Speakers

Alison Macpherson

York University

Dr. Alison Macpherson is a Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University and an adjunct senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.  She was the co-principal investigator on the CIHR Team in Child and Youth Injury Prevention, and holds a CIHR Chair in Maternal and Child Health Services and Policy Research.  Her research is related to the prevention of childhood injuries generally, and the evaluation of policies designed to reduce injuries specifically.

Allison Hass

Principal Consultant - Road Safety, Road Safety and Drug Education Branch

Allison holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Human Movement) majoring in Sport Psychology, along with a Professional Certificate in Management.  Currently working for the Western Australian Department of Education in the School Drug Education and Road Aware (SDERA) program, Allison provides strategic advice and support to schools and school staff to implement road safety and alcohol and other drugs education based on a best practice approach.  The SDERA program delivers a comprehensive education strategy across early childhood, primary and secondary year levels to build knowledge and positive attitudes to improve road safety.

Amy Peden

Royal Life Saving Society - Australia

Dr Amy Peden has extensive experience in drowning prevention research, policy and practice. To date, she has authored 47 peer-reviewed articles to date as well as over 60 professional reports. Amy has been a key contributor to the last three Australian Water Safety Strategies. In her current position as Lecturer – Injury Prevention at UNSW Sydney she maintains a research and teaching profile. Within her capacity as a Senior Research Fellow with Royal Life Saving Society – Australia, she conducts research on all manner of drowning prevention issues. She has recently completed a PhD at James Cook University exploring the epidemiology, risk factors and prevention strategies for unintentional river drowning.

Amy Richardson

Research Fellow, University of Otago

Amy Richardson is a research fellow in the Injury Prevention Research Unit at the University of Otago. Amy has a PhD in health psychology and is currently applying her health psychology knowledge to public health research. She works on a number of research projects designed to prevent and promote recovery from a broad range of injuries.

Andrew Fyffe

Sydney Children's Hospitals Network

Andrew is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist and the Research Coordinator at the Kids Concussion Service, Children’s Hospital at Westmead. He is part of a team responsible for clinical testing and management of children and adolescents with concussion, and engaging in innovative research in the area of paediatric concussion. Andrew is also working on his Master’s degree in the role of exercise testing for children and adolescents with concussion.

Angela Clapperton

Monash University

Angela Clapperton is a research fellow at the Monash University Accident Research Centre, Monash University. Angela has extensive experience using large injury-related data collections to investigate the burden of intentional and unintentional injury. Angela's particular interests include suicide and non-fatal self harm as well as data linkage and injury surveillance.

Angela Watson

Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q)

Dr Angela Watson is a Senior Research Fellow supported by a Motor Accident Insurance Commission funded research fellowship within the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q). She is currently working on road safety data linkage projects in collaboration with Transport and Main Roads, Queensland Health, and the Motor Accident Insurance Commission. Angela is also currently working with Professor James Harrison and others on the Austroads funded national road crash data linkage project “A National Approach to Measuring Non-Fatal Crash Outcomes".

Anita Tsvetkov

Program Manager, Kidsafe WA

Anita Tsvetkov is a Program Manager at Kidsafe WA, an independent not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting safety and preventing childhood injuries and accidents in Western Australia. Whilst at Kidsafe WA, Anita has managed the Western Australian Consumer Product Advocacy Network, school safety program and road safety program. Prior to commencing at Kidsafe WA in 2013, Anita completed a Bachelor of Health Science majoring in Public Health and Anatomy & Human Biology at the University of Western Australia.

Asmare Gelaw

Monash University

Asmare Gelaw studied his bachelors and masters of science degree in physiotherapy at the University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He is an experienced physical rehabilitation professional with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Currently, Asmare is studying his PhD in the pre-hospital, emergency and trauma unity, in the school of public health and preventive medicine at Monash University. He is very interested in furthering his research skills in the area of injury epidemiology, outcomes of trauma, chronic health conditions and physical rehabilitation.

Ben Beck

Deputy Head at Monash University & President of the Australasian Injury Prevention Network (AIPN)

Dr Ben Beck is Deputy Head of Prehospital, Emergency and Trauma Research at Monash University and the President of the Australasian Injury Prevention Network (AIPN). He is a Chief Investigator on the Victorian State Trauma Registry and the current holder of an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship. Dr Beck has a strong background in road safety, injury biomechanics and injury epidemiology and leads a large body of trauma and injury prevention research, with a focus on vulnerable road users.

Bernadette Matthews

Principal Research Associate, Life Saving Victoria

Dr Bernadette Matthews is the Principal Research Associate for Life Saving Victoria and manages Risk and Research Services. She has over 13 years of experience in aquatic injury research including the epidemiology of fatal and non-fatal drowning, swimming competency in children and adults, aquatic safety signage recognition and recall, eye-tracking research, through to monitoring and evaluation of multicultural programs, education, training and aquatic sport. Bernadette has also been awarded the International Life Saving Federation Medal for her contribution to international lifesaving.

Bridget Kool

Associate Dean, University of Auckland

Associate Professor Bridget Kool is Associate Dean (Academic), at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Science.  She was a paediatric surgical nurse for 25 yearsr. She has a MPH and a PhD, both focused on injury epidemiology. Her current research interests are trauma outcomes, EMS access, alcohol and injury, and child injury. She is a former NZ President of the Australasian Epidemiological Association. She is an invited member of the Statistics NZ Working Group for Serious Injury Information, an Associate Editor for Injury, and on the executive of the AIPN.

