Prof Jing Sun currently is a Professor at  The Data Science Institute, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. She is an internationally recognized expert and leader in biostatistics, bioinformatics, and medical data science. She leads a large scale Chronic Diseases/Mental Illness randomised controlled trials and cohort study focusing on the prognosis and treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and mental disorders in the area of effective lifestyle based rehabilitation and cognitive behavioural therapy. Her other research interests include global maternal and preterm infant health, prevention of birth defects, and a global burden of disease program. 

In the past four years, Prof Sun and team has attracted over AUD$9.75 million in research funding in the health and medical research area, focusing on health inequality research at global, regional and local levels while simultaneously applying big data analytical approaches, including multi-level analysis, meta-analysis, Bayesian analysis, time series, S16 Sequencing, neuroimaging, to machine learning and deep learning methods for global, national and large clinical and survey data. Her research in health inequality research focuses on achieiving sustainable developmental goals and advocacy for positive health outcome among left-behind children, children and mothers in low and middle income countries, and people with chronic diseases in order to reduce inequalities associated with the poor quality of health care services. She has 311 peer-reviewed publications, including in high quality journals.  She has supervised 15 PhD students as principal supervisor and 10 PhD students as co-principal supervisor to completion, 45 research master degree students and eight international research fellows since 2010.

Her major achievements are recognized as:

1. Top 2% highly cited world scientist by Elsevier and Standard University .
2. Elected Distinguished Fellow of International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI), (2023-Present)
3. Elected president of Board of Supervisors in International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI) (2024-Present)
4. Accredited Statistician of Australia Society of Statistics (2021-)
5. Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
6. Elected President of Australia Society of International Engineering and Technology Institute
7. Elected President of Queensland Chinese Association of Scientists and Engineers (2019-2021)
8. Elected Vice-President of Federation of Chinese Scholars Australia (2019-2021)
9. Senior collaborator with Bill Gates Foundation Funded Global Burden of Disease Research Program
10. Seven conference chairs since 2016, and more than 40 plenary, keynote and invited presentations in conferences.
11. Supervised 15 PhD students to completion as a principal supervisor, and 10 PhD students to completion as co- supervisor
12. Being an editor-in-chief for one reputable international journals and associate editor for 10 esteems international journals.

Since 2004, Prof. Sun has made continuous and significant contributions to the following areas:

Lifestyle and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Approach to Improve Health in Patients with Chronic Disease and Mental Disorders

• Group and individual based therapy to patients with schizophrenia, patients with obsessive compulsive disorders
• Group based intervention to patients with diabetes and comorbidities
• Patients with sleep disorders
• Employees with sick leave and intervention to support employees with sick leave to return to work
• Risk occupational exposures and their relationship to chronic diseases

Big Data and Biostatistics in Global Burden of Disease and Child Health Research

• Prediction of diabetes, mental disorders, injury, child mortality, multiple sclerosis using novel big data analytics, machine learning and deep            learning approach in 204 countries at global level 
• Development of bioinformatics methods in analysing characteristics of microbiota in biological sample in preterm born infants and children
• Left-behind children and support system development in rural China

Digital Health and Application of Wearable Technology in Chronic disease Prevention and Mental Health Promotion

• Development of monitoring system using Internet of Things technology to monitor health condition in patients with chronic diseases including        hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes
• Wearable technology devices design including blood pressure, pulse oximeter, body weight, fat, BMI measurement through devices and real          time data collection.

