries to a long waitlist of patients., thanks to an injection of funding from Health NZ 2018 budget. This leads to the setting up in 2020 of the current Te Whatu Ora Gender Affirming Genital Surgical Service (GAgSS). GAgSS development and service delivery is informed by its multidisciplinary team, made up of clinicians from different sectors of trans healthcare. Currently Rita is the only specialist provider of genital affirmation surgeries in NZ. The GAgSS surgical team is based in Wakefield Hospital, Wellington.

Shivani Pasricha is a microbiologist and team leader at the University of Melbourne, Doherty Institute. Her team utilises advanced molecular and genomic approaches to improve the detection, prevention, and surveillance of STIs. Bridging laboratory innovation with real-world clinical applications, Shivani is leading the development and evaluation of CRISPR-based point-of-care diagnostics for STIs.