Bronwyn Griffin

Queensland University of Technology

Dr Griffin has over 10 years’ experience Nursing in paediatric emergency departments across Australia before she embarked on her PhD with the Centre of Children’s Burns and Trauma Research in 2009. Now Dr Griffin is a Senior Research Fellow based at the Queensland Children’s Hospital where her work supports the integrated spectrum of paediatric burn and trauma care from injury prevention/public health, first aid, acute care and quality of life outcomes. 
In her spare time Bronwyn wrangles three school aged children, whom have had no choice but to grow up with a love the bush, books, beaches and baking.

Catherine Niven

Queensland University of Technology

Catherine Niven is a lawyer with 10 years of government legislative experience and is a third year PHD student at QUT conducting injury prevention research into unsafe children’s products. Her research has established a comprehensive knowledge-base of unsafe children’s products in the Australian and USA marketplace over the last 7 years. Catherine's PhD is funded by and forms part of a larger ARC Discovery project led by Associate Professor Kirsten Vallmuur evaluating the congruence of consumer product safety regulator responses and incident data to improve the safety of Australian children.

Catrina Wold

Evidence and Practice Leads, Injury Matters

Catrina is the Evidence and Practice Leads at Injury Matters, where she supports the implementation of evaluation and coordinates research activities. Prior to joining Injury Matters, she worked as a Data Analyst in Public Health Policy and a Sessional Lecturer in Health Promotion at Curtin University. Catrina has completed a Master in Public Health (Curtin University), Master in Exercise Science (Appalachian State University), and a Bachelor of Exercise Science (Western Illinois University).

Danielle Taylor

Royal Life Saving Australia

Currently employed in the role of senior project officer, research and policy with Royal Life Saving Australia.  Maintain current engagement across all levels of the aquatic industry including hands on swim teaching, trainer/assessor for ASCTA and Royal Life Saving Queensland, and rural delegate for Central Queensland Swimming.  Continue to be a strong advocate for swimming and drowning prevention in rural and remote Queensland.

Debbie Scott

Senior Research Fellow, Monash University

Dr Scott is the Strategic Lead for Population Health Research at Turning Point, and Senior Research Fellow at Monash University. She is a member of the AIPN Executive Committee and chairs their subcommittee on Intentional Injury.  An advocate and researcher for injury prevention across academia, NGOs, and government for more than 20 years, Debbie is also an advisor on a number of state and commonwealth advisory committees across intentional injury, alcohol and drug harms, and surveillance systems.

Diana Clayton

Peninsula Health

Diana is the Clinical Nurse Consultant for the Falls Prevention Service, of Peninsula Health, Victoria. She is responsible for the implementation and ongoing management of the Inpatient Falls Program for the Sub-Acute and Residential care sector of Peninsula Health. She has a strong commitment to falls prevention through education and is interested in enhancing an inter-disciplinary model of Falls Prevention.

Emily Anderson

Injury Matters

With experience in community development at both a local and State Government level, she has been working in the injury prevention sector for the past eight years and is currently Injury Matters’ Partnership and Development Manager. Emily has worked in a number of different roles within injury including falls prevention and policy and sector support. Emily also holds a Bachelor of Sport and Recreation Management.

Emma Wyeth

Senior Lecturer, University of Otago

Emma Wyeth (Kāi Tahu, Te Ātiawa) is a Senior Lecturer – Māori Health, Director – Ngāi Tahu Māori Health Research Unit (Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago). Over the last 12 years, the majority of Emma’s research has focused on injury and disability outcomes for Māori, including as a Co-Investigator of the ‘Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study’ and the ‘Subsequent Injury Study (SInS): Improving Outcomes for Injured New Zealanders’ and Principal Investigator of the ‘Māori Disability Outcomes: Experiences and Pathways After Injury’ project. Emma is also the Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator on recently-funded projects enabling the long-term follow-up of Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study participants, including a specific focus on long-term post-injury outcomes for injured Māori and their whānau (families).

Gabrielle Davie

Senior Research Fellow, Otago University

Gabrielle is a Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Injury Prevention Research Unit (IPRU) at Otago University. In her work she engages in collaborative research involving a diverse range of areas including injury surveillance, child abuse, occupational injury, prehospital care and outcomes following injury. The use and methodological development of routinely collected datasets for health research is a key research area of hers.

George Rechnitzer

Victorian Instiute of Forensic Medicine

Dr Rechnitzer specialises in the application of the engineering sciences to safety in many areas including road safety, crashworthiness of all vehicle types, occupational health and safety, incident  investigation, analysis and reconstruction; countermeasure development for injury prevention, and has published widely in this area.

Dr Rechnitzer is one of the most experienced Safety and Forensic Engineers in Australia, and has provided litigation support and high quality expert reports in major jurisdictions across Australia for hundreds of cases relating to fatal and injury incidents in the workplace, and transport related activities, over 30 years.

Georgina Lau

Monash University

Georgina Lau is an Honours student with the Pre-hospital, Emergency and Trauma Group in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.

