Nina Evason

Nina Evason is the Research Lead & Community Relations Manager, Mosaica Group, and is the Co-Author & Chief Editor at The Cultural Atlas.

Dr Naomi Katz

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.

Dr Daniel Dorevitch

Dr Daniel Dorevitch (MBBS, FRACP, Clin Dip Pall Med) is a Paediatrician and Palliative Medicine Physician with a strong interest in clinical ethics, quality improvement and communication training. He has worked across paediatric and adult services in metropolitan, regional and rural services in Victoria and Queensland, currently working with the Paediatric Palliative Care Service at Children’s Health Queensland, and as the Clinical Ethics Fellow at the Centre for Children’s Health Ethics & Law (CCHEL).

Daniel is actively involved in teaching students, junior clinicians and specialist trainees, and in particular is passionate about helping Australian clinicians to better support adults in having difficult conversations with the important children and young people in their lives, with a focus on translating evidence into practical clinical skills.

Alongside his clinical practice, Daniel is a co-editor of the forthcoming textbook Advancing Clinical Ethics: Theory, Practice and Consultation.

Dr Aaron Wong

Dr Aaron Wong (MBBS BMedSci FRACP FAChPM) is a Palliative Medicine Physician and Consultant Geriatrician. He is the Clinical Director of Supportive & Palliative Care at Eastern Health and has an honorary appointment as Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and Monash University. He has held multiple service leadership roles in a variety of geriatric and palliative care outpatient, ambulatory and community settings. At the end of 2025, he was selected as an Asia Pacific Hospice Network Cynthia Goh Palliative Care Fellow as the inaugural Australian Fellow, joining a leadership network dedicated to strengthening and expanding palliative care across the Asia–Pacific region. Aaron is committed to holistic and compassionate care for older people. He now leads the ENRICH-PC research network, and his interdisciplinary research and education interests span dementia care, delirium, quality use of medicines, innovative models of care, cancer pain and symptom management, digital tools, and end‑of‑life care.

Aaron is regularly involved in dementia palliative care education for clinicians and consumers, research and has been involved in developing care pathways to strengthen dementia support. His clinical practice involves care of patients across the dementia journey, providing secondary consultation for complex symptoms and prognostication in advanced dementia, and managing comorbidities and frailty in people living with dementia. He has also co-authored an expert commentary for the Residential Aged Care Communique on the challenges of terminal sedation in advanced dementia.

Dr Sharonne Zaks AM

Dr Sharonne Zaks AM (BDSc, Ad Dip Mus, FICD, FPFA) 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’.

Dr Karl Lorenz

Dr Karl Lorenz (MD MSHS) 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.

Michelle DeNatale

Michelle DeNatale, MSc is Vice President of Medical Affairs at Stanford Health Care, where she leads strategic initiatives that advance clinical excellence, physician engagement, medical staff affairs, and patient-centered care.

Throughout her career, she has partnered with physicians, trainees, and interdisciplinary care teams to drive healthcare transformation, quality improvement, and leadership development across complex healthcare settings. She led the implementation of Stanford Health Care’s enterprise Medical Direction framework, strengthening physician leadership, governance, and accountability across the health system. Michelle is the founding Administrative Director of Stanford’s Clinical Effectiveness Leadership Training (CELT) program and works closely with Graduate Medical Education leaders to advance physician development and organizational learning. As a Global Health Fellow with the Stanford Medicine Center for Innovation, she has collaborated with healthcare leaders across India, Australia, Kenya, and Ethiopia to build clinical improvement collaboratives focused on quality, safety, and care delivery.

Michelle holds a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management from Harvard University. She is passionate about mentoring emerging healthcare leaders, introducing new learners to improvement science, and designing innovative solutions that enhance care for patients and healthcare teams.