ICH25

International Invited Speakers

Alika Maunakea

John A Burns School of Medicine

Epigenomics Research Program

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Native Hawaiian born and raised in Waiʻanae, Hawaiʻi, Dr. Maunakea received his B.Sc. degree in Biology at Creighton University (2001) and Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (2008). He completed Postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (2012) and has since joined the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa (UHM). In studying epigenetics for over 20 years, Dr. Maunakea has made several important contributions that have helped advance the field. In particular, he has developed and applied novel high-throughput, genome-wide technologies that survey DNA methylation and histone modifications, both central components of epigenetic processes, and has discovered novel roles for DNA methylation in regulating alternative promoter usage and in pre-mRNA splicing with implications in disease development.

Having been continously supported with several productive NIH grants throughout his career, Dr. Maunakea is currently a Professor in the Department of Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Physiology, where he applies epigenomic information toward understanding the mechanistic relationships of gene-environment interactions that underlie the development of diseases of health disparities as well as promotes diversity in the research workforce. He leads and collaborates with a cadre of clinical, behavioral, economic, and health disparities researchers on various community-based biomedical research projects while simultaneously mentors underrepresented minority students in multidisciplinary research careers.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he led efforts to develop infrastructure for community testing and vaccine education to mitigate the adverse impacts of COVID-19 in underserved Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations in Hawaiʻi as part of the NIH-funded Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics of Underserved Populations (RADxUP) initiative. Notably, he led the development of the first CLIA-certified molecular diagnostics laboratory at a Federally Qualified Health Center in Hawaiʻi serving the largest population of NHPIs in the state. In addition, he established and oversees the Epigenomics Core Facility of Hawaiʻi, the state’s only next-generation sequencing service that integrates this technology with epigenome-wide data of DNA methylation, chromatin structure, histone modifications, and transcriptomic analyses, and bacteria metagenomics for microbiome research. He also directs the Consortium of Research Advancement Facilities and Training (CRAFT), a NIH COBRE-funded resource in the Integrative Center for Precision Nutrition and Human Health at UHM that includes a suite of multiomics core facilities and bioinformatic resources.

By integrating these multiomic approaches, Dr. Maunakea seeks to better understand the socioecological determinants that influence epigenomic and gut microbial pathways that regulate inflammatory states that appear to underlie progression of diabetes, the prevalence of which are disproportionately higher among the NHPI population, to identify novel biomarkers that enable prevention in a recent R01-funded study called the Hawaiʻi Social Epigenomics of Early Diabetes (HI-SEED.org). Finally, Dr. Maunakea initiated and leads the Maui Wildfire Exposure Study (www.mauiwes.info), a longtitudinal cohort to better understand the immediate and long-term health impacts of those recovering from the mental/emotional and physical trauma of the wildfires in Lahaina and Kula in August 2023.

Donald Warne

John Hopkins University - Centre for Indigenous Health

Co-Director

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Donald Warne, MD, MPH (Oglala Lakota) serves as the Co-Director of the Center for Indigenous Health and as a tenured, Full-Professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD where he also serves as the Provost Fellow for Indigenous Health Policy. Dr. Warne is also the Senior Policy Advisor to the Great Plains Tribal Leader’s Health Board in Rapid City, SD. Dr. Warne is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, SD and comes from a long line of traditional healers and medicine men.

Donald Warne received his MD from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1995 and his MPH from Harvard School of Public Health in 2002. His work experience includes: several years as a primary care physician with the Gila River Health Care Corporation in Arizona; Staff Clinician with the National Institutes of Health; Indian Legal Program Faculty with the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University; Health Policy Research Director for Inter Tribal Council of Arizona; Executive Director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board; Chair of the Department of Public Health at North Dakota State University; and Indigenous Health Department Chair and Associate Dean of the School of Medicine & Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Warne is also a member of the Stanford University Alumni Hall of Fame.

Satupaitea Viali

Oceania University of Medicine
Vice Chancellor & President

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Dr Satupaitea (Satu) Viali is a Specialist Physician and Cardiologist in Samoa. From 2002 to 2008 he was OUM's Professor and Dean, and in 2007, he was on hand to congratulate OUM’s first graduates. Professor Viali rejoined OUM as Interim Dean of Samoa and the Asia Pacific and Professor of Medicine in May 2023. In addition to his new roles at OUM, Professor Viali is Professor of Medicine, National University of Samoa (NUS) School of Medicine; Cardiologist & Consultant Physician in the Medical Specialist & Cardiologist Practice, Tuloto, Togafuafua, Apia, Samoa; and Visiting Cardiologist and Consultant Physician in the Medical Ward, Cardiology Clinics, and the National Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease Program at TTM Hospital. He has published in peer-reviewed journals on rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, non-communicable diseases, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other topics. Dr. Viali earned both his Bachelor of Human Biology and his medical degree at the Auckland Medical School, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Invited Speakers

