ASHM - Board Bios

	Executive Board
	President - Prof Greg Dore (NSW) Professor and Head, Viral Hepatitis Clinical Research Program, National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The University of New South Wales, Sydney. Infectious Diseases Physician, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. Greg Dore has been involved in the areas of HIV and viral hepatitis for 10 years, in academic research, clinical, and public health policy capacities. His major research interests are HCV natural history, HIV/hepatitis coinfection, and HCV treatment for current IDUs. He has contributed to the development of strategies for management of people with hepatitis C, through close collaboration with both government and community sectors. He is a co-editor of the book Hepatitis C: an Australian perspective.
	Vice President - Dr Edwina Wright (VIC) Edwina Wright, from the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, is an infectious diseases physician with a particular interest in neurological issues. Recently Edwina has been involved in establishing the Asia-Pacific NeuroAIDS Consortium, the Australian National NeuroAIDS Brain and Tissue Bank and in developing clinical research protocols in the area of HIV neurology. She is doing a part-time PhD at the Alfred Hospital/Burnet Institute where she is studying aspects of the neuropathogenesis of HIV dementia.
	Vice President - Dr Mark Alastair Boyd (NSW) Mark Boyd is an Infectious Diseases and HIV physician working primarily in clinical research at the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR) at UNSW. He is also a Consultant Physician at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Since rejoining the NCHECR in 2007 (after a 4 year stint from 200-2004 working in clinical research in Thailand) Mark has been involved in the development of a number of clinical trials for implementation both in Australia and the growing NCHECR International Clinical Research Network which includes countres in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and Latin America. He has played a pivotal role in the inclusion of new African and Asian sites in the network over the past 3 years. He is the Project Leader of an NCHECR-sponsored international, multi-centre randomised controlled trial of two distinct regimens of second-line therapy after the failure of a standard first-line NNRTI+2N(t)RTI regimen in HIV infection - the SECOND-LINE study. He is the Clinical Advisor for the Bill and Melinda Gates funded and NCHECR-sponsored Encore program of antiretroviral dose optimisation studies. He is the author of more than 40 articles in the scientific peer-reviewed literature as well as 5 book chapters. Mark has interests that span widely across the HIV field, but particularly include the promotion of collaborative research in answering key questions in HIV management, optimization of antiretroviral care across all country-income settings and research into and managment of HIV/TB co-infection.

	Board
	Dr Mark Bloch (NSW) Mark has been working in the field of HIV medicine since 1983; he was a doctor at Sydney Hospital and Albion St AIDS clinic prior to being a director at Holdsworth House. He has completed his Masters in Medicine, HIV and Sexual Health from University of Sydney, and he is a past President of the Sexual Health Society of NSW. He is the director of clinical trials at Holdsworth House and actively involved in clinical research in HIV and STIs, co-joint lecturer at University of NSW, and a member of medical advisory boards.
	Prof Graham Cooksley (QLD) Since writing a review on the Australia Antigen in 1972 Graham Cooksley has had an interest in Hepatitis B, and then Hepatitis C from a research, clinical, anthropological and public health view. He has been co-convenor of several international meetings on Hepatitis C and Hepatitis D. Recently he has been on Data Management Committees of clinical trials, involving Primary Health Carers in Hepatitis B, on the APASL guidelines committee for Hepatitis B and has a review on the Role of Genotypes in HBV treatment in the pipeline.
	Dr Benjamin Cowie (VIC) Dr Benjamin Cowie is an infectious diseases physician with the Victorian Infectious Diseases Service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He has a particular clinical interest in viral hepatitis. Research interests include infectious disease epidemiology and public health. He is completing a PhD through the University of Melbourne based at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory investigating the epidemiology of HBV infection by conducting a serosurvey of over 3200 samples for markers of HBV infection, and through the development of mathematical models of HBV infection. He has developed teaching resources for ASHM in viral hepatitis, and contributed to the recently released ASHM monograph B positive - all you wanted to know about hepatitis B: a guide for primary care providers.
	Mr Philip Cunningham (NSW) Philip Cunningham is the Senior Scientist and Operations Manager of the NSW State Reference Laboratory for HIV/AIDS at St Vincent''''s Hospital, Sydney. He has developed, evaluated and implemented new diagnostic technologies and testing strategies including nucleic acid testing (NAT) targeting the earliest events during primary HIV infection. He has initiated, and collaborates on, a significant number of national and international multi-centre evaluations and licensing studies for HIV diagnostic devices. He has implemented and audits laboratory quality management systems for medical testing, GMP and clinical research level GLP accreditation in Australia and in a growing program of regional laboratory capacity development in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to support the wider availability of antiretroviral treatment in these countries. Philip is actively engaged in public health research involving enhanced sentinel and national surveillance of populations at risk of HIV and HCV infection, including childbearing women and injecting drug users. More recently, research has focused on developing sustainable diagnostic capabilities in resource-limited and remote settings such as neonatal HIV diagnosis, HIV viral load and HIV drug resistance testing. He is a visiting research fellow at the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research at the University of New South Wales and is Chief of Operations for the St Vincent''''s broader research campus.
