Scientific Committee
Meet the team behind the program
Click on each headshot to view their biography
A/Prof Eli Dabscheck
A/Professor Eli Dabscheck is a respiratory and sleep physician at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and holds an adjunct position at Monash University. Dr Dabscheck leads the home ventilation service and works in the COPD clinic. Dr Dabscheck is the co-chair of the national COPD guidelines (COPD-X). Dr Dabscheck was an invited independent expert on the Australian Clinical Care Standards for COPD. Dr Dabscheck is also an invited expert on the Therapeutic Guidelines Respiratory Medicine working group and is on the COPD working party for the inaugural Australasian Respiratory audit (ANZRAP). A/Professor Dabscheck has published over 50 manuscripts and is a chief investigator on several MRFF research grants.
A/Prof Eli Dabscheck
Co-Chair
A/Prof Rebecca Disler
Associate Professor Rebecca Disler is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow and clinical researcher at Monash University. She leads an internationally recognised program of research spanning guideline development, service mapping, and co-designed models of care. Her work focuses on improving models of care for people living with advanced chronic disease, particularly in rural and under-served settings. She has secured more than $2.7 million in competitive research funding across ARC, MRFF and philanthropic schemes.
A/Prof Disler is a Fellow of both the American Thoracic Society and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and serves on the Lung Foundation Australia COPD-X Guideline Committee. As a senior author on multiple Cochrane reviews. Her research has informed national and international clinical guidelines, including COPD-X, NICE UK, and GOLD, following development of a widely cited framework describing the lived experience and palliative
needs of people with advanced COPD.
Her research is grounded in a clinical background as a respiratory specialist nurse across acute and community settings. Her PhD focused on optimising the management of advanced COPD, forming the foundation of her ongoing program of work in complex chronic disease.
A/Prof Rebecca Disler
Co-Chair
Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan
Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan is a clinical researcher and respiratory physician at the University of Western Australia and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. He is internationally recognised for his contributions to asthma and COPD, particularly in biomarker‑guided treatments and landmark clinical trials that have shaped national and international guidelines. He leads the Perth Exacerbation Research Group at the Institute for Respiratory Health, where his work focuses on early diagnosis and prevention of COPD exacerbations through proactive, biology‑driven approaches.
Sanjay serves as Deputy Convenor of the TSANZ COPD Special Interest Group and holds key editorial roles as COPD Associate Editor for Respirology and a member of the COPD Editorial Board at Chest. He is also a strong supporter of Lung Foundation Australia’s COPD advocacy, including attending Parliament House in Canberra to advocate for improved national COPD care in 2025.
Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan
A/Prof Debbie Rigby
Debbie Rigby is the Clinical Executive Lead at National Asthma Council Australia. She is an advanced practice pharmacist, asthma educator and member of Lung Foundation Australia COPD Advisory Committee and Primary Care Committee, Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, Primary Care Respiratory Society UK, and the International Primary Care Respiratory Group. The Lung Foundation Australia honoured Debbie as a Lung Health Legend.
A/Prof Debbie Rigby
Dr Kerry Hancock
Dr Kerry Hancock is a GP with a longstanding special interest in respiratory medicine. Kerry is an influential advocate for primary care management of respiratory and related conditions. Throughout her clinical practice, Kerry had a special interest in general practice-based respiratory medicine whilst maintaining active involvement in advocacy, guideline development and promulgation and research activities.
She remains passionate for patients with respiratory and related conditions to access excellent clinical care by all primary care practitioners and to ensure that patients are diagnosed in a timely manner and provided with excellent care to achieve best outcomes for health and wellbeing.
She has been recognised for her contribution to general practice in being awarded Honorary Fellowship of the RACGP in 2018 and Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in January 2022. Kerry is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne.
Dr Kerry Hancock
Ms Mary Roberts
Mary Roberts is a Respiratory Clinical Nurse Consultant working at Westmead Hospital. She has 30 years of experience working in Respiratory Medicine. She is an active member of Lung Foundation of Australia, the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand And Co-chair of the Respiratory Network at the Agency of Clinical Innovation. Mary is a keen clinician researcher, her research interests include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary rehabilitation, breathlessness and interstitial lung disease.
