Our Speakers - PPA 2025 Conference
Dr. Orelly Thyna is a highly experienced paediatrician and the Chief Paediatrician at Vila Central Hospital in Vanuatu. She holds a Master of Medicine in Child Health from the University of Papua New Guinea and has dedicated her career to improving child healthcare. Dr. Thyna has held various leadership roles, including Chairperson of the Overseas Referral Committee and Chief Paediatrician. She also plays a key role in infectious disease management, having been part of the HIV Medical Team and the Emergency Operating Command for Vila Central Hospital. Passionate about paediatric care and medical leadership, Dr. Thyna continues to advocate for the health and well-being of children in the Pacific region.
Dr Orelly Thyna
Dr. Ashvini is a dedicated paediatrician with extensive experience in inpatient and outpatient care across Fiji. She is the National Coordinator for the Fiji Paediatric Clinical Practice Guidelines, leading the development of paediatric and neonatal protocols. As Secretary of the Pacific Paediatric Association, she collaborates with experts to advance regional child health. She also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Pediatric Education and Research.
A strong advocate for evidence-based medicine, Dr. Ashvini has published widely on paediatric care and is currently researching lower respiratory infections and vaccine strategies to improve child health in the Pacific.
Dr Ashvini Krishna
Dr Kelerayani Namudu is a Snr Paediatric Registrar at CWM Hospital since 2009 - with a keen interest in Developmental Paediatrics. She has taken the clinical lead (locally) in assessing children who have specific developmental concerns or need Developmental assessments from 2012, and also conducts a weekly Developmental Clinic at Suva's CWM Hospital with assistance from Paediatric mentors in both Sydney and Queensland.
She is currently completing a Masters in Medicine in Paediatrics at the Fiji National University - with her research project titled "Knowledge Attitudes & Practices around Developmental Surveillance amongst Healthcare Workers in the Suva Medical Sub-Division”. Dr Namudu will be providing an update at this year’s PPA conference on developing a Cerebral Palsy Register for Fiji.
Dr Namudu is married with 2 sons aged 11 and 4 yrs.
Dr Kelerayani Namudu
Professor Colleen Lau is a clinician and infectious disease epidemiologist at The University of Queensland and leads UQ’s program on Operational Research and Decision Support for Infectious Diseases. Prof Lau is internationally recognised for her expertise in vaccine preventable diseases, emerging infectious diseases, and neglected tropical diseases. Special interests include environmental drivers of infectious disease transmission, disease surveillance, disease mapping, and decision support tools. Her research projects focus on answering practical questions in clinical management of infectious diseases and operational questions on improving strategies to solve public health problems, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. She has collaborated with multiple Pacific Island Countries and Territories including Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Palau, New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
Professor Colleen Lau
Dr Penny Larcombe
Dr Penny Larcombe is a Senior Staff Specialist in Paediatrics and Adolescent Young Adult Medicine at Gold Coast University Hospital since 2017. Dr Larcombe has been a leader and advocate for the development and recognition of AYA services in Queensland resulting in the commencement of the dedicated AYA service at the Gold Coast in 2022.
Dr Larcombe continues her advocacy for young people through her representation and advocacy at state and national levels. She is the chair for the Supporting Advocacy for Youth Collaborative, represents on the AYA Subnetwork for the Queensland Child and Youth Clinical Network, and the Queensland Women and Girls’ Health Promotion Program Strategic Advisory Committee.
Professor Pete Azzopardi
Prof Pete Azzopardi PhD FRACP leads an international program of research focusing on adolescent health and well-being. His research is informed by experience working as a paediatrician in Australia (including in youth justice, the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health sector, tertiary referral services, youth homeless services) and across health services in the Asia Pacific region.
Pete’s program of research is approached in partnership with young people. He has expertise in using data to describe adolescent health needs, and expertise in the codesign and implementation of responsive programs for adolescent and wellbeing. He leads a research group at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute where his work focuses on global adolescent health. At Telethon Kids Institute his work is in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia. Ensuring health equity is a cross cutting theme.
Pete is a Commissioner on the current Lancet Commission for Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. He co-chairs WHO’s Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent health expert group, and co-chairs the adolescent wellbeing work stream at the Partnership for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s health (PMNCH). Pete has also recently joined WHO’s Strategic Technical Advisory Group of Experts (STAGE). These engagements provide an opportunity to contribute to - and learn- from best practice globally.
Professor Kim Mulholland
Professor Kim Mulholland is an Australian paediatrician, who trained at the University of Melbourne and The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. He completed post-graduate training in immunology, respiratory medicine and tropical medicine.
Kim’s main research focus is vaccines, and he is considered an authority in his field. He has been a member of the WHO SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group of Experts) on immunization since 2020.