	Dr Michelle Giles (VIC) Michelle Giles is an infectious diseases physician with a special interest in HIV and pregnancy. She completed a PhD on the topic of "Women HIV and reproduction in Australia" and has clinical appointments at the Alfred Hospital, the Royal Women's Hospital and Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne. Dr Giles works on the HIV discordant couple programme at the Royal Women's Hospital assisting couples with reproduction where one partner has HIV infection, and also serves on the Antiretroviral Guidelines panel. She is undertaking research on hepatitis B and pregnancy and brings to the role of Board member knowledge and experience in HIV and hepatitis and particularly a clinical perspective around women and reproduction.
	Dr Nick Medland (Vietnam) Nick Medland is the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Global AIDS Program HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment program and the Care and Treatment lead for the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Vietnam, a position he took up after more than two years as deputy director of the Harvard Medical School AIDS Initiative in Vietnam. For ten years he was clinical director at the Gay Men's Health Centre Victorian AIDS Council's primary care medical services in Melbourne, with clinical working areas of HIV medicine and sexual health. During this period he completed his training with the Australasian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine, where he was admitted as a fellow in 2008. Before relocating, he was active in the Australian HIV/AIDS medical community. Prior to and since coming to Vietnam, in addition to clinical work, he has been involved in training, mentoring, and supporting physicians in HIV/AIDS care, working with HIV/AIDS community groups, and participating in clinical research, and now large scale program design and management. He can speak Vietnamese, has an Honours Degree in English Literature from the University of London. His partner lives in Melbourne.
	Mr Richard Norris (NSW) Richard Norris currently works as the Coordinator - HIV Clinical Trials Unit at St Vincent''''s Hospital, Sydney for the last 4 years. He has been a registered nurse for 20 years and worked in the HIV health sector for 15 years: Acute inpatient HIV care, HIV pharmaceuticals, and HIV outpatients / clinical research. HIV Nurses play a central role in the care of people living with HIV within the Australian context, and as such future challenges will involve the development of National HIV Nursing Care competencies to contribute to the care, prevention and treatment of HIV positive clients. Richard looks forward to contributing to the ASHM Board on behalf of HIV Nurses.
	Prof Patricia Price (WA) Patricia Price began as a laboratory-based immunologist with an interest in problems facing the majority world - malnutrition, parasite infections and finally viruses. After almost 20 years in Dept of Microbiology (U WA) working with laboratory mice, Patricia moved to Dept of Clinical Immunology & Immunogenetics (RPH) in 1996. Her work there began with the mapping and characterisation of polymorphic immunoregulatory genes in the central MHC - this has continued to include characterisations of TNF haplotypes and associated with disease in Asians and Caucasians. She also established a collaboration A/Prof Martyn French (Head of Communicable Disease Service, RPH) to investigate the immune responses of HIV patients undergoing potent anti-retroviral therapy. They are looking for markers which define "Immune Restoration Diseases" and reasons why some patients fail to restore CD4 T-cell numbers or function. The team in Perth now includes three post-doctoral scientists Sonia Fernandez, Silvia lee and Andrew Lim. Since 2004 collaborations have been established in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Cambodia, Delhi and Johannesburg to monitor immunological changes in HIV patients beginning ART with co-infections. The collaboration with University of Malaya is the largest and most important of these, with four graduate scientists trained and working hard. Yong Yean Kong and Tan Hong Yien are now enrolled as PhD students. Their projects include Immune Restoration diseases and anti-retroviral toxic neuropathy.
	Dr Darren Russell (QLD) Darren Russell is the Director of Sexual Health at Cairns Base Hospital and holds the positions of Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at The University of Melbourne and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Science at James Cook University. He is the President of the Australasian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine, and is a past President of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations. He has an interest in men''''s health, Indigenous sexual health, HIV/AIDS, and genital herpes infections. He has been involved in research regarding genital herpes and HIV/AIDS, and is a co-editor of the textbook, Sexual health medicine, and a joint author of Talking with clients about sex. Originally from Melbourne, he moved to Cairns in 2005.
	Dr Russell Waddell (SA) Russell Waddell is Director of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Service of the Royal Adelaide Hospital and is responsible for the organisation of the state wide STI surveillance system and clinical services at Clinic 275. As a Senior Consultant Sexual Health Physician he also undertakes an HIV medicine caseload in the Infectious Diseases Clinic. He also oversees a Clinical Trials Unit at the Clinic 275 and has been involved with numerous clinical trials. He has a teaching appointment in the Discipline of Public Health at the University of Adelaide and supervises research projects for undergraduates. Russell was a Hospital Scientist in microbiology for several years before undertaking his medical studies. At other times he has been employed as a Lab technician, Food Microbiologist and even a General Practitioner. His particular interests are laboratory diagnosis of STI, genital dermatology, public health aspects of sexual health and medical student education. His major research interests are epidemiology of STIs, particularly non-gonococcal urethritis.