Kate Seear is a Professor, Australian Research Council Future Fellow and lawyer, based in the Deakin Law School, Deakin University. She is a leading expert on alcohol and other drug law and policy, and has written extensively about issues including harm reduction and the law; stigma and the law; and human rights and drug policy. She is the author of five books, including Law, drugs and the making of addiction: Just habits, which won the UK Socio-Legal Studies Association’s history and theory book prize. Kate is also the Deputy Chair of Victoria’s landmark Inquiry into Women’s Pain, and an invited member of the Victorian Women’s Health Advisory Council.

Charles is with the Burnet Institute in Melbourne as a community engagement coordinator contributing in community-research partnerships on national efforts in hepatitis C elimination. He is undertaking PhD qualitative research on service user experiences on long-acting injectable buprenorphine. He is one half of the harm reduction and drug policy consultancy 2SqPegs. Over the past 30 years, he has held several roles in Australia and New Zealand in peer-led drug user organisations with the objective of harm reduction, health rights and well being for people who inject and use drugs. Central in this work has been leadership and advocacy roles from a living experience perspective and he remains committed to the mission of improving the lives and rights of people who inject/use illicit drugs.

Sal-Amanda Endemann is a Peer Worker and HepLink Support Officer with the Northern Territory AIDS and Hepatitis Council (NTAHC), where she’s worked since 2021. She draws on over 30 years of lived experience as an IV drug user to support community members navigating hepatitis C through a harm reduction lens. Sal is passionate about quality of life, dignity, and connection — regardless of lifestyle or stage of use. She also works as an After-Hours Supervisor at an Indigenous-specific residential rehab where she was once a resident, mirroring her journey at NTAHC where she was once a client. Now in recovery, she remains deeply connected to the community, advocating for support without judgement or agenda. People who use drugs are her loved ones, friends, and family — and her work is rooted in that love and loyalty. Sal is proud to represent the NT and the lived/living experience community at Viral Hepatitis 2025.

Peta is a lived experience peer worker at Peer Based Harm Reduction WA. Peta has worked in mobile health clinics providing testing and treatment, developed and implemented HCV focused peer education projects, and provides HCV work force development training to other agencies as a part of WANADA’s HCV Care Capability Project.

Charles is with the Burnet Institute in Melbourne as a community engagement coordinator contributing in community-research partnerships on national efforts in hepatitis C elimination. He is undertaking PhD qualitative research on service user experiences on long-acting injectable buprenorphine. He is one half of the harm reduction and drug policy consultancy 2SqPegs. Over the past 30 years, he has held several roles in Australia and New Zealand in peer-led drug user organisations with the objective of harm reduction, health rights and well being for people who inject and use drugs. Central in this work has been leadership and advocacy roles from a living experience perspective and he remains committed to the mission of improving the lives and rights of people who inject/use illicit drugs.

Dr Elena Jeffreys (She/Her) is the advocacy manager at Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association. acquired Hep C in 1997, was treated with DAA’s in 2016 and has maintained a Sustained Virological Response since. Treatment changed her life, world politics stayed the same. Today Elena addresses proposed government regulation of the internet and argues our sector must protect health promotion falling foul of anti-porn sentiment.

Aleesha has a background in vaccine-preventable disease surveillance and outbreak response. Before joining Burnet, Aleesha worked with the Vanuatu Ministry of Health in the Surveillance, Research and Emergency Response Unit. She led the development and implementation of Vanuatu’s inaugural vaccine safety surveillance system which launched in 2021.