Hasti Hayati

University of Technology Sydney

Hasti is a PhD candidate at the University of Technology Sydney. Her current research is analyzing the foot-surface interaction of sprinters over different terrains through experiments and simulation.

Helen Harcombe

Senior Lecturer, University of Otago

Dr Harcombe is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Helen’s research interests include optimising what happens following injury, including subsequent injury prevention, and musculoskeletal disorders particularly among workers. She has a clinical background as a physiotherapist. Along with Professor Sarah Derrett, Helen has recently been co-Principal Investigator of the Health Research Council of New Zealand funded Subsequent Injury Study. 

Holger Moeller

The George Institute for Global Health

Holger Möller is an epidemiologist in the injury division at the George Institute for Global with expertise in injury epidemiology and the analysis of longitudinal linked health data.

Ian Teichert

University of Melbourne

Masters of Public Health Student from the University of Melbourne. Interested in agent-based-modelling, health economics, machine learning and how key indicators can predict health outcomes.

Ioni Lewis

Queensland Univeristy of Technology

A/Professor Ioni Lewis has over 16 years’ experience in road safety and traffic psychology research. She is based at the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) where she is a Principal Research Fellow. Ioni’s expertise is in the development and evaluation of road safety public education campaigns and advertising messages. Her work draws upon social psychological perspectives of health behaviour change, attitude-behaviour relations, and persuasion.

Jagnoor Jagnoor

The George Institute for Global Health

Dr Jagnoor Jagnoor is a senior research fellow and is Head of Injury Division, India.
Jagnoor is an Early Career Fellow – NHMRC, with a background in injury epidemiology.  She has a conjoint appointment as Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW and an honorary Senior Lecturer appointment, School of Public Health University of Sydney, and The John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research. She is passionate about the creating new knowledge to best address the injury burden in low middle-income populations with competing health needs.

Jake Olivier

University of New South Wales

Professor Jake Olivier is a member of the School of Mathematics and Statistics and Deputy Director of Transport and Road Safety Research Centre at UNSW Australia. He is the current president of the NSW Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia and immediate past chair of the Biostatistics Section. He serves on the editorial boards of BMJ Open, PLOS ONE, Cogent Medicine and the Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety. His research interests are vulnerable road user safety and statistical methods for evaluating public health interventions.

Jane Hayman

Monash University Accident Research Centre

Dr Hayman is a data analyst at the Victorian Injury Surveillance Network. She undertakes analysis of hospital admissions data as well as emergency department presentation data.

Janine Ferris

TrackSAFE Foundation

Janine is due to complete a Masters in Education with a special interest in transport safety education this year at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Through her research, she aims to help her colleagues in transport safety education use evidence to inform the development of their programs.  Janine also manages TrackSAFE Education, a program run by not-for-profit organisation the TrackSAFE Foundation. She is responsible for curriculum development, website management and program implementation in schools across Australia. She is a teacher, speaks fluent Japanese and loves to travel with her family.

Janneke Berecki

Monash University

Janneke Berecki-Gisolf is an Associate Professor at the Monash University Accident Research Centre, and Director of the Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit. Janneke’s research interests include injury epidemiology, comorbidity research, data linkage studies and injury outcomes. She is the lead investigator of several large-scale data linkage studies focused on the impact of prior physical and mental health on short and long term injury outcomes. These studies utilised Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and WorkSafe Victoria claims data linked with Victorian hospital admissions records (VAED), and linkage of TAC and WorkSafe claims data with Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme records.

Jared Brown

Sydney Children's Hospitals Network

Jared Brown is Co-Head of the NSW Poisons Information Centre and a UNSW Scientia PhD Scholar in toxicoepidemiology. He is an Advanced Practice Pharmacist in Toxicology and a Fellow of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia. He works closely with a regulatory and injury prevention stakeholders in toxicovigilance to translate research findings into practice.

Jarrod Walker

The University of Sydney

Jarrod Walker is currently an MD student at the University of Sydney conducting research into the way in which severe non fatal trauma affects older farmers in New South Wales.

Jason Chambers

Kidsafe Victoria

Jason has a background in health promotion and public health - his studies fuelled his passion for providing communities with the knowledge, resources and tools to enable them to make safe and healthy choices.

Jason commenced with Kidsafe Victoria in late 2009 initially as an intern, which fostered his interest and knowledge of childhood injury prevention. He is now the General Manager of Kidsafe Victoria and is responsible for the design, implementation and evaluation of Kidsafe Victoria's child injury prevention activities, campaigns and resources.

Jaz Lawes

Surf Life Saving Australia

Jaz and is a passionate science communicator and published researcher with 10 years’ experience in the university sector. In her current position as Researcher at Surf Life Saving Australia, her duties include the production of the National Coastal Safety Report, maintaining SLSA’s National Fatality Database and coordinating a diverse portfolio of research projects. She is committed to science and education that investigates interactions between humans and the environment. Jaz believes education and awareness strategies driven by evidence-based research are the most effective tool to transform attitudes and change behaviours to enhance public safety within the environment. 

Jennifer Tichon

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Qld

Experienced researcher in the fields of human factors and cognitive ergonomics. Jennifer has specialized in the psychological impact and training outcomes of immersion in computer-generated environments, including simulation, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for over 15 years. Projects have investigated the role of stress in dynamic heavy industry work environments and the ability of VR/AR to replicate hazardous worksites and improve operational performance under degraded conditions.