Dr Lin is a highly accomplished diabetes and nutrition specialist with a passion for improving health outcomes, particularly for underserved populations and building health workforce capacity. She has recieved the highest prestigious recognition as Fellow of Dietitians Australia and Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian. She is dedicated to advancing diabetes education, management, advocacy and research. Dr Lin has a strong research background, with a particular focus on health literacy, diabetes self-management education, and culturally appropriate and safe care as well as nutrition. She has secured numerous research grants, including from the Department of Health and Diabetes Australia, and her research has been published in high-impact journals. Dr Lin is actively engaged in collaborative initiatives to advance diabetes and nutrition research and education, serving on expert working groups and providing strategic advice to organizations like Dietitians Australia, Australian Diabetes Educators Association (ADEA), Australian Diabetes Society, Diabetes Australia, Glycaemic Index Foundation, Rural Doctor Network, Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AH&MRC), NSW Health, Primary Health Networks and Global Chinese Diabetes Association. She has held several leadership roles, including the Vice President of ADEA, and has been recognized for her service and leadership with numerous prestigious awards, such as the 2025 Dietitians Australia Oustanding Contribution Award, UTS 2023 Alumni Award of Excellence (Health) and the National Credentialled Diabetes Educator of the Year 2023. As the Diabetes Course Director and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney, Dr Lin is passionate about educating the next generation of healthcare professionals, and her dedication to teaching and learning has been recognized with several awards, including the UTS 2022-2023 Health Dean's Academic Excellence Award, UTS Teaching and Learning Award 2023 (academic support) and UTS Citation for Teaching and Learning 2022. In 2024, the Course was awarded as the finalist for the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Award - Teaching and Learning Excellence, while Dr Lin was the nominee of Primer's NSW Woman of Excellence 2024. Improving health outcomes for underserved populations, particularly Indigenous communities, is a key focus of Dr Lin's work, and she has held senior roles at several Aboriginal Community Controlled diabetes clinics, including Illawarra Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS), Coonamble AMS and Redfern AMS, where she has developed and delivered culturally responsive diabetes education and management programs. She also sits on the First Nations Health Advisory Council (2025-27).

Dr Aileen Kennedy is a leading national and international scholar on Australian law relating to sex and gender, with a specific focus on research and advocacy on intersex human rights law. She joined the UTS Law Health Justice Research Centre in April 2023 as a Chancellor's Research Fellow. 

As a Director of Intersex Human Rights Australia (IHRA), a member of the LGBTIQ+ Committee of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, and a national director of Pride in Law, Kennedy is at the forefront of developing and shaping policy and knowledge about social justice and human rights for people with intersex variations.

Following a Bachelor of Arts/Law (Honours) at Macquarie University (1989) and a Master of Law at the University of Sydney (2006), Aileen completed her PhD at UTS (2021). Her thesis considered the impact of neurological theories of binary gender on judicial decision-making for transgender and intersex minors in Australia. Previously, she has worked in the legal profession and held academic roles at University of New England, University of Western Sydney, UNSW Sydney and Macquarie University.

The focus of Aileen’s current research is to provide an analysis of Australian law as it impacts on the intersex population and develop a comprehensive suite of law reform proposals to promote the human rights of people with innate variations of sex characteristics (IVSC).
Her book 'Law, Gender Identity and the Brain' published by Routledge Press, sits at the cutting edge of law and medicine’s engagement with sex and gender to argue that law must develop greater acceptance of dynamic complexity and diversity in the domain of sex and gender. She believes that law must retreat from its determination to create, define, and regulate artificially bounded sex categories of male and female which can lead to violations of embodied integrity and a betrayal of autonomous rights of intersex minors.

With a focus on real-world outcomes, Aileen’s extensive research findings on legal regulation of body transforming medicine, including intersex medical interventions and female genital mutilation have contributed to the developing global debate on the cultural embeddedness of different forms of genital surgeries and medical modifications to the sexed body. Aileen was appointed to the Expert Reference Panel of the Australian Human Rights Commissions report 'Ensuring health and bodily integrity' (2021) on intersex human rights in medical settings. She has also worked with the ACT government in its law reform to regulate medical interventions on minors with intersex variations.

Carla Saunders is an Adjunct Fellow in Public Health at UTS.

Carla has over 35 years professional experience in regional, state and national level roles in health management, health planning, health services research, and health policy and program development and oversight. With a background in health care and teaching, Carla investigates health care from society perspective, as well as conducting health policy and health management research. Carla holds a Master of Medical Science (Epidemiology) and a doctorate in health service management. She has worked extensively in government, non-government and private health systems in Australia.

As Adjunct Fellow, Carla assists with the continuance, support and upgrading of skills and knowledge across academic teaching and research fields and areas within her expertise.

Dr Dan Liu is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE). Prior to joining CHERE, she worked as a Research Fellow at the University of York in the United Kingdom. She has experience working at the World Health Organization (Switzerland) and Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China). She holds a PhD in Economics from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Italy).

