Brisbane Speakers

Prof Anu Sharma

Anu Sharma, Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Speech Language and Hearing, Institute for Cognitive Science and Center for Neuroscience at University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research is focused on examining neuroplasticity in hearing loss. Dr. Sharma has over 75 scientific publications and over 170 invited presentations and keynotes. 

Dr Shannon Withers

Dr Shannon Withers is an Australian trained Ears Nose and Throat Surgeon and a fellow of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. She studied medicine at the University of Tasmania and completed her surgical training in Victoria. Dr Withers undertook further fellowship training in ear and skullbase surgery at the Ear Science Institute of Western Australia and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth. Her public appointments are the Royal Brisbane and Women’s and the Mater Hospitals.

Dr Karen McCloy

Karen graduated from dentistry in Queensland in 1984 and works in private practice with her husband at Caboolture.  She has completed a Master’s degree in Facial Pain at Tufts University in 2011, the Masters of Science in Sleep Medicine at Sydney University in 2013, is a Diplomat of the American Board of Orofacial Pain and has been doing a PhD in Vigilance in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea at Qld University for many years.

Prof Nancy Pachana

Dr Nancy A. Pachana is a clinical geropsychologist and professor in the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland, and is co-director of the UQ Ageing Mind Initiative, providing a focal point for clinical, translational ageing-related research. She has an international reputation in geriatric mental health, particularly late-life anxiety, and has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and books on various topics in the field of ageing. Nancy was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2014. In 2019 she was awarded the M. Powell Lawton Award, the American Psychological Association’s Society of Clinical Geropsychology Lifetime Achievement Award.