Program & Speakers

Dr Towler is the Chief Medical Officer in the Clinical Excellence Division at the WA Department of Health.

He was Clinical Lead for End-of-Life Care with the WA Cancer and Palliative Care Network until September 2022, has been a Voluntary Assisted Dying provider. He is also the State Medical Director at DonateLifeWA, the Western Australian organ donation agency.

Dr Towler recently retired from clinical practise as a specialist in intensive care after 32 years, most recently at the Fiona Stanley Hospital but before that he worked in intensive care at Royal Perth Hospital for nearly 25 years.

He is a fellow of the College of Intensive Care Medicine, the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, the Australasian College of Health Service Managers and the Australian Medical Association.

He is a former President of the AMA in Western Australia and was the WA Chief Medical Officer from 2006 -2012. Dr Towler has had many senior roles across WA Health. He was a member of the Ministerial Expert Panel on Voluntary Assisted Dying in 2019 and, in the same year, a member of the Clinical Reference Group on the work to produce the Sustainable Health Review Report.

Tissa is a highly qualified, world recognised Professor in Neurology and clinical Associate Professor in Medicine at Western Health Clinical School and University of Melbourne, and has Adjunct Professorial roles with a number of universities including, La Trobe University, Victoria University, RMIT University and Rajarata University, Sri Lanka.

Tissa is the World Brain Day Co-Chair, leading the World Brain Day program on behalf of World Federation of Neurology, generating enormous global impact in promoting brain health, with millions of people accessing the World Brain Day campaign resources each year.

An international educator, Tissa has published 297 papers (author, co-author or contributory author) to date, presented over a hundred international brain health lectures around the globe, supervised the advanced training of neurologists locally and internationally, and has unparalleled experience in designing and delivering world class e-learning and online course content in the field of neurology.

A firm believer in the power of education and equity in healthcare, Tissa is committed to bridging the divide between 'rural and urban' and the 'developing and developed world'. His vision is to simply ensure patients have access to the best practitioners, healthcare and facilities, even when limited resources are available.

Tissa became the first SriLankan neurologist to be awarded the prestigious Order of Australia Medal on 26th January 2023, in recognition of his services to medicine as a neurologist.

Donna is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Bureau for Epilepsy [IBE] and was recently appointed Chair of the OneNeurology Partnership, comprising international neurological organisations united in making neurology a global public health priority and building and implementing an integrated response for neurology across the life course and within healthcare systems worldwide.

Prior to her current roles, Donna was Executive Director of the European Federation of Neurological Associations (EFNA) for 10 years. She has been active in representing the neurology patient community throughout her career, including as a board member of the European Brain Council, a member of the European Affairs Sub-Committee at the European Academy of Neurology and as a member of the World Health Organization’s NeuroCovid Global Forum. Donna has moderated, chaired and presented at many conferences, meetings and events including the World Health Organisation and European Parliament.

Ms Beazley has been a Labor member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly since the 2021 state election, representing Victoria Park. In December 2022, she became a parliamentary secretary to Stephen Dawson, the minister for emergency services, innovation and the digital economy, medical research, and volunteering.

Karen has been a face and voice of ABC TV and radio sport since joining the ABC in 1989.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Psychology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Karen spent eight years as a TV sports broadcaster and presenter, anchoring golf, tennis and other major sporting broadcasts on the ABC.

In 1997, she made the move to ABC Radio as the presenter of the weekend national sports program ‘Summer Grandstand’ – a role she still enjoys from her adopted hometown of Perth.

Karen co-hosted ABC Radio’s coverage of the Sydney, Athens, Beijing and Rio Olympics and the coverage of six Paralympic Games (Lillehammer, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Beijing and London) with ABC TV.

She was part of the Friday night fun of ‘Live & Sweaty’ on ABC TV in the early nineties and for six years presented sport on ABC TV’s weeknight news in Perth.

Karen was also the regular host of ABC TV’s annual coverage of the Hopman Cup tennis in Perth from 1994 to 2010.

She was the Media Award Winner at the 2000 and 2001 Australian Sports Awards and in 2020 Karen received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sports Australia Media Awards in Sydney.

2020 also saw Karen hospitalised with HSV-1 Encephalitis, a swelling of the brain.

During her recovery, she became an advocate for encephalitis awareness in Australia, sharing her experiences with the media for World Encephalitis Day which is February 22.

Karen said: “I’m delighted to be an Ambassador of the Encephalitis Society (UK Brain Inflammation Charity) . After returning home from hospital, I will never forget what my wonderful colleague, ABC Perth Radio Breakfast presenter, the now late Russell Woolf did for me. After my illness was reported, a contact of his got in touch to say she had a colleague who had been through encephalitis and would be so happy to chat with me if I wanted at any time.

