Invited Speakers

Erica Bell

Erica Bell, PhD, associate professor and deputy director of the University of Tasmania’s Department of Rural Health, where she is also A/Director of Primary Healthcare Research Evaluation and Development. She publishes in health policy and services development, as well as climate change and health. Prior to this she worked as a research manager in the Queensland public sector in diverse areas of government policy and systems reform.

Steven Czinn

Steven J Czinn, MD, FAAP, FACG, AGAF is Professor of Pediatrics and the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. Educated at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio he is a specialist in pediatric gastroenterology with numerous publications in internationally renowned scientific journals.

Brenda Finucane

Brenda Finucane, MS, CGC is a certified genetic counselor and Executive Director of the Genetic Services at Elwyn, a large nonprofit human services organization located near Philadelphia in the United States. She is widely published and has gained international recognition for her expertise in the behavioral and cognitive manifestations of genetic syndromes. She serves on the scientific advisory committees of several genetics support organizations and is the 2011 president-elect of the National Society of Genetic Counselors in the US. Has for over two decades at Elwyn worked to create practical services, which address the educational, behavioral, and health needs of people with genetic conditions.

Donald E Greydanus

Donald E. Greydanus, MD, DrHC (ATHENS), FAAP, FSAM (Emeritus), FIAP (H) is Professor of Pediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (East Lansing, Michigan, USA) and Director of the Pediatrics Residency Program at Michigan State University/ Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies (Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA). He is an international leading expert in adolescent medicine and health, who has published numerous scientific papers, books and received many national and international awards for his work.

John Lutzker

John R Lutzker, PhD (University of Kansas) is Director of the Center for Healthy Development and Professor of Public Health at Georgia State University. Among his previous positions, he was Chief of the Prevention Development and Evaluation Branch of the Division of Violence Prevention in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was a Distinguished Professor at The University of Judaism, where he also served as Acting Provost. He has published 150 professional articles and chapters, six books, and has made over 400 professional presentations, nationally and internationally. Dr. Lutzker is President of Division 33 of the American Psychological Association in which he is a Fellow in five Divisions. Among his awards are the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award from the Department of Applied Behavioral Science from the University of Kansas, Outstanding Research Career Award from the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, and Visiting Scholar in Practice, Emory University School of Law, Georgia Child Welfare Legal Academy. He is on the editorial boards of several prestigious international journals and his applied research involves the prevention of child abuse and neglect, and parents with intellectual disabilities.

Patricia MacTaggart

Patricia MacTaggart, MBA, MAA is a Lead Research Scientist/Lecturer at the George Washington University (GW) and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she instructs graduate students in health information technology (HIT) policy, quality and state health policy. A former state and federal government official, she is a board member on several national health information technology and health policy organizations, including the March of Dimes Pubic Policy Committee.

Raun Melmed

Raun D Melmed, MD is co-founder and medical director of the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center, Director of the Melmed Center in Scottsdale, Arizona and adjunct senior researcher at the Translational Genomics Institute in Phoenix. He earned his medical degree at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, completed internship in Tel Hashomer Hospital in Israel, residency in pediatrics at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, New York and fellowship at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston. Board certified in pediatrics, developmental and behavioral pediatrics. His latest book “Autism: Early Intervention” was published in 2007. He has developed physician-training programs for the early identification of infants and toddlers with developmental and behavioral concerns as well as programs geared at screening for autism spectrum disorders. He is currently an investigator on studies of family linkage, proteomics, and gene profiling in autism as well as the use of novel psychopharmacological agents in the treatment of autism and ADHD.

Hatim A Omar

Hatim A Omar, MD, FAAP, Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Kentucky, Lexington. He is the recipient of the Commonwealth of Kentucky Governor’s Award for community service, the Founders of Adolescent Health Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics and several other awards for his work with teens, sexual abuse and suicide prevention. He is well known internationally with numerous publications in child health, pediatrics, adolescent medicine, pediatric and adolescent gynecology.

Dilip R Patel

Dilip R Patel, MD, FAAP, FSAM, FAACPDM, FACSM, is professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Human Development at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, East Lansing, Michigan, USA. He is a full time teaching faculty member in the Pediatric Residency Program at the Michigan State University Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies, with special interest in neurodevelopmental disabilities, developmental-behavioral pediatrics, adolescent medicine and sports medicine. He has published numerous papers and books on a wide ranging topics in these areas. He is recipient of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine Adele Hofmann Visiting Professorship, and William B Weil Endowed Distinguished Pediatric Faculty Award of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Teodor T. Postolache

Teodor T Postolache, MD, associate professor and the director of the Mood and Anxiety Program of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, trained in mental health research as a fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. A graduate of the Cluj-Napoca Medical School in Romania, he completed postgraduate studies in Medicine at the University of Vienna General Hospital (Vienna, Austria) and Broussais Hospital (Paris, France) with residency training in psychiatry at Beth Israel Medical Center (New York, NY). His research, supported by federal (NIH R01, R34 and R21) and foundation grants is multidisciplinary, based on broad collaborations with experts in epidemiology, behavioral and molecular medicine, and focused on interactions between environment, mood disorders and behavior. He received a Laughlin award from the American College of Psychiatrists, a Fellows Award for Research Excellence from NIH, two Teacher of the Year awards (Maryland/ Sheppard Pratt and St. Elizabeths Hospital psychiatry residency training programs) a NARSAD Independent Investigator Award and awards from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

I Leslie Rubin

Leslie Rubin, MD is a pediatrician who has been active in the field of developmental disabilities for more than 30 years. He is currently research associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Morehouse School of Medicine, Medical Director of TEAM Centers, in Chattanooga Tennessee, co-director of the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at Emory University and president of the Institute for the Study of Disadvantage and Disability in Atlanta, Georgia. He has extensive experience in the field of autism, cerebral palsy, developmental and intellectual disabilities, and is co-editor of the textbook “Medical Care: Children and Adults with Developmental Disabilities”.

Patricia Schofield

Patricia Schofield, RGN, PhD, PGDipEd, DipN, senior lecturer and director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Nursing. Completed a number of post doctoral projects around pain management in older people including talking to them about their pain experiences. Currently working with the British Geriatric Society and the British Pain Society setting up guidelines for pain assessment in older adults and leading a large multi centre funded study on pain in older adults and involved in a number of other studies. Several books and publications in this area of research.

Daniel TL Shek

Professor Daniel TL Shek, PhD, FHKPS, BBS, JP, is Chair Professor of Applied Social Sciences, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, PRC, Advisory Professor of East China Normal University and Honorary Professor of Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau. He is editor and editorial board member of several international journals in adolescent health, psychology and human development. He has served in many government advisory bodies, including the Action Committee against Narcotics, Commission on Youth, Fight Crime Committee and Family Council. He is the principal investigator of a large long-term intervention study to promote positive youth development in Chinese communities (Project P.A.T.H.S.) funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. He has published numerous books, book chapters and more than 300 scientific articles in international refereed journals.

Jing Sun

Jing Sun, BEd, MEd, PhD is senior lecturer in biostatistics at the School of Public Health, Griffith University in Australia, adjunct associate professor in School of Public Health of Peking University and adjunct professor in Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China. Prior to this, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She has extensive research experience in China, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and United States and published widely in preterm infants research, child and adolescent mental health, health promotion, chronic diseases primary prevention, workplace health promotion, mass incidents and protests in China, and Chinese entrepreneurial resilience. Recently she has been funded by Queensland Government in Australia to conduct a study using community singing program to promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s health to “close the gap” between indigenous and non-indigenous populations.