CREW Workshop Speakers

TROG CANCER RESEARCH

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Jackie Buck is a Clinical Research Associate at TROG Cancer Research, Jackie is currently the lead CRA for both TROG 19.06 DECREASE and TROG 21.07 SOCRATES HCC trials and has contributed to many TROG studies during their recruitment phase, she has also been heavily involved in the implementation of teletrials within TROG, working closely with The Australian Teletrials program and SA Health. Jackie has over 10 years’ experience working in clinical trials and has previously worked in both medical oncology and radiation oncology across NSW Health.

INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL PHYSICS, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

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Prof Haworth is the Director of the Institute of Medical Physics at the University of Sydney, as well as the Director of the Radiation Oncology Medical Physics service at Westmead and Blacktown Hospitals. Annette is a Life Member of TROG and a member of the Board of Directors. She was a member of the Scientific Committee for 10 years and has led the QA program for several trials.  Her goal is to ensure physicists and radiation therapist interests and expertise are represented and acknowledged, and provide technical advice and support, in particular to the RTQA team, to ensure trials meet international standards for QA review, and are able to support and promote the use of contemporary and novel radiotherapy methods.

AUSTRALIAN TELETRIALS PROGRAM

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Kaye Hewson is a registered nurse who has transitioned into policy and program leadership roles, focusing on innovation and the translation of clinical research. Her experience spans the Department of Health, various health services, and national programs such as HealthPact, Integrated Care, and the Nationally Funded Centre Program. Kaye is dedicated to enhancing patient outcomes and improving their experiences within the healthcare system.

As the Director of the Australian Teletrials Program, Kaye is committed to expanding access to clinical trials for Australians in rural, regional, and remote areas. This initiative aims to provide life-changing and lifesaving treatments by fostering national collaboration and improving patient outcomes.

ICON GROUP

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With extensive experience in private healthcare and clinical research management, Bianca is dedicated to enhancing participant access to clinical trials. As the Global Research Implementation & Quality Manager at Icon Group, Bianca leads educational initiatives, ensures regulatory compliance, and drives quality standards across multiple research sites. With a background in research leadership roles at Icon Group and GenesisCare, she has a strong track record in study startup, ethics compliance, and clinical trial operations. Passionate about education and mentorship, Bianca also chairs the Clinical Research Education Workshop for TROG, supporting both emerging and experienced research professionals.

PETER MACCALLUM CANCER CENTRE

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Associate Professor David Kok is a radiation oncologist working at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne Australia. He is Director of Education for Peter Mac’s Department of Radiation Oncology and Head of the Cancer Education Unit at the University of Melbourne. David is passionate about improving the quality and engagement of educational programs to ultimately drive improvements in the quality of patient care. He has published and lectured widely on best practice in health professional education and has a book on this topic due to be published by Springer in 2025. David’s other educational roles including being Chief of Training and Assessment at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists, and Chair of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre’s Education Committee.

ROYAL ADELAIDE HOSPITAL & ICON CANCER CENTRE

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Associate Professor Hien Le currently serves as the Chair of the TROG Scientific Committee. He is a Radiation Oncology Staff Specialist and Head of Research at both the Royal Adelaide Hospital and ICON Cancer Centre. A key collaborator with TROG on numerous trials, A/Prof. Le’s clinical interests focus on the application of innovative and emerging cancer technologies. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of South Australia and a Fellow of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. A/Prof. Le has secured significant grant funding, including support from the NHMRC and MRFF, to conduct vital clinical research on the management and treatment of rare cancers.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

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Quynh-Thu Le, MD is the Katharine Dexter McCormick & Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Stanford University. She co-directs the Radiation Biology Program of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Her clinical focus is on radiation management of head and neck cancer (HNC). She has led multicenter phase II and III clinical trials, testing the addition of novel drugs as well as radiosensitizer or radioprotector with chemoradiotherapy in HNC. Her lab works on approaches to regenerate salivary glands after radiation damage, identification of biomarkers of prognosis and treatment resistance in HNC, and development of novel treatment strategies for HNC with a focus on the tumor microenvironment and Galectin-1.

She currently co-chairs the NRG Oncology Group of the NCI-sponsored National Clinical Trial Network (NCTN), which conducts practice-changing phase II-III trials in many cancers. Before that, she chaired the HNC Committee of NRG Oncology for ten years. She has received grant support from ASCO, ASTRO as well as P01, R01 and R21 grants from the NIH. She has served as a reviewer for several journals and NIH study sections. She has been actively involved in many national and international organizations such as ASTRO, ASCO and AARC and ARS. She was inducted into the Fellowship of the American College of Radiology (FACR), the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (FASTRO) and the Institute of Medicine / National Academy of Medicine (IOM/NAM). She was also honored with the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award.

AUSTRALIAN CLINICAL TRIALS EDUCATION CENTRE (A-CTEC)

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Dr Eman Nafea has over 20-year experience in academia, translational research, and clinical research education. Eman’s current focus is on enhancing clinical research quality through competency-based education and training. Her projects aim to build workforce capacity and capability in the clinical research industry in Australia. With the support of the Victorian Research Translation Centres Collaborative (VRTCC), she is currently directing the first Australian Clinical Trials Education Centre (A-CTEC). A-CTEC vision is to build the capacity and capability of the Australian clinical trials workforce through easy access to world-class education and training opportunities, at no cost to the end user.

