Director, Cancer Control Policy, Cancer Council Australia

Conference Co-Chair 2025

Megan Varlow is the Director, Cancer Control Policy at Cancer Council Australia, responsible for the development of national policy and advocacy for its implementation.

After training as a psychologist, Megan was endorsed in clinical and health psychology and spent ten years in clinical environments working mostly with people living with chronic diseases and serious mental illness. Frustrated by the systemic factors that confounded an individual’s experience of chronic illness, Megan then worked in an academic clinical research unit and subsequently moved to NSW Health where she spent almost eight years at the Cancer Institute NSW, the NSW government’s cancer control agency.

Megan is passionate about lessening the impact of cancer on all Australians, and is especially interested in reducing the inequalities in cancer outcomes experienced by people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, regional and remote, lower socio-economic and migrant communities.

Megan is available for interview to discuss Cancer Council Council Australia’s advocacy and policy priorities, informed financial consent, out-of-pocket costs, and the physical, emotional and financial impact of cancer.

National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health, Australian National University

Conference Co-Chair 2025

Dr. Maddox’s (Modewa Clan, Papua New Guinea) program of research has focused on developing population based Indigenous heath info-systems using community driven processes. This research has been generating primary data platforms to better understand and improve Indigenous health and wellbeing, including mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health. Such health information systems work with Indigenous communities and service providers to obtain information to better understand, inform and evaluate programs and policies. His program of research has included a strong focus on tobacco use, evaluation and having strengths-based conversations about respectful relationships and preventing domestic violence.

General Manager – Policy, Advocacy & Prevention Programs

Lung Foundation Australia

As General Manager, Policy, Advocacy and Prevention, Paige is responsible for leading the strategic advocacy efforts for the organisation to guide policy decision-making and improve the outcomes for Australians living with, or at risk of, lung disease. Her teams’ focus is on the prevention and early detection of lung disease, while continuing to strongly advocate for equitable access to services, support, and research investment. Paige holds a Master of Public Health and a Bachelor of Health Sciences from the University of Queensland. She has held several roles across the NGO sector, including previous work in health promotion programs, policy, advocacy and research. Paige holds an adjunct position at the University of Queensland, as well as volunteer roles with the Public Health Association of Australia as Board member and Queensland Branch President.

Head
The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre

An influential leader with over 25 years’ experience in strategy, operational management, public policy, partnerships and stakeholder engagement. Across a range of senior leadership positions I have delivered health and community outcomes by working in partnership with all levels of government, non-government and private organisations. This has been across a diversity of sectors including health (population, primary health and acute), social and community services, aboriginal wellbeing, recreation, research, education and the early years. I have decades of experience in co-designing and leading innovative state-wide initiatives addressing health, equity and social issues in complex environments. My commitment to creating supportive workplace cultures has demonstrated both individual development outcomes for staff and exceptional organisational performance and reputation. I have postgraduate qualifications in Business, Leadership, Health and Research, am a qualified Dietitian and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

​National Manager - Health, Research & Innovation,

Heart Foundation

Erin is the National Manager Health, Research & Innovation at the Heart Foundation. Erin is an experienced senior policy specialist in health, social policy and public administration, with over twenty years working at executive levels across both Commonwealth and state governments and over five years as a public policy consultant prior to joining the Heart Foundation in mid-2022. She has provided leadership on whole of health system strategic policy development and integration, health program formulation and implementation, human resources management and people capability development.

Erin has had extensive involvement in stakeholder engagement and consultation, leading diverse teams and strengthening organisational capabilities. She has been integral in delivering several projects for government and non-government organisations, including national strategies and plans, significant Commonwealth/state joint projects, major health reform initiatives, operational and health system analysis and service re-design.

Her career experience includes a range of corporate, strategic and organisational leadership and management roles, at Commonwealth and state government levels in Canberra, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. As an independent consultant, she has worked in partnership with Commonwealth and state governments, non-government organisations, medical colleges, universities and think tanks.

Chief Health Officer at ACT Health

Dr Kerryn Coleman is the ACT’s Chief Health Officer, appointed to the role in December 2019. She leads the Health Protection Service, within the ACT Health Directorate, which is responsible for preventing public health incidents as well as monitoring and enforcing public health regulations and providing public health advice. This includes responding to particular health hazards and taking action to reduce the risk to the health of the ACT community from communicable diseases, environmental hazards and the supply of medicines and poisons. When Dr Coleman took on the role of ACT Chief Health Officer in December, unprecedented bushfires and smoke followed by an international health pandemic wasn’t on her to-do list. But it’s not the first time, Kerryn worked during the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic in 2009.
Dr Coleman has worked within the ACT’s Health Protection Service since 2017, as Acting Chief Health Officer and a public health physician. She has led a regional public health unit, with responsibilities covering a large area in Central Queensland. She has also contributed, at a national level, for almost six years in a variety of public health roles within the Commonwealth Department of Health.
When things slow down, Kerryn would like to put time into some of the things she had initially planned to do, such as the environmental health space and education around sexually transmitted infections in young people.

National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health
Australian National University

To be updated

Chief Executive Officer,
Public Health Association Australia

Mr Terry Slevin has been Chief Executive Officer for the Public Health Association of Australia since May 2018.

He is Adjunct Professor in the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University and Adjunct Professor in the College of Health and Medicine at the Australian National University.

He is a Fellow of PHAA and was the first Vice President (Development) of the Association.