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Speakers

Join us for three engaging days of education, inspiration and networking at the Convention Centre in Adelaide. Hear from the innovators and leading researchers in Australia as well as an impressive line-up of keynote speakers.

Speakers

Prof. Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE

Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent is the Chief Midwifery Officer for the NHS in England and has vast experience in healthcare provision. She is a registered nurse and midwife and is one of two National Maternity Safety Champions.

Jacqueline is visiting Professor of Midwifery at Kings College London and London South Bank University. Jacqueline has held senior positions in clinical practice, education, leadership and management including: Consultant Midwife, Director of Midwifery, Head of Nursing, Senior Lecturer, Curriculum Leader, LME and Professor of Midwifery.

She is a member of Tommy’s Charity National Advisory Board as Midwifery advisor, Women of the Year management committee, Midwifery Ambassador for the ‘Saying Goodbye’ charity and trustee for the RCN Foundation.

In 2020, she was noted as one of the influential people in health by the HSJ. She was also noted as a Pioneer by the HSJ and selected from over 100 nominations for inclusion on the Nursing Times’ Leaders 2015 list, that celebrates nurses and midwives who are pioneers, entrepreneurs and inspirational role models in their profession.

Jacqueline was appointed ICM's first Chief Midwife in March this year.

Dr Zoe Bradfield

Dr Zoe Bradfield is a Senior Midwifery Research Fellow with a joint appointment between Curtin University and Women and Newborn Health Service in Perth Western Australia; she also holds an honorary appointment with the Burnet Institute in Melbourne. Zoe has more than 25 years' clinical and leadership experience working in rural and metropolitan health settings. She has over 100 publications in various mediums. Her research has attracted over $2.5 million in funding and adopts a range of approaches including social science methods and clinical trials to explore ways of improving the impact, quality and sustainability of perinatal care. Zoe is passionate about the power of midwifery-led, multidisciplinary research to deliver evidence to improve health outcomes for women and their babies, and at the same time, act as a vehicle to transform the culture and provision of healthcare. Zoe is the current Vice President of the Australian College of Midwives and has been in this role for the past 4 ½ years.

Prof. Hannah Dahlen AM

Hannah Dahlen AM is the Professor of Midwifery, Discipline Leader of Midwifery and Associate Dean (Research and Higher Degree Research) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University. She has been a midwife for over 30 years. Hannah has over 250 published journal articles and book chapters and has a strong national and international reputation in maternal health. She is a renowned speaker, public commentator and birth activist. In 2019 Hannah was awarded a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (General Division) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list and in November 2012 Hannah was named in the Sydney Morning Herald’s list of 100 “people who change our city for the better” and named as one of the leading “science and knowledge thinkers” for 2012. In 2021 Hannah was ranked in the top 2% of scientists in the world for the year 2020.

Adjunct Prof. (Practice) Alison McMillan PSM

Adjunct Professor Alison McMillan is the Australian Government Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer (CNMO). She is a registered nurse with a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Business Administration. In June 2021 Alison was awarded a Public Service Medal for outstanding public service to driving the Government’s national health response priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly to infection prevention measures. As CNMO, Alison delivers high-level policy advice to the Minister for Health, and the Executive and staff within the Department of Health. As a member of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and as co-chair of the Infection Control Expert Group, her role in the coronavirus response is to advise the Australian Government to realise the value of the nursing and midwifery professions in achieving safe, quality and compassionate health and aged care outcomes for the Australian community.

Molly Wardaguga Research Centre

Professor Yvette Roe

Co-Director of The Molly Wardaguga Research Centre, Professor Yvette Roe is a Njikena Jawuru woman from the West Kimberly region, Western Australia. Yvette grew up in Darwin where she has strong family and friend connections. Yvette has more than 25 years' experience working in Aboriginal health. She was awarded her PhD, by the University of South Australia in November 2015.

Dr Elaine Lawurrpa Maypilama

Dr Elaine Lawurrpa Maypilama has recently joined the BOC CRE as a Senior Research Fellow. Lawurrpa will provide expertise in Indigenous (Yolgŋu) research methodology, Yolgŋu maternal, child health and wellbeing, Yolgŋu community engagement and the redesign of health services for the east Arnhem region and beyond. Lawurrapa has led and been involved in numerous research projects in education and community development.

Dr Sarah Ireland

Medical anthropologist, nurse and midwife, Dr Sarah Ireland is an early career researcher, with expertise in cross-cultural qualitative research methods, especially collaborative approaches with Aboriginal people. Her research methodologies are informed by social justice, health promotion, decolonising theories, public health, gender, woman-centered midwifery, culture and human rights disclosure.

Dr Annette Briley

Dr Annette Briley is a UK qualified nurse and midwife of more than 23 years. After working clinically and establishing a Maternal Fetal Assessment Unit with colleagues in a district general hospital, she was promoted to Consultant Midwife Research in a joint appointment with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London and completed a Masters in Advancing Midwifery Practice and a PhD in Midwifery Research. When she left in January 2020 Annette led a large multidisciplinary team working on 67 reproductive health and childbirth related trials. Annette was the only non-medical doctor Research and Development Lead in the busiest research active speciality of the hospital. Many of these trials have changed midwifery and medical practice, including ceasing the administration of prophylactic antibiotics for women at risk of preterm birth, recognition that antioxidants do not ameliorate endothelial dysfunction in pre-eclampsia, placement of cervical cerclage in women at risk of preterm birth, feeding in labour, positions in the second stage of labour for primips with epidurals, risk factors for PPH and continuity of midwifery care for women at risk of preterm birth. Annette arrived in Australia in February 2020 and has a joint appointment with Caring Futures Institute Flinders University and Northern Adelaide Local Health Network. Annette has more than 200 publications and is currently associated with projects exceeding $11 million grant income.

Sophie Smith OAM

Sophie Smith is the Founder of the Running for Premature Babies Foundation, and was named the 2019 NSW Local Hero in the Australian of the Year awards.

After losing all three of her triplet sons to their premature birth, Sophie was determined to turn her own tragedy into a force for good, starting the Running for Premature Babies Foundation - a charity working for a better chance of survival and quality of life for the 26,000 babies born prematurely in Australia each year.

To date the charity has raised well over $5 million, providing 104 pieces of life-saving neonatal equipment so far to hospitals around Australia wide, and funding almost $1 million of neonatal research. Sophie and her husband Ash went on to have two more sons, but tragically Ash passed away from brain cancer in 2016. Sophie continues to work to grow the Foundation she started, to raise the profile of prematurity and to advance the care of premature babies. In January 2022 Sophie was awarded an Office of the Order of Australia.