Julie Thompson (MBBS) is a General practitioner with over 25 years clinical experience in both urban and rural settings. She has had a long involvement in medical education including the roles of Clinical Tutor for the Family Planning Association of Victoria and as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Family Medicine at Monash University. She is currently the GP co-ordinator at the National Breast Cancer Centre (NBCC).

She has been a member of several expert working groups at the NBCC, including:

•The investigation of a new breast symptom.
•Hormonal therapies.
•Information advisory group.
Julie is a member of the Cancer Australia Advisory Council.

Martien Snellen (MBBS, MPM, FRANZCP) is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Private Practice and Public Appointment Consulting to the Mercy Hospital for Women, Melbourne. He works mainly in the field of Parent-Infant Psychiatry with a psychotherapeutic focus to treatment.

Martien has published in academic journals in the areas of: The relationship between schizophrenia, mental state, and mother-infant interaction, the function of specialist mother-baby units, postpartum sexuality, antenatal care and mental illness and models of psychotherapy in the psychiatric mother and baby setting. He is the author of Sex & Intimacy after Childbirth: Reclaiming Desire in Your Relationship (Text Publishing 2005).

Kerry McMahon (MB BS FRANZCR) is a radiologist with Queensland X-Ray in Brisbane where she has a special interest in Women’s imaging. This includes mammography and Breast MRI, obstetric and gynaecologic ultrasound and bone mineral densitometry, and Pelvic/Gynaecology MRI. She is a graduate from the University of Qld, completing her radiology training at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and a fellowship year in Women’s Imaging at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Scotland. She has currently been in private practice with Qld X-Ray since 1999, and is a visiting consultant to Breast Screen Qld.

Iain McGregor (MA(Oxon) PhD(Sydney)) is a neuroscientist and psychopharmacologist and Director of the Psychopharmacology Laboratory at the University of Sydney. He has a particular interest in assessing the long term effects of addictive drugs and alcohol on behaviour and brain function. He is also interested in the development of animal models of anxiety disorders and depression and the pharmacological treatment of these disorders. When not busy in the laboratory Iain enjoys music, bushwalking and bicycle riding.

Ian McColl (BSc, M.B.CH.B, FACD) is a consultant dermatologist at the John Flynn Medical Centre on the Gold Coast. His particular interests are phototherapy and the management of skin cancer, but he also has a particular interest in online dermatology education. He is the originator of www.learndermatology.com that through a series of websites offers online education to medical students, general practitioners, skin cancer practitioners and specialist dermatologists. He is an assistant clinical Professor in the medical school at Bond University.

Kirsten McCaffery (BSc(Hons) Psychology, PhD Health Psychology ) is a Senior Research Fellow within the Screening and Test Evaluation Program at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney and holds a NHMRC Career Development Award. Her first degree was in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh and she completed her PhD at University College London at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Unit. The current focus of her research is women’s perceptions of Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the psychosocial impact of HPV testing and HPV vaccination.

She has carried out several studies examining women’s attitudes to, understanding of and the psychological response to HPV and has published 12 peer reviewed papers in this area since 2003. Her research has informed the design of HPV education materials in Australia and internationally, and has raised awareness of the need to consider psychosocial issues in the area of HPV testing and vaccination. Her research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods and she has a particular interest in the psychosocial implications of screening in different social, ethnic and cultural groups.

She is a founding member of the Sydney Health Decision Group and her recent work has focused on the development of decision tools to facilitate informed health decision making in screening for patients with low education and literacy.

She has published over 30 peer reviewed papers in international journals, 3 book chapters and has been awarded 11 research grants. She is a regular reviewer for several international journals and donor organisations.

Debra Mainwaring-Betts (BSc(Hons) Psychology, MEd, MSc ) is a highly skilled and experienced applied psychologist and educator who promotes the development, well-being and effective learning of individual or groups of children by working with teachers, families, significant others to the child and agencies in an ethical and scientific way.

She is committed to evidence-based practice by careful observation, selected assessment and monitoring of a child’s progress over time, an understanding of the conditions that assist change management, an appreciation of current legislation, and curriculum restraints that affect those working with the child.

Louis Beau Irving (MB BS, FRACGP, FRACP) is a respiratory physician at the Royal Melbourne and Western Hospitals and Principal Fellow in the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne. Working at the Peter McCallum Institute, Louis has clinical and research interests in the field of lung cancer. He has contributed to the 2004 NHMRC Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Management of Lung cancer (2004) and has undertaken a systematic review and meta-analysis on screening for lung cancer.

Gretchen Hitchins (MB BS, FRACGP) completed her undergraduate training at the University of Queensland and later gained her Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in 1992. In 2000, she completed a Graduate Diploma in Adolescent Health and Welfare via the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Adolescent Health (Melbourne) and in 2004 completed a Master in Adolescent Mental Health (NSW Institute of Psychiatry).

In January 2000, Gretchen established a voluntary general practice service at YhES House, a Gold Coast youth centre. Although now working from private rooms, Dr Hitchins’ practice remains restricted to adolescent and young adult health (and their children). She has a particular interest in all aspects of adolescent substance abuse, mental health, youthful pregnancy and parenting, and sexual health.

For several years Gretchen was involved in the development and delivery of the Gold Coast Division of General Practice “GPs in Schools” programme. She has also facilitated education programs for teachers, parents and school-based youth health nurses on a variety of adolescent health issues; was involved in the “Dr Link” workshops Australia-wide (adolescent mental health for GPs) in 2004 and has an ongoing involvement with “Time Efficient Mental Health” workshops for GPs in south-east Queensland, and is a volunteer for the youth website Somazone.

Gretchen spent four years as a sexual assault medical officer in the Gold Coast Region, providing after-hours care for victims of sexual violence. She has three children aged 19, 17 and 13.

Caroline Harvey (MB BS(Hons),MPM, FRACGP, DRANZCOG) has been the Medical Director of Family Planning Queensland since March 2002. She previously worked in far North Queensland for Queensland Health as Women’s Health Program Manager and in Sydney in Women’s Health, Indigenous Health, Family Planning, General Practice, Sexual Assault and Women’s Correctional Centre settings.

Her current interests include the sexual and reproductive health needs of young people, cervical screening, contraception and medical and nursing education.