Carolyn Bell joined Epworth HealthCare in 2015 where she oversaw a significant development period for Epworth Richmond as the hospital’s Chief Operations Manager.

In May 2017, Carolyn was appointed to Executive Director of Epworth Rehabilitation and Mental Health, leading a team of more than 1000 across four locations.

Her career commenced in medical, surgical and coronary care nursing before a transition to clinical and senior leadership positions at the Royal Women’s Hospital and BreastScreen Victoria.

With widespread healthcare and leadership experience across the private and public sectors, Carolyn is passionate about supporting her team and encouraging development to deliver outstanding care, outcomes and experiences to patients.

PhD. PGradDipPhty(Research). BAppSci(Phty)

David Berlowitz is a physiotherapist with the Victorian Respiratory Support Service who holds the University of Melbourne Chair in Physiotherapy at Austin Health. David was awarded his PhD in 2004 in which he discovered that acute cervical spinal cord injury results in sudden and severe obstructive sleep apnoea. David leads an international team of research collaborators, students and staff who examine the causes and treatments of sleep and breathing disorders in neuromuscular disease, especially in Spinal Cord Injury and Motor Neurone Disease. David has published more than 90 papers and attracted over $11.5million in research funding support. David’s other research interests include chronic disease management, registry development and program evaluation.

Leeanne Carey is Professor and Discipline Lead of Occupational Therapy in the School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University and Founding Head of the Neurorehabilitation and Recovery research group, Stroke Division, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia. Professor Carey’s research program focuses on stroke rehabilitation and recovery: in particular how the brain adapts and how we might harness that potential in rehabilitation. She has developed a successful, neuroscience-based approach to help stroke survivors regain a sense of touch so that they can use their hands more effectively in daily activities. She uses tools such as MRI to investigate changes in the brain and how this knowledge may be used to better understand recovery and target rehabilitation. Research includes the impact of depression and cognition on stroke recovery. An important focus has been to translate these discoveries into clinical practice and better outcomes for stroke survivors.

Christina is a National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Fellow and Deputy Head of Pre-hospital, Emergency and Trauma Research within the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University. She studied Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne, and completed a Master of Science at the University of British Columbia and a PhD in Epidemiology at Monash University. Her research focuses on the outcomes of traumatic injury, and in particular on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and the risk of developing chronic disease following injury. For the last 20 years Christina has worked in teaching and research at universities in Australia, the UK and Canada.

She is the founder and co-convener of Physiotherapists for Physical Activity, an advisory group to the APA, with more than 100 members from around the world who are collaborating on physical activity and sedentary behaviour research and championing the role that physiotherapists play in chronic disease prevention via activity promotion.

Professor Paul Fitzgerald is Professor of Psychiatry at Epworth Healthcare, Monash University and deputy director of Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre. He has been conducting research with transcranial magnetic stimulation and other brain stimulation treatments for 20 years including conducting over 15 clinical trials in depression, schizophrenia, OCD and other disorders. He has published over 400 journal articles, been cited over 14,000 times and has held 3 consecutive NHMRC Practitioner Fellowships. He has received over 5 million dollars in grant funding in the last 5 years from the NHMRC, ARC and a number of US based organisations. He has established multiple clinical TMS programs, set up Australia’s first TMS training program and is a founder and board member of TMS Clinics Australia.

Paul McCrory is a consultant neurologist and sports physician who specializes in traumatic brain injury and sports neurology. He is a NH&MRC/MRFF Practitioner Fellow at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia. He has published over 450 publications and 6 textbooks. He was the Collingwood Football Club team doctor for 15 years. He is the founding chair of the Concussion in Sport Consensus Group and is a member of the Concussion/Mild TBI Subgroup for the US NIH, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He is chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Concussion and Head Injury Research Foundation (ICHIRF) based in London. In 2010, he was awarded the Duke of Edinburgh Prize (presented by the Institute of Sports and Exercise Medicine), which is awarded for an outstanding contribution to clinical and/or research work in the field of sports medicine.

Professor Meg Morris is Professor of Clinical and Rehabilitation Practice, Healthscope & La Trobe University. A fellow of the Australian College Physiotherapist, Meg has particular interest in therapeutic exercises for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions and falls prevention in hospitals. She has over 300 publications and more than 16,000 citations to her research publications.

John Olver, AM, MB, BS, M.D. (Melb), FAFRM (RACP), Consultant Physician in Rehabilitation Medicine, is Professor in Rehabilitation Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Monash University. He was the Medical Director of Rehabilitation at Epworth Healthcare, Melbourne, Australia for 25 years. His clinical practice has included the inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation of patients with traumatic brain injury, spasticity and concussion. In 2009, he was appointed to the Victor Smorgon Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine, Epworth HealthCare and Monash University. He is Director of the Epworth Monash Rehabilitation Medicine (EMReM) research unit. He was also the Clinical Director of the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) for six years. In 2014, he was a Recipient of a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) “for significant service to medicine, particularly the treatment and rehabilitation of acquired brain injuries.”

Professor Olver’s main research interests and a focus of publications includes: traumatic brain injury, multi-trauma, spasticity management and stroke rehabilitation. He has co-authored over 120 papers and 5 book chapters. He is co-supervising five PhD projects within EMReM.

Prof Gavin Williams PhD FACP has worked in neurological rehabilitation for 30 years. He is the Professor of Physiotherapy Rehabilitation, a joint position appointed between Epworth Healthcare and The University of Melbourne. In this role, Gavin works clinically in the neurological rehabilitation unit at 0.5EFT and in a research role at 0.5EFT. Since he began working at the Epworth Hospital 26 years ago, he has developed a program to teach advanced gait and running skills to people with neurological injuries.  This program led to his doctoral studies titled ‘The development of a high-level mobility assessment tool (HiMAT) for people with traumatic brain injury’. Since that time he has become a world leader in the assessment, classification and treatment of mobility limitations following traumatic brain injury. Gavin was awarded Fellowship to the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2011. He has over 140 peer-reviewed journal publications and over 200 international and national conference presentations. He was also involved in the development of a new classification system for Paralympic athletics which was implemented at the 2012 London Paralympics.