Dr. Elizabeth Sáenz is a senior medical professional and accomplished programme leader with over 20 years of experience within the United Nations system, specializing in drug policy, treatment of substance use disorders, public health, maternal and child health. A paediatrician by training with advanced postgraduate degrees in public health in developing countries, she combines technical expertise with strong strategic leadership and management capabilities.

Currently serving as Manager of the UNODC Global Programme on Access to Controlled Substances for Medical and Scientific Purposes, she provides strategic vision, leadership, and operational oversight to a complex global portfolio. She successfully led a major programme restructuring, introducing a three-pillar framework that enhanced coherence, efficiency, and impact across access, diversion prevention, and non-medical use. She manages multidisciplinary teams and delivers high-impact technical assistance to Member States, including policy development, capacity building, partnerships and stakeholder engagement, fundraising, and system-wide assessments.

Dr. Sáenz is recognized for her diplomatic approach, excellent communication skills, and ability to build trust and consensus across diverse stakeholders. A charismatic and engaging leader, she is known for her efficiency, professionalism, and strong sense of accountability. Her leadership is guided by firm values and a humane, empathetic approach to public health, ensuring that policies and programmes remain people-centred and equity-driven.

She has a strong track record in high-level inter-agency collaboration, having held key roles with UNODC, PAHO, and UNFPA. As UNODC Liaison Officer in Geneva, she played a pivotal role in advancing integrated approaches to drug demand reduction and strengthening strategic collaboration with WHO, including through joint global programmes. Her career reflects consistent delivery of impactful international initiatives, underpinned by strategic partnerships and results-oriented management.

Dr Naomi Katz (MBBS, BMedSci, DipML, FRACP, FAChPM, GDipBioethics) is a palliative care physician whose work sits at the intersection of clinical medicine, research, and education. She holds Fellowships with the Royal College of Physicians – Paediatrics and Child Health Division (2015) and the Australasian Chapter of Palliative Medicine (2017). Her substantive clinical appointments are at Alfred Health and Melbourne Health/Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and she contributes to the after-hours roster for the statewide Victorian Paediatric Palliative Care Program. Naomi has an honorary appointment with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and an adjunct lecturer appointment at Monash University. 

Naomi’s published work includes the chapter 'Hope and Pediatric Illness' in the Oxford Compendium of Hope (2025), and 'Dissonance in views between parents and clinicians of children with serious illness: How can we bridge the gap?' in the Journal of Paediatric and Child Health (2021). Naomi has also served as Specialist Contractor to the Curriculum Review Group for the renewed Paediatric Palliative Care Curriculum in (2023), and as Lead Author of the Progressive and Incurable Cancer section in the revised Adolescent and Young Adult Psychosocial Guidelines (2025).

Naomi is completing a qualitative PhD through the University of Melbourne. Her PhD seeks to better understand how parents contemplate their child’s prognosis (including the possibility of death), and how they experience hope, across their child’s illness. Naomi is excited to share learnings from her PhD, which while grounded in paediatrics, have relevance across the age spectrum.

MD MSHS

Dr Karl Lorenz is a general practitioner and palliative care physician. He has served as a clinician, educator, and researcher in palliative care for the past three decades, starting his academic career in Los Angeles, where he was at UCLA, the VA Greater Los Angeles, and the RAND Corporation. Since 2015, he has been a Professor at Stanford University, where he served as Chief and Research Chief for the Section of Palliative Care in the Division of Primary Care and Population Health. He is an investigator with the Center for Innovation to Implementation (Ci2i) at the Veterans Administration Palo Alto. He was selected as a Packer Health Policy fellow with Cancer Australia and lived in Canberra 2007-2008. Since 2010, he has been part of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs palliative care national leadership team and the founder and current Co-Director of the VA Palliative Care Quality Improvement Resource Center (QuIRC). QuIRC helps direct policy and practice for nearly 150 palliative care programs througout VA's extensive clinical networks throughout the United States, serving nearly 10 million Veterans. His research encompasses evidence synthesis, quality measure development, pain and symptom management, implementation science, global palliative care, and quality improvement (QI). Karl, Michelle De-Natale, and Jake Mickelson developed and fostered the PC-PAICE program which included Australian faculty as QI mentors and evolved into the EQuIP Center on the Indian National Cancer Grid. PC-PAICE and EQuIP have supported QI in oncology and palliative care at around 100 leading clinical and academic health centers in India, and the team has collaborated with Dr Meera Agar’s team at the University of Technology Sydney in the SPHERE-Stanford QI Program to bring QI to New South Wales palliative care teams. Dr Lorenz is passionate about outdoor activities, performing and enjoying music, and reading and writing poetry and prose.

