Congress 2026

Daniel Johnstone

Consumer

Diagnosed with head and neck cancer at age 28, Daniel transformed his experience into a lifelong commitment to making healthcare more compassionate and human-centred. He is a PhD candidate at the University of South Australia, where his research explores how lived-experience storytelling can foster empathy and reflexivity in healthcare students. Daniel is Chair of the Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy & Research Consumer Advisory Group and an Executive Member of Cancer Voices SA, advocating for genuine consumer partnership in research, education, and policy to create systems that listen, learn, and care.  

Professor Kim Alexander

Plenary Speaker

Kim Alexander holds a joint position as a Professor of Cancer Nursing at the School of Nursing, QUT, and Cancer Care Services, Metro North, Queensland Health. She is the current co-chair of the Queensland Collaborative for Cancer Survivorship. A cancer nursing specialist and senior academic, Kim has dedicated her career to cancer nursing, epidemiology, and survivorship research. Kim is passionate about transforming outcomes for people with cancer through predictive patient profiling using genomics and other techniques to inform tailored interventions. A key focus of her work is workforce upskilling in genomics to ensure the delivery of cutting-edge, personalised cancer care.

Professor Mei Krishnasamy

Plenary Speaker

Professor Mei Krishnasamy PhD, FAAN, is Professor of Cancer Nursing at the University of Melbourne, Research and Education Lead for Nursing at the VCCC Alliance and, Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Health Services Research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She is an internationally recognised cancer nurse-researcher who has built a leading program of consumer-informed cancer supportive care research that has been translated into health policy. Her work is defined by a commitment to addressing equitable access to cancer care, with particular focus on older people and those with poor outcome cancers. In2018, Mei was awarded lifetime membership of the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia (CNSA) for servicesto cancer nursing and in July 2022, was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She hasauthored or co‐authored successful competitive research grants totalling AU$38.3M and has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers. She is past President of the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia and the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia.