APC 2025 Professor Lisa Brophy

29th - 30th of July 2025

Professor Lisa Brophy

Social Determinants & Human Rights

 Lisa Brophy is Professor in Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University. Lisa has developed experience in mental health practice, research and knowledge of this complex sector. Lisa’s work has focused on human rights, social inclusion and reducing restrictive practice and compulsory treatment. She has also undertaken evaluations of recovery-oriented practice and innovations in service delivery. Lisa is committed to supporting consumer researchers and participation and codesign in mental health research.

Kerry Hawkins

Perspectives & Narratives

Kerry works from a lived experience perspective as a family member. Her interests lie in systems transformation. She is Chair of the national Family, Carer and Kin mental health peak, Mental Health Carers Australia. She has worked in senior roles for the NDIA, the WA Mental Health Commission and as a carer consultant in both NGO and public mental health services. An alumni of Harvard Kennedy School’s Implementing Public Policy program, she is a graduate of Boston University’s Global Leadership Institute’s Recovery Class of 2013 and in 2024 undertook a Churchill Scholarship investigating international rights-based contemporary approaches to mental health that recognise the integral role of families in mental health. She served 3 terms as a National Mental Health Commissioner from 2018-2024.

Professor Jennifer Smith-Merry

Policy & Systems

Jennifer Smith-Merry is Professor of Health and Social Policy and Australian Research Council Industry Laureate Fellow (2023-2028) in the Sydney School of Health Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. Jen was Director of the Centre for Disability Research and Policy (CDRP) from 2018-2024 and remains an active member of the centre. CDRP is a multi-disciplinary centre whose mission is to make life better for people with disability in Australia and our region by translating research to policy and practice. Over the past decade her research work has focused on disability and mental health policy, particularly in relation to the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and policy interventions for people with complex needs. Jen is chief investigator on multiple grants in partnership with government and non-government organisations. She works closely with people with lived experience of disability and has a strong interest in lived experience-informed policy and service design.

A/Professor Julia Lappin

Clinical Research & Treatments

Julia is a Psychiatrist with expertise in psychosis spectrum illness and bipolar disorder, focusing on early intervention, improving outcomes in severe mental illness, physical health promotion, comorbid substance misuse, and treatment resistance.

Having joined UNSW Australia from King’s College London, A/Prof Lappin collaborates locally and internationally on mental health outcomes and supervises research in these areas. She maintains strong ties to the AESOP-10 study, which tracked long-term outcomes for individuals with first-episode psychosis, exploring recovery pathways and improving clinical services.

Her work includes developing integrated care models for comorbid substance use and mental illness, with a particular interest in the effects of crystal methamphetamine and other substances on cognitive and mental health outcomes.

Professor Dan Siskind

Clinical Research & Treatments

Prof Siskind trained as a psychiatrist in Australia and the United States. He works clinically as a psychiatrist in Brisbane, Australia with people with treatment refractory schizophrenia. His research interests include treatment refractory schizophrenia, clozapine and the physical health comorbidities associated with schizophrenia.  He has over 250 publications and over AU$50million in competitive research grants, with over AU$6.5 million as CIA.

Amanda Habermann

Perspectives & Narratives

Amanda is an experienced independent Lived Experience Educator and consultant who has worked for the last twenty years from a consumer perspective in the mental health sector. Amanda provides realistic and real-world experience in the International Hearing Voices Network to groups and individuals who want to understand the Hearing Voices Approach, and is the Chairperson of ISPS (International Society of Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis) Australia.  Amanda has been an active leader in the development of the Lived Experience Workforce both in Queensland, Western Australia and nationally.