|
|
Keynote speakers
There were five plenary sessions, each featuring one or more keynote speakers. When choosing keynote speakers one of the organising committee’s goals was to try and span the range of tobacco control work so there would be something for everyone.
You can find the abstract for each keynote speaker at the end of the paragraph about them.
 |
Rob Cunningham is a lawyer and Senior Policy Analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society who has worked in tobacco control since 1988. He has university degrees in political science and law, and he has an M.B.A. Rob’s background includes: author of the book Smoke & Mirrors: The Canadian Tobacco War, published in English, French and Russian; involvement in numerous initiatives supporting the adoption of federal and provincial tobacco control legislation in Canada; appearing in court, including before the Supreme Court of Canada, in tobacco cases; and participation in negotiations in Geneva for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Download Abstract
|
 |
Shu-Hong Zhu, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego. Dr. Zhu’s research focuses on smoking behavior and on interventions for smoking cessation. He is known for his work demonstrating the effectiveness of telephone-based interventions in public health settings, now widely adopted internationally. While continuing to experimentally test new interventions, Dr. Zhu has in recent years expanded his research in explaining the natural variation of smoking behavior over time, and in evaluating multiple approaches that can accelerate tobacco cessation on the population level. Dr. Zhu consults widely with national and international health and governmental agencies, including having served as a consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank on Tobacco Control Initiatives in the Western Pacific Region.
Download Abstract |
 |
Professor Melanie Wakefield is Director of the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer at the Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne Australia, and an Australian NHMRC Principal Research Fellow. With qualifications in psychology and public health, she has over 20 years of experience in evaluating tobacco control policies and programs, with particular interests in understanding the influence of anti-smoking advertising and news coverage of tobacco issues on smoking behaviour in adolescents and adults. |
Prior to her current position, Professor Wakefield worked in research positions in Chicago, United States; Adelaide, South Australia; and Nottingham, England. She is Deputy Editor of the journal Tobacco Control and has received a range of research grant funding from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
Download Abstract
 |
Caleb Otto is a Senator of the Seventh Olbiil Era Kelulau, the Senate of the Republic of Palau and is currently the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health. A medical graduate he was the Chief of Preventive Services and the Director of the Bureau of Public Health from 1993 until he became a private consultant in health and social services in 2003. He has worked on the ratification of the WHO-FCTC by Pacific Island countries and is particularly interested in the relationship between tobacco and social injustice among the indigenous peoples of the Pacific.
Download Abstract
|
Professor Chris Cunningham, Dr Colin Tukuitonga and Matthew Allen co-presented the opening plenary session.
 |
Chris Cunningham (Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Toa) is Professor of Maori Health and Director of the Research Centre for Maori Health & Development at Massey University’s Wellington Campus. He holds a number of positions within the health sector, but most relevant to this meeting he is an Independent Trustee for The Quit Group – New Zealand’s leading smoking cessation provider and operator of the award winning Quit programme. He is also a Director of the Hutt Valley District Health Board, Hepatitis Foundation of NZ and Cancer Control Trust. His research interests focus on smoking cessation and obesity/insulin resistance – two significant modifiable risks for Maori health.
Download Abstract
|
 |
Dr Colin Tukuitonga is a medical graduate and a public health medicine specialist with extensive experience in New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and internationally. He was until recently the Head of Pacific and International Health, School of Population Health in the University of Auckland, but has now taken up the position of Chief Executive at the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs in Wellington. Before this he was responsible for surveillance and prevention of chronic diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO) based in Switzerland. A key achievement in that role was the development of the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. |
Prior to joining the WHO, Colin was the Director of Public Health for New Zealand, where he was involved in a number of public health programmes. He has held a number of health policy, management research and teaching roles in New Zealand. In 2000/2001, he was awarded a Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy in the USA. Colin has published a number of papers on the health of Pacific peoples in New Zealand.
Download Abstract
 |
Matthew Allen is co-Director of Allen & Clarke Policy and Regulatory Specialists Limited, a New Zealand-based consultancy that works extensively in the Pacific and Asia.
Matthew worked for, and ultimately led, the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s National Drug Policy team from 1994 to 2000. Throughout that time he managed the tobacco control portfolio and has worked on every amendment to domestic tobacco control legislation since 1995.
|
Over recent years Matthew has led development assistance projects aimed at building tobacco control capacity in Pacific and Asian states. These projects have been funded by the World Health Organization, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the New Zealand Agency for International Development and have involved a large number of countries, including the Cook Islands, Indonesia, Kiribati, Malaysia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Matthew was a member of New Zealand’s delegation during the negotiations for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and in 2006 was appointed as a member of the WHO expert group elaborating a template for a Protocol on Cross-border Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship.
Download Abstract
|
|