Dr Liu has experience teaching Introductory Health Economics and STATA and supervising PhD students. Her primary research expertise lies in econometric modelling using large-scale patient-level data, and she has also contributed to projects involving economic evaluation. Her research interests include health policy and programme evaluation, competition policy and market structure, cancer care, mental health, digital health and climate change and health.

Dr Liu is an Editorial Board Member of BMC Health Services Research and serves as a Public Officer for the Australian Health Economics Society. She is currently a member of the UTS Low Risk Ethics Committee. Dr Liu was also part of the organising committee for the 2024 Australian Health Economics Society Conference and has served as a peer reviewer for the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant scheme.

Dr Liu has been the recipient of multiple awards, including the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Research Mobility Programme Award, the WUN Research Development Fund Award, the Distilling Research Impact Award and the Faculty of Health Research Impact Competition Award.

Dr Wenbo Peng is a medically trained epidemiologist in the Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney. Her work focuses on improving chronic disease care and health service delivery, particularly in diabetes management.

Dr Peng has expertise in implementation research, evaluation, epidemiologic study design, large-scale data analysis, and data linkage. Her research focuses on translating evidence into practical and scalable approaches to improve healthcare delivery, workforce capability, consumer communication, and real-world implementation. She has contributed to national diabetes evaluation projects and is currently involved in projects focused on diabetes workforce development, culturally responsive diabetes education, and mentorship models for rural and remote health professionals.

Dr Samuel Vigours is a medical advisor with the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE) at the University of Technology Sydney.

With over 6 years of clinical experience primarily as an Emergency Department Senior Resident Medical Officer and Intensive Care Registrar, followed by 6 years as an academic advisor and senior researcher, Dr Vigours has provided in-depth analyses and advice on evaluations for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), Clinical Evaluation Reports for the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and PICO Confirmations for the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC).

Dr Vigours has also reviewed numerous clinical trial designs for the Cancer Australia Cancer Research Economics Support Team (CREST), co-authored the Review of the Discount Rate in the PBAC Guidelines and authored the topics on pharmaceutical price negotiations and funding decision-making in the recently published Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Review. Dr Vigours is currently working on a project partnered with NSW Health investigating clinical care processes that mitigate environmental damage, which will produce environmentally considered proposals in clinical processes for NSW hospitals, and is the chief investigator in a project aiming to quantify the costs and benefits afforded by population-based cancer screening.

Dr Vigours has extensive knowledge of the Australian healthcare system and the operation of the TGA, PBAC and MSAC. He also has a comprehensive understanding of the evaluation of clinical trial design, and how research outputs may be communicated to stakeholders and applied to the Australian population, with a unique perspective on how doctors, nursing staff, administration and policymakers may be aligned to produce optimum patient care and translate medical research into real-world outcomes.

Dr Klaus Gebel is a Senior Lecturer and former Master of Public Health Course Director in the School of Public Health of the University of Technology Sydney. He has master degrees in exercise science from the German Sport University Cologne and Victoria University, Melbourne, where he first specialised on exercise for rehabilitation and then on physical activity and public health. He did his PhD at the School of Public Health of the University of Sydney under the supervision of Professors Adrian Bauman and Neville Owen. Klaus has studied and worked at seven universities in three countries, has given conference presentations and invited guest lectures on six continents, and has received multiple grants, scholarships and awards.

As an epidemiologist, in his research he mainly focuses on the relationship between urban design, physical activity, active transport and health. Through the media (including London Times, New York Times, Japan Times, Forbes, Playboy) his publications have reached more than one billion people. He was also invited to present the findings from his paper in JAMA Internal Medicine on physical activity and mortality in a TEDx talk.

Klaus also co-edited a book entitled "Walking - Connecting Sustainable Transport with Health", which brought together experts from urban planning, sustainability, transportation and public health. He is a co-author of three papers in a special series on Urban Design, Transport and Health analysing data from 25 cities, in 19 countries on 6 continents that was published in The Lancet Global Health. Klaus co-authored the world's first systematic review of the prevalence of loneliness as a public health problem which was published in the British Medical Journal. He was the lead author of an editorial on ending sexism in the scheduling of sports events which was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Recently, he co-authored a commentary with an agenda for physical activity research in The Lancet. Currently, Klaus is co-editing the Routledge Handbook of Physical Activity and Health.

