Organising Committee

Ted Brown

Conference Convenor

Ted Brown completed his undergraduate occupational therapy education in Canada in 1986 and his doctoral education in occupational therapy at the University of Queensland in 2003. He works in the Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University - Peninsula Campus as a Professor and Undergraduate Course Coordinator.

Priscilla Ennals

Scientific Program Chair

Priscilla is the Senior Manager of Research and Evaluation at Neami National – a community managed service delivery organisation working in mental health, housing and homelessness, and suicide prevention across Australia. Priscilla is an occupational therapist who has worked in and around mental health for 30+ years, in clinical mental health services, academia and now in research in the for-purpose sector.

Brianna Cattanach

Committee Member

Brianna commenced her career working as an Occupational Therapist with a speciality in occupational health and wellbeing. Her role as a workplace consultant provided exposure to a wide range of industries and employers and the vast array of challenges workplaces face in proactively supporting, managing and engaging their teams in occupational health and wellbeing. From here Brianna’s passion and work grew in the space of workplace education and training programs which build capacity, manage risk and enhance an organisations existing culture and processes, creating a truly preventative and predictive approach.

Kate Gledhill

Committee Member

Kate works as a lecturer in the Occupational Therapy department at Monash University. She is also a PhD candidate at Deakin University studying the definition of discharge-readiness from subacute care from the perspectives of key stakeholders. Her main research interest is health services, in particular how health services can interact with vulnerable populations. Clinically, she worked at Alfred Health and Monash Health for 11 years predominantly in subacute care and was the Allied Health Advanced Practitioner and senior clinician for the Better at Home program.

Laura Joliffe

Committee Member

Laura is a research fellow of the Brain Recovery and Rehabilitation Group (Department of Neuroscience) at Monash University with a joint position at Alfred Health in Melbourne. Her research has been focused on evidence-based decision-making within the rehabilitation context and she has a keen interest in supporting consumers to review the evidence underpinning therapy choices, along with understanding behaviour change intervention effectiveness with clinicians who deliver these therapies.

Remie McMaster

Committee Member

Remie is a new graduate, based in regional Victoria. She recently completed her study at La Trobe in Bendigo, Victoria. She is passionate about regional and rural health. She has an interest in mental health and the growing role of occupational therapists in this space. Remie is keen to grow in her career and be a lifelong learner. She loves to hear about other therapists’ experiences and the ways in which OT is applied across settings.

Claire Pearce

Committee Member

Dr Claire Pearce, B App Sc (Occupational Therapist), MSc (Health Sciences), PhD, is experienced occupational therapist and emerging researcher. She has extensive clinical experience in adult acute and rehabilitation services based in public health services in Australia and the UK. She also has experience as a multidisciplinary team manager and has undertaken health service evaluation and development, and policy roles.

Trish Wielandt

Committee Member

Trish is the Head of Occupational Therapy at James Cook University. Prior to this appointment she was involved in the development of the Occupational Therapy program at CQU in Rockhampton. Trish also spent several years working in Canada as an Associate Professor and Curriculum Chair in the Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta. Her research interests include understanding the human perspective of assistive technology (AT) use; AT use in First Nations communities; midlife transitions for women with MS; rural and remote workforce issues and preparation of graduates for the diversity of rural practice.