Larisa Barnes B.A., B.Nat. (Hons.) has been a practising naturopath since 2001. She has also worked as a clinical educator at Southern Cross University (SCU), supervising fourth year naturopathy students in their clinical placements, and as a research assistant in the School of Health and Human Sciences at SCU. As a project officer at the University Centre for Rural Health North Coast (University of Sydney), Larisa has provided research support, organised continuing professional education for allied health professionals, and helped with interdisciplinary student placements for allied health, pharmacy and medical students. She is passionate about helping people to achieve optimal health whilst empowering them to make appropriate health care choices, and about encouraging interdisciplinary communication between health professionals. Larisa commenced her PhD studies in October 2014 with the Faculty of Pharmacy at Sydney University. Her research focuses on health literacy and complementary medicine use in pregnancy and lactation.

Dr Lesley Braun is currently Director of the Blackmores Institute, Adjunct Associate Professor of Integrative Medicine at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Monash/Alfred Psychiatric Research centre. She has also held positions at The Alfred Hospital as a Research Pharmacist and is a member of key industry groups including the Australian Therapeutic Goods Advisory Council, the informal working party for complementary medicine regulation reform (TGA), the Advisory Committee for the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association and on the executive for the complementary and integrative therapies group within COSA. Lesley co-authored the best-selling textbook ‘Herbs and Natural Supplements – an evidence based guide’, is founding editor-in-chief of the journal ‘Advances in Integrative Medicine’, and is a regular columnist for the Australian Journal of Pharmacy.  She regularly presents at national and international conferences about integrative medicine in addition to undertaking her own complementary medicine research projects.

Catherine Bronger is a registered pharmacist who has had extensive experience in a range of community pharmacy settings.  She has always seen the value of training to successful pharmacy practice, and part of her early career led to her employment by a large national group to write and deliver their Pharmacist and Pharmacy Assistant’s training programme.

 In 2007 and in her first year of registration Catherine took the challenging step of managing a very large pharmacy in the Chemistworks group. With the confidence that her skillset would accommodate this enormous task, she entered into a partnership and several years later the store was awarded 2011 Pharmacy of the Year: Excellence in Business Management.

She has helped to develop an education program that is now delivered to all Chemistworks team members encouraging total solution selling. Over recent years Catherine implemented an S2/S3 strategy and training program called the White Coat Effect which she believes is the key driver into the professional service model in a community setting.

 In 2009 she set up her first Greenfield pharmacy under the Priceline banner, training and developing a successful management team.  She has lectured and tutored in Pharmacy Retail Skills 1 & 2 to students at Sydney University and also participated in research done by Sydney University academics into the delivery of professional services in community pharmacy. She has presented at several conferences and currently sits on the University of Technology Sydney’s Pharmacy National and Industry advisory Committee.

Towards the end of 2014 Catherine purchased her third store, located close to Sydney’s CBD and the two Sydney Pharmacy Schools. She hopes that this store, with her young and enthusiastic team, can make an impact through professional service delivery in a high retail environment.

In 2015 Catherine was awarded PSA Young Pharmacist of the Year NSW. She is passionate about the career and service development of young pharmacists in her group and together with her team she has successfully created and implemented a range of services that are delivered in the ChemistWorks Stores.  She is currently working on an integrated natural health strategy and service.

Professor Peter Howe is Professor of Nutrition Research in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy and Director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre at the University of Newcastle. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Nutritional Physiology at the University of South Australia and Adjunct Professor in Physiology at the University of Adelaide. With an extensive track record of multidisciplinary preclinical and clinical research in nutrition, cardiovascular physiology, neuroscience and more recently mental health, he is a recognised authority on cardiovascular and metabolic health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids and other bioactive nutrients. Peter has published 250 papers with 6000 citations and has an H-index of 41. His goal is the scientific substantiation and promotion of health benefits of functional foods and nutraceuticals through collaborative partnerships with industry. He is joint Editor-in-Chief of the open access journal Nutrients and a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia.

Dr Treasure McGuire is a medicines information pharmacist, educator and researcher. In her Mater Health Services role, she is Assistant Director of Pharmacy (Practice and Development) managing their Academic Practice Unit. She is also a Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland and Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine, Bond University where she lectures on complementary medicines, reproductive health, medication safety and communicable diseases. She was recently credentialed as an Advanced Practice Pharmacist (Stage 3). In recognition of her services to drug information, she received the Lilly International Fellowship in Hospital Pharmacy and the Bowl of Hygeia of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.