Professor Faye McMillan AM is a Wiradjuri yinaa (woman) originally from Trangie, NSW. Faye is a community pharmacist and is recognised as the first Indigenous Australian to hold a western degree in pharmacy in this country. Faye is a strong advocate for improving Indigenous health care across professions, notably being a founding member and past chair of Indigenous Allied Health Australia. Faye is currently one of two Deputy National Rural Health Commissioners and works at The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) as a Professor in Indigenous Health in the School of Public Health, as well as a board member of The Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) and is also the chair of the APC Indigenous health strategy group. Faye has received numerous accolades for her leadership and contribution to population health, education, equity, and the community. In 2021 Faye was appointed as a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday 2021 Honours List. Faye’s appointment recognises her significant service to Indigenous mental health, and to tertiary education. In 2023 Faye was made a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) and in 2022 she was named the PSA Pharmacist of the year; in 2019 she was named as the NSW Aboriginal Woman of the year; in 2022 & 2017 she was recognised in the Who's Who of Australian Women; and in 2014 included in the Australian Financial Review and 100 Women of Influence. Faye is also the 2023 Harkness Fellow for Australia, as well as being a Lifelong Fellow of the Atlantic Institute as an Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Faye holds a Doctor of Health Science, Master of Indigenous Health, Master of Social Change Leadership, B. Pharm, Grad Cert Wiradjuri Language, Culture and Heritage, Grad Cert Indigenous Governance, Grad Cert Education, Dip Counselling, Cert IV Training and Assessment and is a Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy and Lifelong Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity.

Professor Francine Marques is a National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader, Viertel Charitable Foundation, and National Heart Foundation Fellow. She leads the Hypertension Research Laboratory at Monash University. Francine is passionate about equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and helping our communities change the current culture of research. She has led research that identified intrinsic equity issues in the cardiovascular research community in Australia ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32839116/), followed by research to find solutions for these issues. This resulted in a significant international roadmap with a critical focus on EDI ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35577952/). She firmly believes that EDI is one of the foundations for a people-centric research culture that allows curiosity, risk-taking, and collaborative efforts to drive real-life impact in our communities ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37990913/). This body of work has resulted in her award of the 2011 Women’s Agenda Emerging Leader in STEM and the 2023 Monash University Faculty of Science Research Community Award.

Dr. Zanfina Ademi is a Professor of Health Economics at Monash University, leading the Health Economics and Policy Evaluation Research (HEPER) Group. Her research focuses on improving health and reducing inequities in society by using high-quality health economic evidence for decision-making. She specialises in prevention, genomic screening and developing new metrics like Productivity Adjusted Life Years (PALY). Prof. Ademi has led funded projects in Australia, Finland, and Switzerland, contributing to healthcare policy globally. She serves on key committees, including the Economics Sub-Committee of Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).

A/Prof Antony (Bill) Vinh is a Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology at La Trobe University, where he leads the Hypertension and Diabetes Division within the Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Disease Research. He earned his Ph.D. from Monash University in 2008 and completed postdoctoral training at Emory University’s Division of Cardiology, specializing in immunity and hypertension. Since joining La Trobe University in 2017, his research program has received continuous funding from the NHMRC. A/Prof Vinh’s work has significantly advanced our understanding of the roles of inflammasomes, interleukin-18, and B cells in hypertension and kidney damage. He has been an ASCEPT member since 2003 as an Honours student and was co-chair of the Cardiovascular SIG (2017-2018).

Dr. Angelina Lim is a senior lecturer and deputy course director at Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University. Her key interests are simulation, authentic assessment, generative artificial intelligence, antimicrobial stewardship and paediatric endocrinology. Angelina's main expertise lies in designing and evaluating Objective Structured Clinical Examinations. Angelina has embarked on many pharmacy related career paths, starting with hospital pharmacy, then community pharmacy (still practicing), public health sector and research. She still maintains links with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) working on projects in disability and paediatric endocrinology. Angelina is dedicated to teaching and education research and aims to use evidence based pedagogical approaches to drive her teaching and curriculum design.

Dr. Zhao completed her PhD in 2011 at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada. She established her independent research group in 2020, after obtaining her ARC Future Fellowship. Her research focuses on investigating the molecular mechanisms of receptor signalling regulation by intracellular machinery. More specifically, the involvement of Regulators of G protein signalling (RGS) proteins, in cardiometabolic diseases, such as Obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Her research has provided mechanistic understanding of distinct GPCR behaviour and receptor-mediated signalling profiles under various clinical conditions; identified critical dysregulated pathways and key intracellular mediators that contribute to disease conditions. Her research goal is to evaluate and validate therapeutic potentials for targeting these mediators for treating cardiometabolic disorders. Dr. Zhao has published 44 peer reviewed papers in highly impactful journals including Nature and Science, and has a career H-index of 25.

Dr Michael De Silva is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology and Head of the Cerebrovascular Disease Division in the Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Disease Research at La Trobe University. Michael earned his PhD from Monash University in 2011 and has completed a postdoctoral research position at the University of Iowa, USA. Michael’s current research interests include examining the effects of cardiovascular diseases (such as stroke and hypertension) on the regulation of cerebral microvascular function and cognitive function. He has been as ASCEPT member since 2008 and was co-chair of the Cardiovascular SIG (2019-2020).

Pranav is an interdisciplinary PhD candidate between Monash, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical research and The Brain cancer centre. His research focuses on bioengineering nanobodies to cross the blood brain barrier to enable better therapeutic outcomes for Brain cancer patients. Pranav is also a lead teaching assistant at the Monash faculty of Pharmaceutical sciences and has been actively involved in advocating the use of AI by conducting workshops and collaborating across 6 Monash faculties, 2 national universities and at conferences, on a national and international level.