Eman has been leading clinical trials education and training at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (PMCC), and VCCC Alliance SKILLED internship program over the last 7 years. She is certified by The International Board of Certified Trainers (IBCT) and holds a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences & PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering with research expertise in innovative drug delivery for treatment of challenging diseases. She has a recent Master of Health Management and is affiliated Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics overseas.

FLINDERS MEDICAL CENTRE

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Dr Narayana is a mid-career researcher who has transitioned from basic science research to clinical research upon completing her PhD in viral hepatitis in 2015. Her clinical research interests encompass all aspects of chronic liver disease (CLD) and liver cancer to improving liver health care for Indigenous patients. Dr Narayana has significant clinical research experience, as reflected in her recent publications that range from management of chronic hepatitis B to chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. She coordinated the multicentre NHMRC funded trial examining a nurse-led model of care for the management of CLD (ALFIE) and is currently coordinating a multicentre MRFF funded project looking at ways to improve liver health care access in remote Indigenous communities (SSOLID), demonstrating her experience in all facets of conducting a research project. Her recent projects have provided opportunity to work with the Australian Teletrial Program across South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia.

TOWNSVILLE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

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Melanie Poxton is a Registered Nurse with more than forty years of nursing experience. Melanie currently works for the Department of Health in Queensland in the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI) and is based at the Townsville University Hospital, North Queensland, Australia. Melanie is the Assistant Director of Nursing of the Queensland Regional Clinical Trials Coordinating Centre (QRCCC). Melanie was instrumental in the development and implementation of the world’s first tele-trial model.

TOWNSVILLE CANCER CENTRE

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Professor Sabe Sabesan BMBS PhD FRACP is a senior Medical Oncologist at the Townsville Cancer Centre and the Clinical Director of the Australian Teletrial Program, Office of Research and Innovation, Queensland Health. He led the development of state and national  guidelines for various teleoncology models including Queensland Remote Chemotherapy supervision model and the Australasian Teletrial model to improve access to high quality care closer to home for RRR communities. As the President of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, he plans to advocate for equitable health systems and healthy workplace culture as the foundation for workforce wellbeing using the COSA workplace culture framework.

ST GEORGE CANCER CARE CENTRE

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Laurel is a Research RT at St George who has been focussing on Image Registration in the past few years. Her work involves supporting clinical trials and investigator led research.

AUSTRALIAN BRAGG CENTRE FOR PROTON THERAPY AND RESEARCH

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Kelly Skelton is the Registry Project Manager for the Australian Particle Therapy Clinical Quality Registry (ASPIRE – TROG 21.12) at the Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research. She is also appointed as the Project Manager for the Paediatric Proton Photon Consortium Registry, a Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School initiative, within the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

A PhD candidate at UniSA, Kelly brings over 20 years of radiation oncology nursing experience and holds a Master’s in Cancer Sciences. She has a strong background in clinical quality registries and data management and was previously recognised for her outstanding clinical practice, receiving a SA Health Nursing Excellence Award.

Kelly is a passionate advocate for big data in clinical research and emphasises the importance of quality of life in survivorship and equitable access to cutting-edge treatments like proton therapy. Her work is particularly focused on improving outcomes for paediatric and adolescent young adult cancer patients through high-quality data collection and evidence-based practice.

ALFRED HOSPITAL

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Robin Smith is the Research Manager of Alfred Health Radiation Oncology which has sites located at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and Latrobe Regional Hospital in Traralgon.  In this role she is responsible for managing the data management and research activities undertaken at both the Alfred and Gippsland Radiation Oncology departments.

She holds undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in Radiation Therapy, Science, Education and Oncology Clinical Research.  She has a strong interest in oncology clinical research and enjoys her involvement in clinical trials including ensuring access to trials for regional patients.  She appreciates the importance of quality data and its role in evidence-based research

SOUTHERN ADELAIDE LOCAL HEALTH NETWORK

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CI Wigg is an experienced Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist and clinical researcher. He obtained his fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 1999, followed by  PhD in hypothermic hepatocyte cell culture in 2004. This was followed by several periods of post-doctoral training at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham UK (2003-4) and University of Rome, Tor Vergata (2013-14).

CI Wigg was appointed the Head of the Hepatology and Liver Transplantation Medicine Unit at Southern Adelaide Local Health Network in 2008 and developed the clinical and research aspects of this unit over 15 years.

Some of the key clinical services developed included a chronic liver failure and hepatocellular cancer (HCC) screening program, a multidisciplinary HCC meeting, and outreach liver clinics to four remote Indigenous South Australian communities.

CI Wigg is an experienced clinical researcher and clinical trialist. He has been CIA on three major NHMRC/MRFF clinical trials, all relevant to HCC; The ALFIE trial (APP1170032 2019), The SOCRATES-HCC trial (MRF2014627, 2021)and the SSOLID trial (MRF 0249662023, 2023). He is also a chief investigator on the PRECISION HCC trial (APP 2032407). Total funding NHMRC/MRFF funding from these trials is approximately $11, 300,00 AUD.

In recognition of CI Wigg’s research performance, he was ranked number one in the field of Gastroenterology and Hepatology research (the Stars of 2018, Australia’s Research Field Leaders in Health and Medical Sciences. The Australian Newspaper September 2018). He was also awarded with a prestigious Matthew Flinders Professorship form Flinders University and took up this new role in 2024.

CI Wigg will bring to the team significant clinical experience in Hepatology and in successful conduct of large, multicentre clinical trials.