She has presented both nationally and internationally, and authored or co-authored over 20 publications and over 75 conference abstracts. Mary established and co-leads the Breathlessness Clinic at Westmead hospital, an innovative service for patients with COPD who remain breathless despite standard medical treatment, and has recently published a randomised controlled trial measuring the impact of the service in people with moderate to severe COPD.
In 2023, Mary received Lung Foundation Australia’s prestigious Lung Health Legend award.
Ms Mary Roberts
Prof Gary Anderson
Gary Anderson is a Pharmacologist, Immunologist and founding Director of the Lung Health Research Centre at the University of Melbourne. He has authored over 260 highly cited papers. His translational research is at the interface of genetic disease models and clinical cohorts focused on understanding molecular mechanisms in asthma, COPD, lung cancer and interstitial lung disease, and their infectious exacerbations and co-morbidities. An increasing part of his work is in clean air and respiratory health advocacy. He was awarded the Research Medal of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) in 2006 and was elected a Fellow in 2014 (FThorSoc). He has served on the NHMRC Research Committee, the Board of Directors of TSANZ where he chaired the Research Committee, and on the Council of Lung Foundation Australia. In 2015 he was elected a Fellow of the European Respiratory Society (FERS) and the ATS in 2018 (ATSF).
Prof Gary Anderson
Prof Christine Jenkins
Head, Respiratory Group, The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney
Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW and Clinical Professor, University of Sydney
Christine is head of the Respiratory Group at The George Institute for Global Health; Professor
of Respiratory Medicine at UNSW Sydney and Clinical Professor at the University of Sydney.
She is a thoracic physician with a clinical research focus on the management of airways disease, and patient outcomes in response to therapeutic interventions. Her research interests include assisting clinicians to follow guidelines and efficient pathways to diagnosis in patients presenting with breathlessness, cardiac disease in patients with COPD, and sex and gender impacts in asthma and COPD. Christine has been active in advocacy, health policy and leadership for lung health in Australia over many years.
Prof Christine Jenkins
Dr Philip Masel
Dr Philip Masel graduated from University of Queensland in 1979. He completed postgraduate training at Royal Brisbane Hospital. His advanced training in thoracic medicine was at The Prince Charles Hospital from 1992 to 1995. After a 2-year post as a senior thoracic registrar in Newcastle-upon-Tyne he returned to commence as a thoracic and cystic fibrosis physician in 1997.
He has over 30 publications in leading journals including a landmark trial of azithromycin in CF patients. He has presented many posters and presentations at national meetings. Current research interests include COPD, bronchiectasis and pneumonia. He is passionate about education at all levels in particular medical student education. He coordinates clinical reasoning sessions for students. He enjoys supervising and mentoring basic trainee registrars to assist them with career development.
Associate Professor Philip Masel is currently Director of Core Thoracic Unit at TPCH, Chair of TPCH Smoking Cessation Taskforce, Chair of HLI Core Thoracic Workgroup and past Cochair of the Statewide Clinical Respiratory Network. He sits on the HLI Advisory Group, Metro North (MN) Smoking Cessation Workgroup and MN Non-invasive Ventilation Workgroup. He is
current COPD Special Interest Group Convenor for Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand.
Dr Philip Masel
Ms Naomi Fitzakerley
Prof Jennifer Alison
Dr Jennifer (Jenny) Alison is Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, previously Professor of Respiratory Physiotherapy, University of Sydney and Professor of Allied Health, Sydney Local Health District. She is chair of the Australian Pulmonary Rehabilitation Network for Lung Foundation Australia. Jenny has supervised 29 PhD students to completion and was awarded an Australian Government Office of Learning and Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Jenny is a Fellow of the European Respiratory Society and Fellow of Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ), was awarded the TSANZ 50th Anniversary Medal for Education and Training and an Inaugural Lung Health Legends Award, Lung Foundation Australia. Jenny has extensive experience in leading large multi-site funded clinical trials and has over 230 publications, h-index 42. Jenny has a strong commitment to improving outcomes for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Prof Jennifer Alison
Prof Natasha Smallwood
Prof Natasha Smallwood is the Professor and Director of Respiratory Medicine at the Alfred Hospital (Melbourne) and School of Translational Medicine at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). In addition to her respiratory qualifications, she holds postgraduate qualifications in Medical Leadership, Epidemiology and Palliative Care.