• Representative of the Faculty of Health in the SDG Working Group of the University of Technology Sydney
• Member of the International Society for Physical Activity and Health
• Member of the Australasian Epidemiological Association
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Physical Activity & Health
• Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
• Peer reviewer for 70 academic journals, book chapters from Cambridge University Press, grant applications for the National Health and Medical Research Council and other Australian and international funding agencies and abstracts for multiple conferences

Dr Kris Rogers is a biostatistician with over 20 years of experience in health and medical research. He provides expertise in biostatistics to researchers in the Faculty of Health in clinical and public health research, and is the convenor of the Biostatistics Epidemiology and Data Science hub in the INSIGHT research institute. 

Kris has used his skills to achieve high-impact publications in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, BMJ, and PLoS Medicine. He is experienced in a range of study designs including complex surveys, cohort studies with routinely collected data, and clinical trials.

I am a proud Wiradjuri yinaa (woman) originally from Trangie, NSW, now living and working between rural/regional and urban NSW. In 23/24 I completed a Harkness Fellowship program with the Commonwealth Fund in the US.  During that time, I conducted internationally comparative research where I examined Rural and Remote workforce development and the participation of First Nation Peoples in the health workforce with a particular focus on the profession of pharmacy. I was named as the PSA Australian Pharmacist of the Year in 2022. In the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours List I was awarded the Medal (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for "significant service to Indigenous Mental Health, and to tertiary education". I have been honoured to serve as the inaugural Deputy National Rural Health Commissioner for Allied Health and First Nations Health a role which I held from 2021 until stepping down in June of 2025. In 2019 I was honoured to be named as the NSW Aboriginal Woman of the year. I am a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity (Atlantic Institute), Senior Harkness Fellow as well as being a Senior Fellow with Advance HE. I am a founding member of Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) and was a board member of IAHA from 2009-2017 (and chairperson from 2010-2016). I joined UTS in Oct 2022 with over 25 years of experience in the Higher Education Sector and over 35 years in the health sector.

Professor Andrew Hayen is Professor of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He served as Deputy Head of School (Teaching and Learning) until June 2023.

Professor Hayen gradauted with First Class Honours and the University Medal in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Sydney, a Master of Biostatistics - where he was recognised as a standout graduate - and a PhD in Mathematical Statistics. He is also a graduate of the NSW Biostatistics Training Program.

“I was drawn to applying statistical methods in ways that deliver social benefit, which naturally led me to public health and medical research,” he explains. “Robust, high-quality data is essential for developing effective, evidence-based policy. That became especially clear during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

His research spans a broad range of public health areas, from maternal and child health to advanced care planning. He is particularly passionate about using data to better understand and improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations.

Current and recent research projects include:

• Evaluating outcomes for adolescents in drug treatment programs with the Ted Noffs Foundation;
• Linking datasets to investigate refugee health, supported by an NHMRC grant;
• Examining the health impacts of blood donation in collaboration with Australian Red Cross Lifeblood.

Professor Hayen has published in leading international journals, including The BMJ, JAMA, The Lancet Public Health, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, The Lancet Global Health, BMJ Global Health, and Journal of Clinical Oncology.

He is committed to mentoring the next generation of biostatisticians and currently chairs StatoSPHERE, the Biostatistics Group within the SPHERE health alliance - a collaboration between UTS and partner institutions.

Prior to joining UTS in 2016, Professor Hayen held several senior academic roles at UNSW, including Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Associate Dean (Postgraduate Coursework) in UNSW Medicine, and Director of the Master of Public Health Program. He also led the establishment of StatsCentral, UNSW’s university-wide statistical consulting service. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics at the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health.

He is a past president of the Australasian Epidemiological Association.

Daniel Demant is an Associate Professor of Social Epidemiology in the University of Technology Sydney's School of Public Health. Daniel holds a diverse range of qualifications, including degrees in Public Health, Epidemiology, Education, and Applied Social Sciences. His extensive research contributions have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences.