Kim has been a Senior Principal Research Fellow at MCRI since 2003 and leads the New Vaccines Research Group. He established leading pneumococcal microbiology and immunology laboratories at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), Melbourne, along with major field research programs in Vietnam, Fiji, Indonesia and Mongolia. He is the Co-Director of Global Health at MCRI.
A major area of work currently is 3 Covid Vaccine clinical trials being conducted in Australia, Indonesia and Mongolia.
Kim has been leading a programme of PCV clinical trials in Vietnam for the past decade. He also leads HPV research programs in Mongolia, Vietnam and Ethiopia. He has worked on RSV research projects for over 30 years and currently leads projects in Mongolia and Vietnam. He has co-led the typhoid research project in Fiji since 2012. He has been involved in the oversight of many vaccine trials, serving on steering committees or DSMBs for a range of vaccines including Pneumococcal, Dengue, RSV, malaria and Covid-19 vaccines.
Kim joined the Medical Research Council Laboratories, Gambia in 1989, where he developed a program of research covering all aspects of the problem of childhood pneumonia. This included studies of the aetiology, clinical signs, and treatment of pneumonia cases, with particular reference to very young infants and malnourished children.
These studies helped to guide WHO policy in the field and contributed to the development of the strategy of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), as well as guiding oxygen and antibiotic management for hospitalized children. In Gambia, he also worked on several projects relating indoor air pollution to pneumonia. His Hib vaccine trials were the first to demonstrate the capacity of conjugate vaccines to prevent bacterial pneumonia and paved the way for Hib vaccine introduction in Africa.
After six years in the Gambia, he joined WHO HQ where he oversaw the development of standardized methods for the evaluation of pneumonia vaccines in developing countries. At WHO he was also the focal point for air pollution in the Child and Adolescent Health Department and helped design the RESPIRE study.
Since leaving WHO in 2000 he has continued to work in the pneumonia field with particular emphasis on vaccines. He was one of the founders of the Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and one of the leaders of the successful Hib Initiative project that saw the introduction of Hib vaccines into the poorest countries of the world.
Professor Fiona Russell
Professor Fiona Russell (BMBS, Grad Dip(Clin Epi), Dip Paeds, MPHTM, FRACP, PhD) is a paediatrician, epidemiologist and vaccine researcher. She is Director of the Child and Adolescent Health PhD Program, Department of Paediatrics, the University of Melbourne, and is a member of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Child and Neonatal Health Research and Training; and Group Leader for Asia-Pacific Health research, MCRI. She is Chair of the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases Vaccination Special Interest Group.
Her research provides evidence for policy decisions regarding immunisation and child health in low- and middle-income countries.. It focuses on novel vaccine impact evaluations including the first study on vaccine effectiveness against hypoxic pneumonia using the test-negative design, understanding herd immunity, prevention of mother to infant transmission of infections, and vaccine preventable disease surveillance. Her research has changed global, regional and country policy; is cited in the WHO pneumococcal conjugate vaccine Position Statements (2012, 2019); has led to a paradigm shift in the number and timing of vaccine doses used; and has led to new vaccine introduction in the region. The results from her work have been presented to WHO and Gavi.
She leads the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Pneumococcal Disease Control in the Asia-Pacific region with many partners from the Asia-Pacific region. She has been a regular advisor to WHO Immunization and Vaccine Research technical advisory groups (2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018) on global PCV policy and research directions. She has undertaken more than 30 international consultancies (UNICEF, WHO) to advise governments, donors (DFAT, Asia Development Bank) immunisation and child health policy (Asia, Pacific and Africa). She advises DFAT and WHO on COVID-19 vaccine use in the Asia-Pacific region.
Dr Dustin Mills
Dr Dustin Mills is a paediatric respiratory and sleep physician working between Townsville University Hospital in North Queensland and the Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane.
He completed his specialist training with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2023, following which he worked briefly at Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland in the respiratory department followed by a 12-month paediatric Respirology Fellowship through Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada. He is completing a PhD in paediatric bronchiectasis through the University of Queensland. He has also completed a Bachelor of Pharmacy prior to my medical training.
Professor Melissa Kang
(Professor) Melissa Kang is from Sydney, Australia. After training in General Practice, she worked exclusively with adolescents and young adults in hospital and community settings for 30 years. She has worked in academic adolescent health, public health and general practice for over 20 years. She is now a full time Professor of Adolescent Health and Co-Head of the General Practice Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney. Her research focuses on access to health care, health system navigation, adolescent sexuality and sexual health. She is currently the Vice President Oceania of the International Association for Adolescent Health and a member of the IAAH Education Committee. She was the president of the Australian Association for Adolescent Health from 2015 – 2020.