Joan Ozanne-Smith

Monash University

Professor Joan Ozanne-Smith AO heads the Injury Prevention Research Unit at the Monash University Department of Forensic Medicine. She has qualifications in medicine, public health and sociology. Her injury prevention research is multi-disciplinary, interfacing the methods of epidemiology and public health with those of other disciplines and includes injury prevention in low- and middle-income countries, drowning, safe design, and injury data systems.  Her other interests include translation of research to prevention and building intellectual capacity in injury prevention. Joan’s research is recognized widely through publications, awards and international invitations for consultancies and keynote presentations.

John Pearn

Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland; and Burns Unit, Department of Surgery, Queensland Children's Hospital

Major General Professor John Pearn is a Senior Paediatrician based at the Queensland Children's Hospital. He is the Paediatrician to the Pegg-Leditschke Burns Unit at that Hospital; and a foundation Consultant to the Queensland Poisons Information Service. He was a co-Founder of Kidsafe Australia. In a second parallel career in military medicine, he served as the Surgeon General of the Australian Defence Force for three years from 1998.

Jon Newman

Project Officer, Agency of Clinical Innovation (NSW Health)

Jon Newman is a Project Officer with the Institute of Trauma and Injury Management (ITIM) at the Agency of Clinical Innovation (NSW Health). He has 3 decades of experience as a critical care clinician with a special interest in trauma systems and trauma prevention. Before joining ITIM in early 2018 Jon worked with NSW Ambulance aeromedical division as a clinician and educator. He has extensive experience in quality improvement and policy development. He loves thinking outside the square with a belief that something can always be improved upon. Jon is a strong believer in good communication in healthcare, especially health literacy for the patient. Jon loves spending time with his family and a good long bike ride (when the weather is right).

Julie Brown

The George Institute for Global Health

Julie Brown is a public health researcher who works towards reducing the burden of injury. She heads the Injury Division at the George Institute for Global Health, Australia, is an Associate Professor Medicine, UNSW, and is currently supported by an NHMRC CDF-2. She holds an honorary Principal Research Scientist position at Neuroscience Research Australia where she jointly directs the Transurban Road Safety Centre.

Julie Chambers

Chambers NZ

Julie Chambers currently does research in Pediatrics, Public Health and Social Policy. Her most recent publication is 'Pricing the priceless child: Measuring the benefit of saving children's lives.

Kate Hunter

The George Institute for Global Health

Dr Kate Hunter is a Senior Research Fellow in the Injury Division at The George Institute, and conjoint Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. She has a PhD in program evaluation and a Master of Public Health through the University of Sydney.  Dr Hunter leads a body of work primarily in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family health and the social determinants of health. Dr Hunter is Deputy Chair of Kidsafe NSW and is involved in both undergraduate and Masters course work in Injury Prevention.

Keeley Allen

Royal Life Saving Society Australia

Keeley is a Senior Research and Policy Officer with Royal Life Saving Society – Australia. Prior to joining Royal Life Saving's research team, Keeley has worked for as a senior consultant specialising in urban economics, land use and geospatial analysis, managing multiple mixed methods research projects and translating findings into actionable policies and outcomes for clients. Keeley has also worked within government specialising in research and evaluation of NSW Government projects.

Kerri-Lynn Peachey

AgHealth Australia

Kerri-Lynn monitors all fatal and non-fatal incidents in which occur on a farm in Australia. It is this monitoring services in which enables her to maintain a national database of all fatal incidents and direct research opportunities. Combined with directing research her aspiration is providing advice on farm safety and well-being to the broader farming community. In addition she operates a mixed cropping and livestock enterprise with her husband, therefore recognizes and acknowledges the necessity to enhance farming families and communities on the importance of protecting every person in the farm environment.

Kirsten Vallmuur

QUT and Jamieson Trauma Institute

A/Prof Vallmuur is a MAIC Principal Research Fellow in the Jamieson Trauma Institute under a joint appointment with QUT. She has expertise in injury surveillance systems, trauma data linkage, and injury classifications and is working with Qld Health to facilitate the establishment of the Statewide Trauma Data Warehouse and is conducting research using linked trauma data to examine the burden, treatment, costs and outcomes of trauma in Queensland.

Lalit Yadav

The University of Adelaide

Lalit is a PhD Candidate at the NHMRC Centre for interdisciplinary excellence in frailty at the Adelaide Medical School, the University of Adelaide, where they are looking at how can we educate, empower patients and integrate services across acute and primary health care using digital health in order to improve outcomes among people with fragility fractures. His career includes various roles, as public health practitioner and researcher within different settings of UK, India and Australia; with a background in health service design and implementation for preventative non-communicable conditions through health promotion, pragmatic research and integrated health and social care delivery.

Lara Harvey

Neuroscience Research Australia

Lara is an injury epidemiologist and Research Fellow in the Falls, Balance and Injury Research Centre at Neuroscience Research Australia. Her research aims to examine and prevent injuries in older people with and without dementia.

Lisa Dillon

UNSW Sydney, The George Institute for Global Health

Lisa is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Optometry and Vision Science at UNSW, and Honorary Research Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health in the Injury division. Her research focuses on the physical and mental health of older Australian’s with vision impairment. Lisa works on several projects concerning the wellbeing and accessibility of meaningful programs for people with vision impairment, with a strong focus on implementation science. Lisa’s research builds on her professional experience as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist.  

