EIS 2023 Speakers

Presentation Title: Gaining ground or treading water? Observations on the state and direction of implementation science

Bianca Albers, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich’s Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care and a seasoned organisational leader, investigator, and project manager with 15+ years’ experience in promoting the uptake of evidence in policy and practice in health and human services. 

Presentation Title: 10 Years of Evidence Based Management: Challenges, Insights and Developments

Eric Barends (Ph.D., VU University Amsterdam) is the managing director of the Center for Evidence-Based Management. He has twenty years of management experience, fifteen years at the senior management level, including five years as an executive. He advises and coaches managers, senior leaders, and executive boards of large and medium sized companies and non-profit organizations on evidence-based decision-making. 

Micaela Cronin commenced as Australia’s first Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner on 1 November 2022. Micaela began her career as a social worker in family violence and sexual assault services, and has held leadership roles across the social service sector in Australia and
internationally, including President of ACOSS. Micaela was the CEO of an international non-government organisation based in Asia, working to build global service delivery and strategic partnerships to tackle human trafficking and human rights abuses.

In 2014, Micaela was awarded the Robin Clark Leadership award, Victoria’s most prestigious Children’s Protection award, recognising a leader who inspires others in achieving the best outcomes for children, young people
and their families.

Presentation Title: Navigating upriver: Paddling the choppy waters between implementation science and practice-based implementation

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Maureen Dobbins, RN, PhD is a professor in the School of Nursing at McMaster University. Her research efforts seek to understand knowledge translation among public health decision makers in Canada. Her program of research has: identified barriers and facilitators to research use; explored the information needs of public health decision makers; and developed, implemented and evaluated a variety of knowledge translation strategies for public health decision makers. 

Presentation Title: Results-Focused Government: Lessons and

Leading Practices

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Dr Andrew Feldman’s career has focused on helping government agencies use evidence, data, and innovation to strengthen their outcomes for the people they serve. In 2021, he launched his consulting practice based in Washington D.C. called the Center for Results-Focused Leadership. He also hosts the Gov Innovator podcast, with over 200 interviews with results-focused leaders at the national, state and local levels. 

Presentation Title: Changing the World, One Coin Toss at a Time

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Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. Prior to being elected in 2010, Andrew was a professor of economics at the Australian National University. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard, having graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours in Arts and Law. Andrew is a past recipient of the Economic Society of Australia's Young Economist Award and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.

Robyn Mildon, PhD, is an internationally recognised figure in the field of research translation and implementation science and program and policy evaluations in health, education and social services. She is the Founding Executive Director of the Centre for Evidence and Implementation (CEI www.ceiglobal.org ), a global social purpose organisation whose work now spans across 8 countries.

Presentation Title: Use and/or misuse of theory in implementation studies: Observations and confessions of an implementation scientist

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Nick read psychology at the Panteion University of Athens (Greece), and obtained a MSc in Organisational & Economic Psychology from the same university, before completing a PhD in behavioural decision science in 2004 (UCL, UK). Nick is Visiting Professor and Academic Co-Director of the NUS Centre for Behavioural and Implementation Science Interventions, Singapore. 

Aron Shlonsky is Professor and Head of Department (Social Work) at Monash University School of Primary and Allied Health Care. He was an Assistant Professor at Columbia University School of Social Work (2002-2005), Associate Professor and Factor-Inwentash Chair in Child Welfare at the University of Toronto Faculty of Social Work (2005-2013), and Professor of
Evidence-Informed Practice at the University of Melbourne (2013-2018). He also currently serves as an Editor in Chief of Children and Youth Services Review.

Presentation Title: 10 years of trials, tears & the treasury: £333 million later, the story of making change happen & the value of tenacity

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With over 30 years’ experience in the children’s sector Isabelle took up her post as the government’s first Chief Social Worker for Children and Families in September 2013. Isabelle is well known for co-designing a practice framework for delivering child and family social work, which has had an enduring influence on the children's social care practice system across England. Isabelle was both a member of the team for the Independent Review of Child Protection 2011 and the design group for the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care 2022. 

Presentation Title: Meeting the Moment: Democratizing Evidence for Policy, Practice, and the Public

Vivian Tseng is President and CEO of the Foundation for Child Development, a private foundation dedicated to harnessing the power of research to ensure that all young children benefit from early learning experiences that affirm their individual, family, and community assets, fortify them against harmful consequences arising from poverty, racism, prejudice, and discrimination, and strengthen their developmental potential.