Prof Smallwood has authored over 170 publications and been awarded approximately $12 million as major research grants. She has clinical and research interests in severe lung disease, particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and interstitial lung disease.
Prof Smallwood is the President for the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, a past Board Director for the Victorian Doctors Health Program (Australia), and holds multiple leadership roles. She is a taskforce member for various national and international respiratory guidelines. She recently worked with the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in
Healthcare to develop the first ever national clinical care standard in respiratory medicine for people with COPD.
Prof Natasha Smallwood
A/Prof Belinda Cochrane
A/Prof Belinda Cochrane, BMedSc, MBBS (Hons), Doctor of Medicine, FRACP.
Inaugural Director of the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at Campbelltown and Camden Hospitals and Conjoint Professor with the University of Western Sydney. She is a Senior Staff Specialist, Respiratory and Sleep Physician. Clinical interests include COPD and respiratory failure. Research interests include the interactions between COPD and cardiovascular disease, inhaler device capability in COPD, breathlessness and multidisciplinary chronic care models for COPD. Her doctoral thesis was prospective, observational research over six years’ duration, targeted a study population with acute cardiac disease and was titled “The short and longer term implications of beta-blocker use in cardiology patients with airways disease”.
A/Prof Belinda Cochrane
Prof Shymali Dharmage
Professor Shyamali Dharmage (MBBS, MSc, MD, PhD, FERS, FThorSoc) is a world-recognised leader in Life Course Epidemiology of Chronic Respiratory Diseases. She developed and leads the Allergy & Lung Health Unit, Centre for Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Melbourne and has been awarded the esteemed titles of Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, Fellow of the TSANZ, Fellow of the ERS, Fellow of the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka Fellow and Dame Kate Campbell Fellow. Professor Dharmage has more than 600 publications and has been awarded more than $90 million in grants over her illustrious research career. Professor Dharmage is custodian and Principal Investigator of the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study (TAHS), one of the world’s largest and longest running studies on respiratory health. TAHS research on lung function trajectories and COPD risk created the paradigm of early origins of COPD, informed multiple international clinical guidelines and led to a new field of research (pre-COPD).
Prof Shyamali Dharmage
Prof Christine McDonald
Professor Christine McDonald is the Director of the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at Austin Health, and was the honorary Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for reathing and Sleep between 2009 and 2015. Her research interests include chronic lung disease and its management, including pulmonary rehabilitation and oxygen therapy. In June 2018, Professor McDonald became a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to respiratory and sleep medicine as a clinician-researcher, administrator and mentor, and to professional medical organisations.
She is recognised nationally and internationally for translating clinical research from bench to bedside in home and hospital settings, especially in the field of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She is an eminent physician-scientist, exemplifying the many objective and empathic skills needed to be a rigorous clinician, administrator and care-giver.
Prof Christine McDonald
Dr David Meharg
Dr David Meharg, PhD, MPH (Dist), MHSM, BHlthSc (CommPubHlth) commenced at the University of New South Wales in April 2025 as Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health and Population Health Academic Lead with Blakcademy, Faculty of Medicine and Health. A proud Bigambul man raised on Wiradjuri Country in NSW, David has built an Aboriginal health career across frontline service delivery, health system management, leadership, and policy roles within the NSW public health system.
Over the past seven years he transitioned to academia, managing research projects and serving as Chief Investigator on studies funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases and the Medical Research Future Fund, working with Aboriginal communities in Australia and Tribal communities in India. He completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in 2024 evaluating pulmonary rehabilitation
implementation in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services.
Dr David Meharg
Ms Anne Marie Mc Veigh
My name is Anne Marie, I work in the Community setting with families. I am a Mum with three adult children and have a cat and a dog. Outside of work my interests are time spent with my family and friends, walking the dog, Britbox and ABC iView fan, reading, and travel.
My diagnosis of COPD in my mid-50s was devastating, every part of my life changed. I had none of the risk factors. With the support of family, friends, Lung Foundation Australia, self-knowledge and advocacy, my respiratory physiotherapist and others, I am learning to live
more gracefully and gratefully with COPD.
Doing advocacy work with Lung Foundation Australia and participating in consumer forums allows me to educate others about the day-to-day real impacts of living with COPD that many do not see. I also meet others like me on the journey which I take tips, wisdom, courage and strength from.