Prof. Cassandra Szoeke brings together high level management, governance and communication skills with significant expertise in teaching and health. She has worked in the Commonwealth Science Organisation, Public Hospital system and for the Department of Health.

She has held teaching roles in several academic institutions and specialist colleges. She is a Consultant Neurologist, the Director of the Healthy Ageing Program in the Centre for Medical Research and council member for the Victorian branch of the AMA. She has held high level management roles leading the Neurodegenerative Diseases, Mental Disorders and Brain Health Theme at the Australian Commonwealth Science and Industry Organisation (CSIRO) and then became a Clinical Consultant to CSIRO. She has significant experience in governance and formal training as a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She served on the Board of Executive Directors for the Western Health Service Network, employed by the Victorian Minister for Health. In this role, she held position as Chair of Quality and Safety and the Education and Research Board sub-committees. She is a member of the Chairs of Quality and Safety in the Victorian Healthcare Association. She participated in advisory boards for the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Health. She is a practicing physician in internal medicine with subspecialisation in neurology. In addition to her medical qualifications, she has a Bachelor of Science (Genetics & Pharmacology) degree with honours and completed her PhD thesis in Epidemiology examining women's healthy ageing; while her postdoctoral studies conducted between Stanford University and Duke University focussed on Public Health, Personalised Medicine and Policy with clinical training in cognition. She has been in clinical research for over a decade with hundreds of publications and is a reviewer for national and international journals and funding bodies. She has been involved in the establishment and steering committees of several major Australian collaborative studies, sat on the executive scientific board of the Australian Imaging Biomarker and Lifestyle study of ageing (AIBL) from 2008 to 2014, and was Inaugural Chair of its Vascular Stream. She has supervised 47 students to successful timely completion of their higher research degree. Prof Szoeke, her program and her student have received numerous national and international awards. She is invited to chair and speak at international and national conferences and is a regular invited expert to international roundtables. She has initiated and been involved in conference organisation and the publication of conference proceedings.