Karen Brewer

The University of Auckland
Speech Language Therapist / Kaupapa Maori Researcher

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Dr Karen Brewer (Whakatōhea, Ngāi Te Rangi) is a speech-language therapist and kaupapa Māori researcher at Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland. She holds two appointments – Co-Director Māori of Pūtahi Manawa | Healthy Hearts for Aotearoa New Zealand (CoRE), and Senior Lecturer in Speech Science, Psychology. Karen’s research interests are in stroke and aphasia, as well as broader issues of cultural safety and Māori workforce development. From 2020 to 2023 Karen was a senior research fellow on Manawataki Fatu Fatu for ACCESS, a programme of research funded by the Heart Foundation and Healthier Lives National Science Challenge aiming to achieve equity in cardiovascular disease outcomes for Māori and Pacific Peoples. Karen led the qualitative aspects of the research, employing kaupapa Māori and Pacific research methodologies in interviews and focus groups with Māori and Pacific patients and their support networks, service providers and policy makers.

Alex Brown

National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, Australian National University
Director

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Bio coming soon.

Jim Cotter

University of Otago
Professor, Exercise & Environmental Physiology

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Bio coming soon

Ben Jones

University of Oxford
Junior Doctor & PhD Student

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Bio coming soon.

Erina Korohina

Manawaora Integrated Health & Research Centre
Health Researcher

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Erina Korohina (Ngati Porou) is a Maori health researcher at Manawaora Integrated Health & Research Centre and Putahi Manawa | Healthy Hearts for Aotearoa CoRE. Her work focuses on Indigenous-led solutions for cardiovascular equity, using kaupapa Maori methodologies and Shanau (family)-centred design to transform health systems and improve heart health outcomes for Maori.

Johanna Montgomery

University of Auckland
Professor

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Professor Johanna Montgomery research interests focus on (1) neural control of the heart in atrial fibrillation, (2) womens heart health, and (3) heart health equity. She co-leads a programme of research "Restoring the balance: Heart health of Wahine, Fafine, Va'ine, Fifine & Women of Aotearoa" and through this is developing learnings of kaupapa Maori co-design and indentifying differences in how our wahine experience challenges in heart health.

Lee Nedkoff

University of Western Australia
Co-Director, Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Centre

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Bio coming soon.

Rajesh Purinak

University of Sydney
Professor

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Professor Raj Puranik is a consultant cardiologist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, runs a cardiac MRI service at Westmead Children's Hospital and is a clinical Professor at the University of Sydney.Raj helped set up the first ever cardiac clinic at Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service over 15 years ago. He visits Redfern every second Tuesday of the month. The clinic provides echo and cardiac nursing support to the Indigenous Population. Raj is committed to "closing the gap"!Raj is also the Clinical Practice Advisor and become a board member of CSANZ.

Kiri Reihana

University of Waikato

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Kiri Reihana (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāi Tūhoe) is a kairangahau - Māori scientist who is a currently doing her PhD bringing Te Ao Māori and Neo-classical sciences together in the marine arena. Kiri is a Taiao ora specialist, environmental health specialist who applies her research to mobilising mātauranga (Māori knowledge) with iwi (tribes) throughout New Zealand. Her work on cockles’ forms part of the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge, a program that aims to protect and enhance the marine environment.

Using digital platforms to create innovative Māori science solutions. Kiri is the designer of the customised, iwi specific, mobile applications mātauranga-based assessment and monitoring tools, as well as other mātauranga based digital resources such ‘Eko’ the ecology game www.eko.nz (National), ‘Karanga a Tanemahuta’ the VR experience and ‘Kaitiakitanga i te Au Warawara’ graphic novel (Te Rarawa).

Kiri was the first Māori PhD to win the coveted L'oreal UNESCO mentoring fellowship for women in science in New Zealand in 2022.

Kiri is the chair of the Tīwaiwaka trust board, a Te Ao Māori conservation movement led by Pā, or Rob McGowan, one of New Zealand’s foremost rongoā experts https://www.tiwaiwaka.nz, in championing the vision of ‘Ka ora te whenua, Ka ora te tangata’ (When the land is well, the people are well).

Brett Sutton

CSIRO
Director, Health & Biosecurity Research Unit

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Prof Brett Sutton is a Director at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, leading the Health & Biosecurity Research Unit, comprising over 350 researchers and support staff in areas of digital health, human health and plant, animal and environmental biosecurity.

A qualified public health physician, he brings extensive experience and clinical expertise in public health and communicable diseases, developed through roles in government, emergency medicine, and international fieldwork.

Before joining CSIRO, Brett served as Victoria’s Chief Health Officer and Chief Human Biosecurity Officer, heading the Health Protection Branch within the Victorian Department of Health.

With specialist knowledge in tropical medicine and infectious diseases, Brett has worked extensively in lower-middle-income countries and complex humanitarian settings, including in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Timor-Leste, and Fiji.

Brett’s career reflects his passion and commitment to advancing health outcomes in Australia and globally.

Professor Sutton is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, a Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine, and a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (AFPHM). He is also a member of the Faculty of Travel Medicine.