Lisa Keay

UNSW Sydney

Professor Lisa Keay is an injury epidemiologist with a PhD in epidemiology, Masters in Public Health and undergraduate training in optometry.  Her research activities focus on the prevention of injury in older people with vision impairment.  She also has a program of research in safe mobility for older drivers.  Considering links between vision loss and falls risk she is generating evidence for benefits of timely provision of cataract surgery.  She is currently evaluating a falls prevention program for older people with low vision.

Lisa Sharwood

University of Sydney

Dr Lisa Sharwood is an internationally regarded Injury Epidemiologist, research academic and former trauma clinician, using population-based data to inform injury prevention and health-service injury management for optimal outcomes.

Louise Cosgrove

Kids and Traffic, NSW Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program, Macquarie University

Louise Cosgrove is Team Leader at Kids and Traffic, the Transport for NSW funded Early Childhood Road Safety Education Program at Macquarie University. Louise has worked in a variety of early and adult education settings. She holds a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Educational Leadership in Early Childhood Education. As part of the Kids and Traffic team, Louise has been an advocate for child road safety for many years. She is passionate about working with young children as vulnerable road users, their families and communities to achieve lifelong behavioural change.

Louise Lambeth

Ocean Beach Surf Life Saving Club

Louise Lambeth is the author of the surf safety children's book, Annie and the Waves. The book has been reviewed and endorsed by Surf Life Saving Australia. She has a background in early childhood education and is an active surf lifesaver on the NSW Central Coast. Surf education is a role that Louise has been involved in at club, branch and state levels. Annie and the Waves is the first of a planned water safety series for children aged 0-12 and their families.

Lyndal Bugeja

Monash University

Associate Professor Lyndal Bugeja holds an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award to develop a predictive model for family homicide in Australian jurisdictions.

McKeely Denholm

A/Chief Executive Officer, Kidsafe SA

McKeely Denholm started at Kidsafe SA in 2015 and is currently responsible for managing and delivering Kidsafe SA services across the areas of home, play and road. McKeely studied a Bachelor of Health Science at the University of Adelaide where she now lectures in child safety. McKeely has trained in hazard identification along with the execution of hazard testing and recommendation of hazard removal in both community areas and childcare settings. She has a strong passion for public health, specifically child injury prevention after her involvement in key Kidsafe campaigns on button batteries and baby slings.

Medhavi Gupta

The George Institute for Global Health

Medhavi Gupta is PhD Candidate at the George Institute for Global Health, focusing on community-level drowning reduction in India and Bangladesh. Drawing on previous experiences in management consulting, community work in LMICs and research in psychology, Medhavi is particularly interested in understanding and addressing the practical challenges of program delivery and policy change in these contexts.

Melanie Andersen

University of New South Wales

Melanie Andersen is a Research Fellow with the School of Public Health and Community Medicine UNSW and Honorary Fellow with the George Institute for Global Health in the Injury Division. Her research focuses on the social and environmental determinants of health and wellbeing, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. Melanie works on several projects concerning injury prevention and care, including a study examining the care received by seriously injured Aboriginal children in NSW hospitals and an Aboriginal community-led child injury prevention project. Melanie’s research builds on her clinical experience as an Occupational Therapist.

Melita Giummarra

Senior Research Fellow, Monash University

Melita Giummarra is senior research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne. At 7-years post-PhD she has >65 publications, and has received >$2M funding to support her research on pain and mental health post-injury, and the potential for public health interventions to attenuate the burden of injury.

Moses Alatini

Safekids Aotearoa

Moses (Mou) holds a Master’s degree in Political Studies from the University of Auckland. Before joining Safekids Aotearoa, he worked for Statistics New Zealand in Wellington as a Senior Analyst and a Project Manager for the New Zealand Income Survey.

Mou’s role is to support the development of child injury prevention policy advice and advocacy through policy responses, submissions and documents that reflect understanding of the policy and relationship issues involved. Other core roles include data analysis, coordinate and contribute to the process of policy development and implementation across the injury prevention workforce, and also manage stakeholder relationships. Mou also utilises his Tongan heritage to add value to Safekids’ Pasifika engagement.

Nipuna Cooray

The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales

Nipuna is a PhD student from UNSW with a background in Software Engineering. For their PhD project, they are working on a Digital Behaviour Change Intervention (DBCI) as a mobile application for new parents, to prevent infant fall related injuries.

Paola Araiza Alba

PhD student, Swinburne University of Technology

Paola Araiza-Alba is a PhD student at Swinburne University of Technology doing research in Virtual reality and developmental psychology. Her research project involves the use of Virtual Reality Technology with children. It aims to find what type of learning takes place when children use this technology; specifically, she is looking at social-emotional development which includes children experience, expression, and management of emotions and also cognitive development such as attention, memory and thinking. Her research studies take children into VR learning environment and compare their learning, emotional reactions and behaviours with more traditional learning tools, such as books, iPad or videos. In her more recent study, Paola investigated the use of VR as a tool for children drowning prevention.