As a researcher, Daniel specialises in epidemiological study designs and quantitative data analysis, focusing on LGBTQ+ health. His work addresses critical issues related to the health and wellbeing of the LGBTQ+ community, including but not limited to substance use and sexual health, contributing to a deeper understanding of the unique needs of this population. His research has been used to inform and develop health policy in the areas of sexual wellbeing and substance use domestically (e.g., the NSW Health HIV Strategy or the Queensland Government Child Safety Practice Manual on working with young people and alcohol and other drugs) as well as overseas (e.g., UK Government Advisory Council on the issue of  Drugs). 

A/Prof Demant serves in different leadership positions in teaching as the Director for the Postgraduate Public Health courses since July 2024 and previously as the Course Director for the Bachelor of Public Health from 2020 to 2023. He plays a leading role in curriculum development, leading large-scale innovations in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and learning. In 2023, Daniel received the Health Dean’s Academic Excellence Award for Innovation in Learning and Teaching and in 2025 the Teaching Excellence Award by the Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia (CAPHIA). Furthermore, Daniel serves as the Chair of the Medical Research Ethics Committee since 2022. and was a board member of the Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia (CAPHIA) from 2022 to 2024. 

Daniel was in research and teaching roles at before joining UTS. Before his academic career, he gained extensive experience in the non-profit health sector, contributing to developing innovative education and training programs focused on healthcare workers and health promotion, and was involved in the development of award-winning health promotion initiatives in the sexual health and wellbeing sector.

Catriona Bonfiglioli is a senior lecturer in Media Studies in the School of Communication in the Faculty of Design and Society at UTS.
Catriona is the JERAA/ANZCA Anne Dunn Scholar 2021 https://jeraa.org.au/dr-catriona-bonfiglioli-is-the-2021-anne-dunn-scholar-2/

Catriona has led funded research demonstrating that: individual responsibility dominates obesity news, sweet drinks news sends mixed health messages, industry accountability is neglected, large people are stigmatised by media, and news contributes to genetic determinism. She has collaborated with scholars from Monash and the University of Sydney investigating inactivity in the news, negative framing of cyclists, and audience responses to The Biggest Loser.

As the lead chief investigator, Catriona led a successfully completed ARC Discovery investigating the media life cycle of obesity, PA, and inactivity (CIA, DP1096251). Catriona was CIA on UTS ECR Grant (#2009001198 ‘Do Australian news and reality television programs construct overweight and obese people as the 'other'?’) and a co-investigator on NHMRC grant ‘Calling the tune? Investigating corporate influences on media reporting of health.’ (ID632840). Catriona has collaborated on research projects funded by the UTS Teaching and Learning Development Fund, the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism and UTS's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Catriona is an experienced HDR supervisor contributing to supervision for 12 completed PhDs and one MA(Res). Catriona is on supervisory panels of four PhDs underway. She has supervised 13 honours students. CI Bonfiglioli has served on the Public Health Association’s NSW Committee since 2001, the UTS Human Research Ethics Committee since 2011, and is a former President and Treasurer of the Australian Medical Writers Association. CI Bonfiglioli has given invited papers at Oxford, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Chicago, Santiago de Chile, Aarhus, and Bournemouth. 

Catriona has authored two research book chapters and led or co-authored more than 29 scholarly book chapters and research articles published in academic journals including the Journal of Health Communication, BMC Public Health, Journal of Medical Ethics, the Medical Journal of Australia, Australian Journalism Review, Academic Pediatrics, JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting, Applied Linguistics, and the ANZ Journal of Public Health. Catriona was awarded her PhD by the University of Sydney in 2005 for her analysis of genetic technologies in the Australian news media. In 2018, Catriona was a Visiting Professor at the Journalism School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In 2017, Catriona was a Visiting Scholar with the Erasmus Mundus Journalism, Media & Globalisation program at the University of Amsterdam. In 2013, Catriona was a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. In 1997, Catriona was the Reuter Foundation Fellow in Medical Journalism at Green College, Oxford.

Catriona is a qualified, trained and experienced journalist with a special interest in medical journalism. Catriona has worked for Australian Associated Press, Australian Doctor, The Oxford Times, and The Western Morning News.

