LGBTQ+ Economists and Allies in Asia-Pacific (LEAP) Summit

Confirmed Speakers

Joe Ball, Victorian Commissioner for LGBTIQA+ Communities, Victorian Government

Nicky Bath, Chief Executive Officer,  LGBTIQ+ Health Australia

Ada Cheung, Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences, he University of Melbourne

Maxine Lee, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, San Francisco State University

Important dates

Community Advisory Group

Sasha Bailey, Trans Health Research Group - Research Fellow, Department of Medicine, the University of Melbourne

Clue Coman, PhD candidate and research assistant, Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney

Ian Down, Policy and Research Lead,  LGBTIQ+  Health Australia

Mo Hammoud, Senior Lecturer, Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society, UNSW Sydney

Andrew Ireland, Postdoctoral Research Associate at Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Euan McKay, Designated Associate Professor, International Strategy Office, Nagoya University

Brendan Nolan, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Medicine,  the University of Melbourne

Jo Steinle, Administrative Support Officer, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, the University of Melbourne

Keynote speakers

Professor Mark L. Hatzenbuehler

Harvard University

Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard, where he directs the Biopsychosocial Effects of Stigma Lab. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from Yale and completed his post-doctoral training in population health at Columbia, where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar.

Dr. Hatzenbuehler’s work has been published in leading journals across multiple fields, including Nature Communications, Nature Human Behavior, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lancet Public Health, Annual Reviews of Public Health, JAMA Psychiatry, Psychological Bulletin, and American Psychologist.

He has received several awards for his work, including the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformational Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, the Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest from the American Psychological Association, the Division 44 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, and the Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology (formerly the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement) from the American Psychological Foundation. For the past 8 years, he has been named to the Highly Cited Researcher List by Clarivate Analytics in recognition of his research influence, as demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science.

Dr. Hatzenbuehler is an elected fellow of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, the premier honorary organization for scientists working at the interface of behaviour and medicine, and he has been appointed to serve on two consensus committees at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

He was voted one of the favourite professors of the Harvard Class of 2023.

Professor Donn Feir

University of Victoria

Dr. Donn Feir is an applied econometrician who focuses on group-based inequality and has published in the areas of labour and health economics, as well as economic history. Donn is a Professor of Economics at the University of Victoria and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labour Economics.

Dr. Feir has published in journals such as the Review of Economic Studies, the American Economic Review: Insights, the Journal of Human Resources, as well as Canadian Public Policy and the Canadian Journal of Economics.

Getting to the University:

The LEAP Summit will take place at the Woodward Conference Centre, Level 10, 185 Pelham St, Carlton, at The University of Melbourne's Parkville campus.

From the CBD:

To get to the University of Melbourne from the Melbourne city center, simply catch any tram going up Swanston Street. These trams run from Flinders Street Station and allow you to disembark at Stop 1 – opposite the University.

The Veriu Queen Victoria Market Hotel is a ten minute walk to the University and located  in the vibrant area of the Queen Victoria Market.

From Carlton:

Zagame's House, Best Western Plus Travel Inn, and Melbourne Carlton Central Apartment Hotel are a 12-15 minute walk from the University of Melbourne.

Navigating the University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne was founded in 1853 and is Australia’s second oldest university. The University spans two campuses with main campus located in Parkville and the second campus located in Southbank, where the Victorian College of the Arts resides.

You can download a PDF copy, or access the University of Melbourne interactive map.

Navigating Melbourne

Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, is a beautiful city with fine buildings and spacious parks, which gives Melbourne its 'garden-city' title. Settlers from a variety of countries have given Melbourne a cosmopolitan outlook and the city has developed as the cultural, fashion, shopping, sporting and culinary centre of Australia.

Catching public transport:

Using public transport in the Melbourne CBD requires a myki card. You can purchase a myki card at most convenience stores or major train stations across Melbourne for $6. This will provide you access to Melbourne's trams, trains, and buses. There is a ‘Free Tram Zone’ within the Melbourne CBD, however outside of this area you will need to 'Touch On' your myki. You can download a map of the Free Tram Zone here. The free PTV app is also a useful resource to help with navigation by public transport.

Travelling from the airport:

The SkyBus travels from Tullamarine Airport to Southern Cross Station in the Melbourne CBD. The shuttle bus leaves the airport roughly every 20 minutes and costs $24 for a one-way pass or $40 for a return fare. Private shuttle buses from the airport can also be booked.

Things to see and do in Melbourne:

The central business district of Melbourne is based around the delta of the Yarra River at the top of a large bay. The city area contains some of Australia's finest parks, gardens and historic buildings, all within walking distance. Melbourne is also Australia's entertainment, sporting and cultural capital. Nearly every cuisine is represented in Melbourne's hundreds of restaurants and cafes.

Places of interest include:

• Melbourne Zoo
• Melbourne Skydeck for the awe inspiring view of Melbourne from the Southern Hemisphere's highest viewing platform
• Fed Square, a venue for food, arts, culture and public events across from Flinders St Station, including the amazing Torres Strait owned and operated Indigenous restaurant, Mabu Mabu
• Many waterfront restaurants and cafes along the Yarra River or the District Docklands precinct
• The National Gallery of Victoria
• Royal Botanic Gardens, recognised as one of the world's best, extending over 38 hectares and housing a collection of more than 8,500 species of plants from around the world
• The Koorie Heritage Centre, exploring 60,000 years of culture of the Indigenous people of south-eastern Australia

For more information on Melbourne and its surrounding regions, please visit the following websites:

• Broadsheet Melbourne
• City of Melbourne
• Time Out Melbourne
• Visit Victoria