Patricia Cullen

UNSW

Patricia Cullen is a National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at UNSW and an Honorary Research Fellow at The George Institute. Patricia’s research centres on improving health pathways for women and young people impacted by injury, violence and trauma with a focus on integrating culturally-safe trauma-informed care in health settings. Her research is informed by engaging with people who have lived experience and takes an interdisciplinary approach to embedding injury and violence prevention within broader initiatives that address equity issues around health and justice.

Peter Kolesnik

Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads

Peter is the Director of Road Safety Programs within Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads. With a philosophy that no person should be killed or seriously injured on our roads, Peter and his team are dedicated to introducing innovation and best practice to ensure road trauma is reduced on Queensland's roads.

Peter Miller

Professor, Deakin University

Peter Miller (PhD) is a Professor of Violence Prevention and Addiction Studies at the School of Psychology, Deakin University. He is the Director of the Deakin University Centre for Drug use, Addictive and Anti-social behaviour Research (CEDAAR: www.deakin.edu.au/cedaar). Peter has recently completed five of the largest studies ever conducted into alcohol policy, licensed venues, violence, comparing 12 Australian cities over 10 years and talking to more than 25,000 patrons. In particular, he is the lead investigator on the QUeensland Alcohol-related violence and Night Time Economy Monitoring (QUANTEM) study, a 13 arm statewide evaluation over 3 years.

His other research interests include: the predictors of violence (including family and domestic violence), the impacts of Childhood Corporal Punishment and Corporate Political Activity of alcohol and dangerous consumptions industries. He has published over 200 journal articles, books and peer-reviewed reports a He is currently running major studies assessing the impact of Policy initiatives in the Northern Territory (including Minimum Floor Price and the Banned Drinkers Register) and testing the impact of last drinks data collected in Emergency Departments to identify and intervene with problem venues across Australia.

Rachel Meade

Injury Prevention Manager, Injury Matters

Rachel manages community focused injury prevention programs and services designed to contribute to a population level reduction in injury rates in Western Australia. She has a Bachelor of Health Science, majoring in Human Movement and Public Health, a Master of Evaluation and over 10 years of injury prevention experience, including working for not-for-profit and governments locally and internationally. Rachel’s key interests include improving injury outcomes among Aboriginal and rural populations, evaluation and falls prevention.

Rachel Murray

Keep Watch Program Coordinator, Royal Life Saving Society WA

Rachel has worked in the health promotion and injury prevention sector since 2012. In her role as Keep Watch program coordinator at the Royal Life Saving Society WA, she coordinates the development, delivery and evaluation of the Keep Watch toddler drowning prevention program. This includes managing media campaigns, delivering community and child health professional information sessions, promoting program messages at relevant community events and engaging with a network of parent ambassadors.

Raphael Grebieta

Monash University

Dr. Raphael Grzebieta is Professor Emeritus in road safety at the Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research Centre within the School of Aviation at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Monash University’s Department of Forensic Medicine and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, in forensic engineering, vehicle and road infrastructure crashworthiness, crash reconstruction, injury biomechanics and road safety. He has around 30 years of research and professional experience, around 350 research publications in road infrastructure, supervised numerous PhD graduates and received several national and international major research grants and awards.

Rebbecca Lilley

Injury Prevention Research Unit, University of Otago

Dr Rebbecca Lilley is a Senior Research Fellow at the Injury Prevention Research Unit at the University of Otago.  Her current research interests focus on injury-related topics including: pre-hospital care and trauma outcomes, access to emergency medical services, work-related injury, and the use of administrative data for injury surveillance. She is currently leading a quantitative examination of Coronial case files to identify work-related fatal injury in New Zealand. Dr Lilley is a member of the Interagency Injury Information Working Group led by Statistics New Zealand.

Rebecca Brookland

Senior Research Fellow, University of Otago

Rebecca is a Senior Research Fellow, University of Otago. Her main research interests are road safety, driver licence and transport policy, and injury epidemiology. She is Principal Investigator for two HRC funded projects: a prospective cohort study of older drivers and family (2018-2022) and a mixed method project with older drivers, families and GPs (2015-2018).
She is a co-investigator on several young driver projects: Australian policing theory and GDL compliance; NZ Police young offender licensing programme evaluation; and DRIVE NSW young driver cohort relinkage project.

Rebecca Mitchell

Associate Professor, Macquarie University

Rebecca Mitchell is an Associate Professor in the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University and leads the Health Outcomes research stream.

A/Prof Mitchell is a psychologist and injury epidemiologist and her research focuses on the conduct of large-scale epidemiological and mixed-methods research to guide improvements in health service delivery and health policy.

Reidar Lystad

Macquarie University

Dr Lystad is a Research Fellow at the Health Outcomes Stream at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University. Dr Lystad is an injury epidemiologist with a particular interest in traumatic brain injury, spinal injury, paediatric trauma, and sports injury. His research is centred around conducting large population-based studies using data linkages of administrative data collections to investigate health outcomes following injury and to guide improvements in health service delivery and health policy.

Richard Franklin

James Cook University

Richard Franklin has a PhD in public health and is currently Associate Professor of Public Health at James Cook University, Australia in the College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences.  He is Director of the World Safety Organization Collaborating Centre for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, James Cook University as-well-as on the boards for the Public Health Association of Australia, Auschem and Farmsafe Queensland. He is the Co-convenor of the Injury Prevention SIG of the PHAA. His research interests’ focus around public health in injury prevention, specifically around drowning prevention, farm safety, WHS, rural road safety and disasters.