Dr Julia Dray is a Lecturer in Speech Pathology, and Project Manager on the NurtureNextGen project in Genetic Counselling at UTS. Dr Dray’s prior postdoctoral roles focussed on lived experience research in mental health and evaluations of complex implementation science based approaches to improve health and mental health care for reduction of modifiable health risk behaviours and associated chronic disease.

Dr Dray is passionate about enabling people to embed lived-experience in research; recognise their strengths and available wider community protective factors; to develop and maintain positive mental health, development, and life trajectories; breaking disadvantage, and; research and teaching relating to effective mental health and health promotion, prevention and behaviour change initiatives to improve the health of local communities.

Dr Dray completed her PhD, on resilience and mental health problems in children and adolescents. This work achieved international impact and recognition, cited in multiple policies and guidelines including by the World Health Organisation and The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, UK). Testament to significance of findings to the field Dr Dray was also invited as a successful recipient of a DJC Fellowship to present at the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions World Congress (IACAPAP, Calgary, Canada). As demonstration of ongoing resulting global collaborations Dr Dray has been a co-author on publications including in The Lancet Psychiatry with a team of ECRs from 14 countries. Over half of Dr Dray’s other publications cover various review and critical appraisal studies including as a co-author on a systematic review forming the WHO Child Health Workers (CHW) Review Project.

Dr Dray has published over 65 peer review articles, reviews, conference abstracts and commissioned reports. She has obtained over half a million dollars in research funding to date, most recently through a Hunter Medical Research Institute, ECR Grant for Cancer Research (as CIB), titled: Implementation of person centred cancer preventive care in mental health settings: perspectives of consumers and peer-workers, and a Health Foundation Vanguard Grant (as CIC), titled: Evaluating the feasibility and efficacy of PhysiCards: a pilot randomised controlled trial of a novel tool to assist mental health consumers identify and seek care for cardiovascular (and other) physical health concerns.

Dr Dray has demonstrated significant service and leadership including as a reviewer for over 19 peer review journals, as Co-President of the NSW Branch of the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA; 2018-2019), and as Lead Guest Editor on a Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on Improving the Physical Health of People with a Mental Illness (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/Improving_Physical).

Dr Dray envisions her current and future role as an early career researcher in Australia developing into: continued high-standard, cross disciplinary research and teaching; effective collaboration with national, international, government, nongovernment and community partners; the development, implementation, evaluation, transparent dissemination and quality translation of evidence-based research findings, and; a positive influence on related policy.

Deborah is an Honorary Associate Professor in Public Health at UTS. 

Deborah has teaching, clinical, research and administrative experience. Deborah's academic qualifications, coupled with nursing experience in metropolitan, rural and remote acute health care settings provide her with research expertise as well as a first-hand understanding of clinical settings. Deborah has had considerable experience with quality improvement projects in both teaching and research roles. Deborah has research experience across a diverse range of areas including investigation of: service provision for young people with mental health and intellectual disabilities; consumer engagement; health services accreditation; medication administration; nursing leadership; quality improvement initiatives in healthcare (e.g. central line bundles, structured handover process, electronic medication management systems); teaching medical students about smoking cessation; and teaching medical students about patient safety. She also has experience as a clinical trials coordinator in a hospital based drug trial. Deborah is an internationally recognised expert on the use of workarounds healthcare. Identification of workarounds is pivotal to illuminating gaps between how work is imagined to be done (work-as-imagined) and how it is actually done (work-as-done). Understanding these gaps is fundamental to effective implementation of strategies to improve quality and safety of service delivery.

In this honorary role, Deborah supports the continuation of active research, supervision and teaching contributions at UTS. This includes supervision of Higher Degree by Research students as a primary and co‑supervisor, remaining as an active Chief Investigator on externally and internally funded UTS research projects, contributing to study design, governance, data interpretation, publications and grant reporting. Deborah also contributes to teaching through guest lectures and research‑informed learning activities as required, particularly in areas of health services management, patient safety, quality improvement, implementation science, Indigenous health, and co‑design.

Jane Frawley is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health within the Faculty of Health at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and Deputy Head of School (Research). Jane's research interests include maternal and child health, infectious disease prevention, and health communication. Her work draws on epidemiological, and social and behavioural science frameworks with data from population-based surveys, routinely collected and linked datasets, qualitative interviews, and co-design approaches. This work seeks to understand the drivers of vaccination and infectious disease control and to develop evidence-based solutions that reach diverse and underserved communities.