PhD, MHA

Dr. Finkelstein is Professor of Economics at the Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore and the Executive Director of the Lien Centre for Palliative Care. His research focuses on the economic causes and consequences of health behaviors. A major focus are studies to better understand the complicated decisions that revolve around end-of-life care.

He has published over 300 manuscripts and 2 books in these areas. Based on google scholar, he has an h-index of 82 and his publications have been cited over 125,000 times, including in the landmark Supreme Court decision upholding the U.S. Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). He was included in the list of the World's Most Highly Cited Researchers in 2015, 2016 and 2017 by Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Analytics and among the Top 2% of scientists worldwide in a study by Stanford University in 2021 and 2025.

BDSc, Ad Dip Mus, FICD, FPFA

Dr Sharonne Zaks AM has more than 25 years of experience in private dental practice with a special interest in working with anxious and phobic patients, and survivors of sexual assault and trauma, who travel from across Australia for her care.

Her compassionate approach incorporates the trauma-informed principles, her clinical expertise, and ongoing research into dental anxiety and trauma. It benefits patients, clinicians, and staff, and is being taught locally and internationally.

The free video resources she developed are being used globally by healthcare providers and survivors.

A passionate educator, Dr Zaks AM is a clinical lecturer at the University of Melbourne and regularly speaks at conferences, including TEDx Sydney, the Australian and World Dental Congresses, and the BSC meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

Sharonne’s work has attracted global media attention, with interviews by the ABC, BBC, SBS, The Age, and many others. It has also been featured in books and will be included in a new textbook due for worldwide release.

In her parallel career as a musician, Sharonne is an award- winning composer and performer, playing trumpet and piano/keys in bands and orchestras at venues and music festivals across Australia, including a national tour with ‘The Cat Empire’.

Her contribution to the dental profession has been recognised with fellowships of the Pierre Fauchard Academy and International College of Dentists, the ADA Dentistry Achievement award, and her appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia for her ‘significant service to dentistry and to the arts’.

www.zaksdental.com.au

Dr Masanori Mori is a palliative care physician and the Director of the Division of Palliative and Supportive Care at Seirei Mikatahara General Hospital in Hamamatsu, Japan. After graduating from Kyoto University in 2002, he completed his internal medicine residency at Okinawa Chubu Hospital in Japan and Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, followed by a hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and a hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington, USA.

Currently, Dr. Mori serves as Co-Vice Chair of the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN). His research interests include symptom management—with a particular focus on breathlessness—physician–patient communication, and advance care planning.

He has served as Principal Investigator for multiple national and international projects, including the East Asian cross-cultural collaborative Study to Elucidate the Dying process (EASED) conducted in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan; a Delphi study on advance care planning in Asia; a cross-cultural survey on prognostic communication; and prospective studies on symptom management in patients with advanced cancer.

Dr Mori is a co-editor of the book Advance Care Planning in the Asia Pacific. He has also contributed to the development of several national and international clinical practice guidelines and has played active roles in organizing scientific meetings and educational programs.

On a personal note, Dr Mori enjoys haiku poetry and has recently published his first haiku collection.