Roslyn Miller

Office of Industrial Relations

Roslyn Miller, Healthy Workers Unit Roslyn Miller currently works as a Principal Advisor within the Healthy Workers Unit to create resources to help Queensland workplaces embed work health and wellbeing. She has worked closely with private and public sector organisations in implementing sustainable and systematic health and wellbeing programs. Roslyn’s background is as an exercise physiologist and has 11 years’ experience in organisational health and wellbeing.

Russ Milner

A/Principal Policy Officer, Department of Health WA

Russ leads the development and implementation of statewide injury prevention policy, while promoting and supporting population based initiatives addressing injury prevention and community safety. 
Through liaison and support, Russ collaborates with organisations and agencies to promote research and injury prevention opportunities for WA. His key interests include child safety, water safety, falls prevention and sector development.
Russ is a member of the AIPN Executive Committee. Russ holds a Bachelor of Health Science (Honours in Public Health), and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia.

Ruth Barker

Director, Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit

Dr Ruth Barker is an emergency paediatrician and Director of the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit. She combines her experience of patient ED presentations with emergency injury data to advocate for injury prevention through design, standards and legislative change.

Sarah Richmond

Public Health Ontario

Sarah Richmond has a multidisciplinary PhD in Epidemiology and Exercise Physiology from the University of Calgary with expertise in both sport-related and traffic related injury. Sarah also has expertise in implementation science, knowledge translation and evidence synthesis.

Sharon Newnam

Associate Professor, Monash University

Sharon has published widely in the area of workplace road safety from a systems-thinking perspective.  She has made significant contributions to improving safety through the development and implementation of two world-first workplace road safety training programs focused on drivers and management. Sharon is an Associate Editor of the leading safety journal, Safety Science. Sharon was invited by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) to be an international member of the Standing Committee on Truck and Bus Safety.

Shelina Babul

University of British Columbia

Dr Shelina Babul is the Associate Director and Sports Injury Specialist with the BC Injury Research and Prevent Unit. She focuses primarily on sport and recreational evidence-based research and knowledge implementation, with a specialization in raising the awareness of concussion recognition, response, treatment and management. Dr Babul spearheaded the development of the Concussion Awareness Training Tool (CATT - www.cattonline.com), is involved in several provincial and national concussion advisory committees, and received the 2014 Brain Injury Association of Canada Prevention and Awareness Award, and the 2016 BC Hockey Safety Award.

Soumyadeep Bhaumik

The George Institute for Global Health

Dr Soumyadeep Bhaumik is a medical doctor and international public health specialist with experience in evidence synthesis , health systems and policy research and program evaluation. He works as a Research Fellow in The George Institute for Global Health, India.

Stacey Willcox-Pidgeon

Royal Life Saving Society - Australia

Stacey is the Senior Research and Policy Officer with Royal Life Saving Society – Australia. She has conducted a range drowning related research, analysis and program evaluation in Australia and New Zealand. Stacey has authored drowning research publication, grey reports s and presented at a range of national and international conferences. Stacey completed a Master of Public Health Research Thesis in 2015 investigating youth risk perception of drowning in a beach environment. Stacey has recently commenced a PhD focusing on drowning prevention for high-risk populations in Australia.

Stacie Powell

Kidsafe NSW

Stacie has been advocating for better health outcomes in vulnerable groups since 2000, specifically in child injury prevention.  Her great passion is reducing health inequalities through prevention and education.

Suchada Gerdmongkolgan

Bureau of Non-communicable Diseases

Suchada is Thailand's Director of Child Drowning Prevention Program. Suchada formulated a policy on child drowning prevention in Thailand and has been introducing measures to prevent child drowning in Thailand for more than a decade. Those measures contribute to the decrease of more than 50% in child drownings. Suchada has been playing a vital role in organising social networks to prevent child drowning in communities called 'MERIT MAKER' in every province of Thailand. 

Sue Wicks

Department Head, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network

Sue is an injury prevention and health promotion practitioner with about 20 years experience working in many aspects of child injury prevention and safety promotion. She currently manages the Child Health Promotion Unit (Kids Health) of the Sydney Children's' Hospitals Network.

Susan Chang

Global Safety Village & Monash University

Dr.Chang has a long history of managing trauma in the public hospital system in Oral and Maxillofacial surgery. Whilst at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2007, Dr. Chang had a life changing experience whilst completing her Masters of Public Health. Population health became her focus rather than individual care. She completed an injury certificate which became a passion for her PhD. She is currently completing her 3rd year of the PhD at Monash University, her topic being child unintentional injury prevention. She has an Australian Postgraduate Award. She is an advanced trainee of Public Health Medicine RACP.

Susan Teerds

Kidsafe Qld Inc

Susan Teerds has been the CEO of Kidsafe Qld for the past 10 years. She sits on the Australian Standards Committee for infant furniture, the Qld Consumer Product Injury Research Advisory Group and the Child Death and Serious Injury Case Review Panels. Susan initiated changes to the Australian Design Rules for child car restraint anchorages to include goods carriers and changes to the Queensland Road Rules to include AS/NZS 4370:2013 to guide the safe transport of children with disabilities and medical conditions. She is passionate about child injury prevention and breaking down silos to achieve positive outcomes for all children.