A defining feature of Jane's research is its translational reach. Her findings directly inform national and international immunisation policy, clinical practice guidelines, and the design of culturally tailored health communication resources. She has a strong track record of leading collaborative, multidisciplinary research teams that bring together public health, clinical, communication, and community expertise to address complex systemic and community challenges. 

Jane has also established a program of work in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) with adolescents in Fiji using a Sport 4 Development framework that aims to help young people live safe, connected and healthy lives. This work is strongly connected with community and culture and applies a strengths based appproach to enhancing youth confidence and wellbeing.

Jane has an established research program across the Pacific region, partnering with Pacific Island governments, UN agencies, and regional research institutions to strengthen immunisation systems and support country-led health programs. She is a steering committee member of the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance (ARIA), and serves on the Advisory Group on Strengthening Immunisation Provider Education in the Indo-Pacific Region at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS).

Her research has been funded by the NHMRC, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Fiji Ministry of Health and Medical Services, UNICEF, the Pacific Community, the Australian Digital Health Agency, the Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease Emergencies (APPRISE), and the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance (ARIA).

Jane is working on a variety of projects including:

• Enriching adolescent health and wellbeing in Fiji: building for the future through sport and education (EAGLES),

• Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatits B in the Pacific region,

• Investigating the impacts of climate change on SRHR needs for women in the Pacific region,

• Sustainability review of the Australian National Immunisation Program

• Developing digital vaccine information resources in Fiji to help parents make confident vaccine decisions,

• Co-developing and evaluating vaccine information resourses in the Solomon Islands,

• Collaborative measles surveillance to prevent outbreaks in Southeast Asia,

• A national immunisation coverage survey in Fiji,

• Optimising measles vaccination programs for children under five in sub-Saharan Africa,

• Supporting immunisation program efforts in the Western Pacific Region, 

Maternity and child health | Infectious disease epidemiology | Health service utilisation | Health service research | Attitudes and decision making in relation to health care | Attitudes to vaccination | Adolescent SRHR

Abela Mahimbo is an Adjunct Fellow in Public Health at UTS.

Abela is a trained medical doctor from Tanzania who migrated to Australia in 2012 to undertake a Masters in Public Health & Masters in Health Management and thereafter a PhD that examined policies and practices in immunisation service delivery for refugees. Abela’s passion is health equity and the barriers faced by migrant and refugee communities to accessing healthcare. Abela’s research has been focused on examining policies and practices in immunisation service delivery for refugees in Australia to inform evidence-based approaches/strategies in improving service delivery for this underserved group. Abela’s future research will focus on the co-production of health promotion programs, specifically focusing on enhancing vaccine uptake, in migrant and refugee communities.

In this honorary role, Abela continues to work with UTS collaborators and contributes to the profile of UTS in public health research. Abela is also continues to supervise higher degree research students.

Dr Sarah Wise is an applied social researcher with over 20 years of experience in health, aged care, and community services research in both Australia and the UK. She is a Senior Lecturer in Health Services Management at the University of Technology Sydney and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW.

Her research focuses on health workforce issues, including workloads and interprofessional teamwork. Dr Wise has held previous research roles at the Workplace Research Centre, University of Sydney, and the Employment Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University.

Working alongside health economists and clinicians, Dr Wise brings expertise in the institutional and organisational barriers to healthcare reform, particularly how funding models and professional regulation and culture mediate change. Her current research spans several areas, including financial transparency and fragmentation in private breast cancer care, clinician prescribing behaviour and advice-giving, antimicrobial stewardship, and the impact of telehealth on clinician workload.

Dr Wise is an experienced mixed-methods researcher with strong capabilities in theory-driven research design and both qualitative and quantitative analysis. She has led and contributed to numerous national, state, and workplace-level surveys of health professionals and conducted hundreds of stakeholder, clinician, and consumer interviews.

She completed her PhD in 2018 at UTS with the support of a UTS Chancellor’s Research Scholarship. Her doctoral research used a mixed-methods approach-  including a time study, ethnography, and interviews - to critically examine ‘workforce flexibility’ through the lens of task shifting and team dynamics in emergency departments.