"A few weeks later, I did just that and through being able to talk with someone who could understand so much of what I was experiencing, we instantly formed a special friendship. Together, Rachael Schwarz and I are very much a team with a shared passion - to raise awareness of this condition among the general public and health professionals, ensuring that anyone who may fall ill in the future has access to the best treatment and the best after-care. That they are not alone”

Karen returned to her role as presenter on ABC Radio’s Summer Grandstand program in October 2021. Just in time for the Ashes!

Rachael has lived in New Zealand, Fiji, Malaysia, Europe, the UK and Australia. She holds a degree in Spanish and Politics from the University of Auckland.

Rachael has worked for both the New South Wales and Western Australian Governments in the Protocol area since 2003.

She is well acquainted with managing Guest of Government visits for Heads of State and Government along with major state hospitality and ceremonial events. Highlights have included working on many Royal visits from Britain, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, the Swearing in of State Governors, Community Events, dealing with Heads of Mission and organising special events on behalf of the Premier.

In January 2019, she was diagnosed with Herpes Simplex Encephalitis. After four weeks in hospital, she was off work for six months. Initially she returned to work for only two half days per week and did not know if she was ever going to be able to function at a reasonable level. She is still left with headaches, epilepsy, tinnitus, exhaustion, name memory and taste issues. She is now back to work for four days a week and believes the major support from family, friends and colleagues and an early diagnosis has aided her recovery immensely.

In November 2020, she finally met someone else who had had encephalitis. One of her colleagues had worked with Russell Woolf from the ABC in the past and when she heard about Karen Tighe, she emailed him asking if they could meet.

“Sharing our journey has been one of the major factors in my recovery. Karen and I have a bond that has made both of us stronger.”

“Because I am so fortunate, I have worked with others to raise the awareness of encephalitis through marking World Encephalitis Day for the last three years and setting up a regular support group for survivors in Western Australia with the assistance of the Encephalitis Society. We recently ran our first trail series to raise awareness of encephalitis.”

Rachael is also working with other neurological organisations, including the Neurological Council and Epilepsy WA. Her aim is to enable earlier diagnosis, better treatment, and recovery and to ensure there is support following discharge, including rehabilitation and counselling for people to rebuild their lives as much as possible.

Professor Charles Watson is an eminent neurobiologist and public health physician. He specialises in brain and spinal cord mapping and has over 25 years’ experience teaching anatomy to medical and science students.

During his tenure at the Health Department of Western Australia from 1982 to 1994, Charles’ achievements included setting up the Quit campaign and establishing breast cancer screening in Western Australia. He was appointed Chief Health Officer in 1993.

Charles currently holds professorial positions at Curtin, University of Queensland, University of NSW, and the University of WA. He has authored or co-authored 25 books on neuroscience and is best known for his atlas of the rat brain, which has been cited over 85,000 times. He has published over 100 journal articles, and his recent work focuses on gene expression in the developing brain.

Charles was made a member of the Order of Australia for his work in brain research and public health in 2004.

Dr Ghia is a consultant neurologist whose speciality interests include stroke and cerebrovascular diseases.

Dr Ghia undertook his specialist neurology training in Melbourne at Monash Medical Centre and Box Hill Hospital. Further fellowship and sub-specialty training in stroke and interventional neuroradiology in Sydney at Liverpool and Royal North Shore Hospitals followed before he moved to Perth.

Dr Ghia works at Fiona Stanley Hospital. He is the inaugural head of the stroke unit and is principal investigator for a number of research trials. He sits on various statewide and national committees like Stroke Society of Australasia, Australasian Stroke Trials Network, Australian Stroke Clinical Registry and Stroke Council Advisory Group. He is actively involved with WA Telestroke Network.

Dr Ghia consults privately at Karrinyup (Clinical Neurology Services). Dr Ghia also provides consultation service for inpatients at SJOG Subiaco Hospital and Mount Hospital. Dr Ghia is also fluent in Gujarati and Hindi.

Paulette is an accomplished international pharmaceutical industry professional. She has worked as a pharmacist and has over 15 years pharmaceutical sales, marketing, management and liaison experience across multiple brands and therapeutic areas building strong understanding, knowledge and networks in rheumatology, neuroscience, oncology and haematology.

Paulette joined Epilepsy WA in 2022 as Epilepsy Smart Manager for Western Australia and works to increase knowledge and awareness about epilepsy to anyone with a duty of care in Western Australia, and to bring epilepsy out of the shadows. Paulette provides school or workplace training in seizure first aid, understanding epilepsy and its impacts, administering emergency medication and promoting Epilepsy WA’s display of a large range of seizure alert devices.