Tom Whyte

Neuroscience Research Australia

Injury biomechanics engineer with specific expertise in mechanical impact response and tolerance of the head and spine, motor vehicle crash investigation and the design and testing of injury protective systems.

Trevor Allen

Monash University

Trevor is a research fellow at the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) since 2011.  Trevor holds a PhD in Physiology (Medicine) and has 20 years of experience in injury-related research from mechanisms of injury to risk factors associated with transport injury.

Yeewah Yam

Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV)

Yeewah is the Research and Policy Officer with the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV). Together with her team, they engage and communicate with Victorians to deliver independent advice and quality programs that lead to a safer and more connected Victoria. Yeewah’s work focuses on road user behaviour and a diverse range of road safety policies, programs and campaigns. Her key interests include child safety in and around the home, fitness to drive and driver impairment. With a background in psychology, Yeewah ensures that RACV’s advice and advocacy on road user issues is sound and leads to improvement in the road safety space. 

David Eager

UTS

David Eager is an internationally recognised expert on the safety aspects of trampolines, playgrounds, and sports and recreation equipment. He Chairs the Australian Standards Committee and is Head of Delegation on the International Standards Committee for Trampoline Parks. He is the Professor of Risk Management and Injury Prevention within the Faculty of Engineering Information Technology at UTS. He is a Fellow of Engineers Australia and a Chartered Professional Engineer. David is currently the UTS Assistant Student Ombud and is a past Deputy Chair of the UTS Academic Board. He has also been the Head of School, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering.

Fiona O'Sullivan

Office of Industrial Relations

Fiona has worked in a range of roles with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland for the last 18 years. She now manages the Agriculture Program of Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, where her team work closely with industry and government stakeholders to find sustainable solutions to high-risk issues in the agriculture industry.

Gabrielle Davie

Senior Research Fellow, Otago University

Gabrielle is a Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Injury Prevention Research Unit (IPRU) at Otago University. In her work she engages in collaborative research involving a diverse range of areas including injury surveillance, child abuse, occupational injury, prehospital care and outcomes following injury. The use and methodological development of routinely collected datasets for health research is a key research area of hers.

Mohammed Aburumman

Monash University Accident Research Centre

Mohammed is a PhD student and research assistant at the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC). He holds a Bachelor degree in Industrial Engineering as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Safety, Risk and Reliability Engineering. Mohammed has worked in various health and safety engineering and consultancy roles across a range of sectors. His PhD research explores workplace safety culture implementation in the construction industry.

Stacie Powell

Kidsafe NSW

Stacie has been advocating for better health outcomes in vulnerable groups since 2000, specifically in child injury prevention.  Her great passion is reducing health inequalities through prevention and education.

Susan Chang

Global Safety Village & Monash University

Dr.Chang has a long history of managing trauma in the public hospital system in Oral and Maxillofacial surgery. Whilst at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2007, Dr. Chang had a life changing experience whilst completing her Masters of Public Health. Population health became her focus rather than individual care. She completed an injury certificate which became a passion for her PhD. She is currently completing her 3rd year of the PhD at Monash University, her topic being child unintentional injury prevention. She has an Australian Postgraduate Award. She is an advanced trainee of Public Health Medicine RACP.

Carolyn Chew

James Cook University

Dr. Carolyn Chew is a doctor at Western Hospital, Melbourne who is completing her general surgical training. She recently completed her Masters of Public Health through James Cook University whilst living and working a rural Ethiopia, with a focus on trauma epidemiology in Ethiopia. 

Dinda Nisrina Wijanarko

Monash University

Dinda is an International honours student studying medical science and is now doing their thesis at Monash School of Public Health on pre-hospital, emergency and trauma department.

Dushyanthi Nagaratnam

The Children's Hospital at Westmead

Dushyanthi Nagaratnam is a Health Promotion Officer at Kids Health, Child Health Promotion Unit at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. She has been involved in child health and safety initiatives in a number of areas including child development, concussion and online CPR.

Gretchen Waddell

Project Officer, Kidsafe WA

Gretchen Waddell is a Project Officer at Kidsafe WA, an independent not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting safety and preventing childhood injuries and accidents in Western Australia. Since commencing at Kidsafe WA in 2016 Gretchen has been involved in managing the home safety program. Gretchen has a Bachelor of Science majoring in Population Health from the University of Western Australia and a Postgraduate Diploma of Health Promotion from Curtin University.

Lauren Miller

James Cook University

Lauren Miller.

Mohammed Aburumman

Monash University Accident Research Centre

Mohammed is a PhD student and research assistant at the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC). He holds a Bachelor degree in Industrial Engineering as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Safety, Risk and Reliability Engineering. Mohammed has worked in various health and safety engineering and consultancy roles across a range of sectors. His PhD research explores workplace safety culture implementation in the construction industry.

Som Ekchaloemkiet

Bureau of Non-communicable Diseases

I am working at Bureau of Non-Communicable Disease, Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. My responsibility is operation for preventing children from drowning since 2005 until present. My role is formulating a policy on child drowning prevention in Thailand.

Sue Wicks

Department Head, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network

Sue is an injury prevention and health promotion practitioner with about 20 years experience working in many aspects of child injury prevention and safety promotion. She currently manages the Child Health Promotion Unit (Kids Health) of the Sydney Children's' Hospitals Network.