Victor Perton is the Chief Optimism Officer of The Centre for Optimism. He is a Board Member at Yarra Valley Water, an independent director at VicWater, and an Ambassador for the Intelligent Water Networks. He also teaches public policy at the Australian Public Service Academy.

Victor served 18 years as a Member of the Parliament of Victoria, was a Trade Commissioner for North and South America, and was a Senior Engagement Adviser during the Australian G20 Presidency. He is the author of Optimism: The How and Why and co-author of The Optimism Principle.
 

(Humour) He is a radical optimist, and his gender pronouns are Pollyanna Optimist.

 

Prof Sandawana William Majoni (William) is a pre-eminent Senior Staff Specialist in Nephrology and Internal Medicine and Director of Renal Services for Top End Health Service, NT Health, at the Royal Darwin and Palmerston Hospitals in Darwin, Australia. He is the current Chair of the RACP Advanced Training Committee (ATC) for Nephrology. He holds an honorary appointment with the Menzies School of Health Research and is A/Prof with the Flinders University Northern Territory Medical Program.  His research interests include Indigenous health, the epidemiology and cohort studies of renal, diabetes, infectious, and cardiovascular diseases, access to transplantation, consumer and community engagement in service provision research, improvement of hospital systems and large-scale clinical trials to improve the evidence base for treatment of renal, diabetes, infectious and cardiovascular disease.

 

Sarah has been the CEO of Purple House for 22 years. She has a Master of Nursing and Grad Dips in Aboriginal Education and Health Service Management.
She has 3 kids, 2 granddaughters and a painting addiction. Her car is 65 years old and she is incapable of wearing matching socks!

Josephine is the Foundation Chair, South Western Sydney Nursing and Midwifery Research Alliance at SWSLHD and the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, and the Deputy Director of Research, SWSLHD. From a background as a renal nurse, Professor Chow’s passion has always been innovation and research.

 

Josephine has been crucial to the global impact of the renal program's knowledge generation in nursing leadership and practices. She is a Winston Churchill Fellow, executive role for RSA (NSW Branch), Chair of the International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis (ISPD) Standard and Guideline Committee, Immediate Past Chair of the ISPD.  She is the founder and foundational Chair of The HOME Network since 2009, an Australasian initiative that brings healthcare professionals and consumers together to promote home dialysis as a choice. She is the co-Principal Investigator for the Global TEACH-PD Trial and has considerable success in securing funding for significant national and international projects.

 

She was the Finalist of the Federal Health Minister's Award for Nursing Trailblazers. In 2023, she was recognised as the Winner of the 2023 Staff Member of the Year for NSW Health. Josephine advocates consumer engagements. She has affiliations with three Universities in Australia and Stanford University in the United States.

 

In addition to her current positions, Josephine also held several foundational positions within NSW Health including the Director of Strategy and Partnerships, Co-Director for the Renal Clinical Trial Centre, Lead of the Operational Team for the Emergency Operation Centre. She was also the inaugural Executive Director, Operations for the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education & Enterprise (SPHERE).

 

She completed several post graduate program including Master in Nursing and Management, PhD and MBA and has supervised a number of higher degree in research students. She publishes extensively and have been invited as speaker in local and international conference.

 

Prof Allen Cheng is Professor/Director of Monash Infectious Diseases at Monash Health and the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash University. He has research interests in clinical infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, influenza and other vaccine preventable diseases and communicable diseases control. He was previously Co-Chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and the Chair of the Advisory Committee for Vaccines, and during the COVID-19 pandemic was Acting Victorian Chief Health Officer. He was recognised for his contribution to medicine and epidemiology as Companion of the Order of Australia in 2025.

Associate Professor Rachael Walker is an academic Nurse Practitioner who currently works at the University of Auckland. Rachael has over 15 years of experience as a Nurse Practitioner working across all areas of nephrology and has a passion for patient centered care, education and home dialysis modalities. Rachael is Co-Chair of the ISN Kidney Health Professional Working Group, Chair of the ISPD Scholarships and Awards Committee and Chair of the AKTN PD working group. Rachael is also a director on the RSA Board and on KHNZ. Rachael completed her PhD at the University of Sydney and has published widely in nephrology journals.

Lesley Salem is a descendant of the Wonnarua Nation in NSW. She is currently 

working in remote Australia with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island People as a 

generalist and chronic disease Nurse Practitioner (NP). Lesley’s nursing is 

dedicated to improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island People. 

She enjoys mentoring and believes strongly in sharing knowledge. Always 

through her work is a strong dedication to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal 

and Torres Strait Island people, those with socioeconomic disadvantage, and her 

peers.