MEET OUR SPEAKERS
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Julianne Chong
Julianne is a Venous Thromboembolism (VTE)/Anticoagulation Stewardship and Quality Use of Medicines Pharmacist at Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Sydney Australia. She is currently co-chair of the Thrombosis and Haemostasis Society of Australia and New Zealand (THANZ) Anticoagulation Stewardship Network. In 2023 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel to Anticoagulation Stewardship sites in the USA, UK and Canada. Julianne is currently a PhD candidate with the University of Sydney.
Pre-conference Workshop: Anticoagulation Stewardship 101
Presentation Saturday: Anticoagulant Stewardship
Alicia
Hoskin
Alicia Hoskin is a member of New Zealand’s High-Performance Women’s kayak team. She is a World Champion, a double Olympian, and one of just three New Zealand women in history to win two gold medals at one Olympic Games. She is passionate about seeing kiwis be the best version of themselves, contributing to whichever ‘team’ they belong to.
Alicia is known as an insightful and engaging speaker with a contagious zest for life and looks forward to having this time with you.
Presentation Sunday: Q&A Session with Alicia Hoskin
SPEAKERS
Aiesha Ali
Aiesha works in a clinical/hospital pharmacy implementation role at the headquarters of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Belgium. Since 2015 she has worked in several projects with MSF which include Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Yemen, South Sudan and many more. She is an expert on emergency and disaster management as well as setting up hospital pharmacies in low middle income countries. Aiesha continues to keep her clinical background of 14 years by working in Australia.
Sunday Panel: Pharmacy on the Front Line
Katie Babbott
Dr Katie Babbott is a health psychologist and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Auckland. Her work bridges clinical practice and research, with a focus on communication, health literacy, and equity. Katie specialises in eating disorders and body image across the lifespan, but has worked with a wide variety of patient presentations across the public and private sector. She is passionate about empowering clinicians through psychologically informed and emotionally intelligent approaches to patient care.
Pre-conference Workshop: Pushing Boundaries in Patient Communication: How Psychologically Informed Conversations Can Improve Patient Care and Professional Impact
Anne Blumgart
Anne is a Medication Safety Specialist Pharmacist at Counties Manukau in Auckland. Her career has entailed a diverse range of anticoagulation and VTE associated improvement initiatives locally and internationally. Anne developed the innovation award winning Counties Manukau low literacy Warfarin Education Programme and carried out the validation study for her Master of Public Health research. In 2010 she was awarded the Sanofi-Aventis Pharmacy Grant to visit the NHS Southwest VTE Prevention Exemplar Centres in England and collaborate closely with the development of a global approach to VTE prevention activities at Counties Manukau. Anne chairs the VTE Prevention Committee at Counties Manukau and is a member of the Thrombosis and Haemostasis Society of Australia and New Zealand (THANZ) Anticoagulation Stewardship Network.
Presentation Saturday: Anticoagulant Stewardship
Shari Cave
Shari Cave is a Health Psychologist working in the acute and transitional pain services in North Shore Hospital at Te Whatu Ora Waitematā. She supports patients in the inpatient hospital setting and her work focuses on helping people navigate pain and distress in medical contexts, with an emphasis on collaborative care and practical psychological strategies. Culturally safe and trauma-informed care practices are priorities in her work.
Pre-conference Workshop: Pushing Boundaries in Patient Communication: How Psychologically Informed Conversations Can Improve Patient Care and Professional Impact
Johanne Egan
Dr Johanne Egan DHSc, MBChB, BSc(Hons), PG Dip Paeds, Emerg Med. PG Cert Clin Ed, Prof Supervision. FRNZCUC
Jo is an ED doctor at Health New Zealand, Te Whatu Ora - Waitematā. She is passionate about accentuating the positive that already exists in healthcare, discovering, nurturing and valuing what really matters. She completed her doctorate of Health Science in 2018 with a thesis, “Thrive: Accentuating the Positive in the Emergency Department”
Jo has been involved in medical education for many years. She has teaching roles at the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology, where human factors, psychological safety, interprofessional learning and an appreciative lens weave their way through all she does. Jo has a non-clinical role with Te Whatu Ora in staff wellbeing. She has been involved in setting up and facilitating our Schwartz rounds, Learning from Excellence and working with teams around the organisation, facilitating workshops and supporting staff. Jo is also involved in professional supervision.
Saturday Workshop: An Appreciative Lens – Navigating Healthcare in Uncertain Times
Joanna Hikaka
Saturday Workshop: From Idea to Impact: Embedding Equity in Service Design, Implementation and Evaluation
Sara Olley
Meet Sara Olley – A Nurse Practitioner since January 2024, Sara brings over 30 years of clinical experience to her role. Originally from “up north” in the UK, she traded rain for Aotearoa’s sunshine in 2006 and never looked back. Her proudest professional milestone? Becoming an NP – a journey made possible with grit, heart, and a loving push from her late mum.
Outside the hospital walls, Sara is a book-loving, gym-going, wine-sipping runner who enjoys life’s balance. She lives with her husband Simon, their two adult kids, and a fiercely loyal German Shepherd who takes protection duties very seriously.
Saturday Workshop: Recognising the Deteriorating Patient
Natasha Pool
Natasha is the specialist clinical pharmacist and prescriber in Infectious Diseases and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) at Middlemore Hospital. She advises and prescribes for inpatients on antimicrobials and OPAT outpatients including running her own OPAT clinic.
Natasha is also involved in research studies on penicillin allergy, AMS and is the site primary investigator for PR-O-SNAP, a PKPD study comparing IV vs oral antibiotics.
Sunday Panel: Pharmacist Prescribing and Deprescribing
Alastair Richards
Alastair is a Nephrologist and General Medicine Physician working at Waitemata District in Auckland. Initially from Australia, Alastair studied medicine as a post-graduate degree at the University of Queensland before moving to Auckland in 2016. His areas of interest include evidence-based medicine and cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic health including hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease with an emphasis on preventative measures.
Saturday Workshop: Chronic Kidney Disease – An Overview
Emma Swan
Emma is a specialist surgical pharmacist at North Shore Hospital, Waitematā. Originally from Dunedin, she completed her pharmacy degree at The University of Otago followed by her internship at Dunedin Hospital. She then made the move up to Auckland where she has been working at Waitematā for the past 10 years. She completed her postgraduate diploma in 2019 and has worked across different specialities before joining the surgical pharmacist team full time. She provides cover as the Acting Team Leader for the surgical pharmacy team at North Shore. She works across specialities including intensive care, parenteral nutrition and acute pain. Outside of work, Emma loves a good chat, strong coffee and trying a new hobby, current mission; learning to knit.
Saturday Workshop: Recognising the Deteriorating Patient
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