Indigenous Advisory Committee

deanna.stuartbutler@uq.edu.au

Deanna Stuart-Butler is an Arabana women whose country is the Lake Eyre Region of South Australia. She currently chairs the Stillbirth CRE Indigenous Advisory Group. She has more than 18 years experience in Aboriginal maternity health services. She is particularly interested in translating research into operational practices within mainstream maternity models and the clinical space. Her passion comes from seeing the injustice of pregnant Aboriginal women first hand, relentlessly pursuing equal and equitable access for Aboriginal women at a National, State and local level. With her drive and commitment, she always hopes to stimulate reflection on the approach used by clinicians in Aboriginal women’s health care, always ensuring that Cultural needs are respected.  

philippa.middleton@sahmri.com

Philippa Middleton is a Principal Research Fellow in the Healthy Mothers, Babies and Children Theme of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and an Affiliate Associate Professor, School of Medicine, The University of Adelaide.  As a perinatal epidemiologist and implementation scientist, she specialises in randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews, research synthesis, guidelines, research reporting standards and translating research evidence into policy and practice. Her areas of expertise include preterm birth, nutrition, diabetes, stillbirth and health disparities, and she has a particular interest in Indigenous health.

natalie.strobel@uwa.edu.au

Dr Strobel as a Research Fellow within the Centre for Improving Health Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and  families(ISAC) at the University of Western Australia. She is the team leader for the ISAC evidence synthesis stream and works on a range of health services and epidemiology child health related projects within Western Australia and nationally. Her aim is to improve evidence-based best practice within health services focusing on primary prevention and early detection, particularly for Aboriginal and disadvantaged children.

Joyce.Graham@act.gov.au
Joyce is currently Manager of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Liaison Service at the Canberra Hospital where she helps to provide cultural social and emotional wellbeing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and their families.

Previously, she has worked in the federal government with issues relating to her mob such as housing/homeless, education and students and social issues as well as managing community organisations.

Joyce has a long connection with CIT Yurauna Centre, as her brother and son have studied there and she herself now undertakes studies in cultural arts.

She believes CIT Yurauna Centre is a very valuable community drop in for present and past students as well as community members and is proud to be connected to it and to CIT as a member of the CIT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee.

sandy.campbell@jcu.edu.au

Sandra's research focuses on Indigenous health, particularly on the health of mothers and babies, pregnancy and childbirth, chronic disease prevention and tobacco control.

Diana holds a Bach of Education and has taught in Cairns and Cape York Aboriginal schools and have a Masters in Social Work as well as being a CBT and Narrative Therapist and a Justice of the Peace.

All of Diana’s working career has seen her working in human services. She worked for many years in the child protection field with Dept Child Safety, as a bereavement counsellor with StandBy Suicide Bereavement Support and then with the Dr Edward Koch Foundation. Diana currently works at Apunipima Cape York Health Council as Maternal Child Health Social Worker as the Protection of Children Advisor, the Kimberley Mums’s Mood Scale Project Officer and now beginning in this new role with the National Stillbirth CRE. She has worked at Apunipima since 2014.

C.Chamberlain@latrobe.edu.au

Catherine Chamberlain is an NHMRC Early Career and Senior Research Fellow (2015-2018), who received the 2015 NHMRC 'Rising Star' award. A descendant of the Trawlwoolway People (Tasmania), her postdoctoral research program aims to improve Indigenous health equity by developing strengths-based family-focussed strategies in pregnancy, birth and early childhood.

Yvette.Roe@mater.uq.edu.au 

Dr Roe is a Njikena Jawuru woman from the West Kimberley region, Western Australia. Yvette has more than 20 years’ experience working in the Indigenous health sector. She is an early career Aboriginal scholar and her research is aimed at identifying opportunities to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by implementing services that are patient, family and community focused.  Yvette has a keen research interest in cardiovascular disease, comprehensive primary health, patient-clinician engagement, meaningful measures of health and wellness, innovative models of health financing, Aboriginal community controlled health sector policy development, program delivery and the development of community-focused evaluation models informed by a critical Indigenous research paradigm.

johanna.neville@apunipima.org.au

Johanna is the Maternal Child Health Program Advisor at Apunipima Cape York Health Council, Cape York, Far North Queensland.   She has worked with families for the last 25 years as both a Midwife and Child health Nurse. She has a Grad Dip, Midwifery; Grad Cert Family and Community Health and a Grad Cert Organisational Change and Clinical Leadership.  She has a special interest in the value of a family centred model of care in home visiting programs, with the role that strong healthy women play in keeping families healthy within Aboriginal communities.   

sue.kildea@mater.uq.edu.au

Professor Sue Kildea is the Director of the Midwifery Research Unit (MRU) and a joint appointment with the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Queensland, Mater Research and Mater Health. The MRU has a strong focus on translational research, health services research, redesigning health services for vulnerable families and promoting normal birth and breastfeeding, within the Mothers, Babies and Women’s Health research theme. The MRU comprise of six post-Doctoral researchers and a team of higher degree research students and research assistants. Sue is a registered nurse and midwife with a strong clinical background, particularly in rural and remote Australia. 

s.vlack@sph.uq.edu.au

Sue Vlack is a Public Health Physician, Health Services Researcher and University Lecturer, with clinical experience in Indigenous community Women's and Children's Health. Doctor Vlack chairs the original Indigenous Reference Group for Stillbirth Prevention at Mater Research, and contributed to development of Indigenous-specific resources about stillbirth prevention for South-East Queensland with BabyHelp : When to see your health worker, nurse of doctor, and Indigenous Health Worker Resource Manual for Immunisation, used Queensland wide. Her PhD project was a mixed methods evaluation of an intervention to increase Indigenous preventive care in General Practice. 

Lauren.Sculthorpe@iuih.org.au

Ren is a Palawa woman from Southern Tasmania.  Ren is a Clinical Psychologist with over 10 years experience working in mental health and as a clinical supervisor.  She currently provides a Clinical Psychology service to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families through the The Birthing in Our Communities Team in Brisbane.  Ren specialises in perinatal mental health and is passionate about supporting parent baby relationships and addressing intergenerational trauma.

Lorian is an Indigenous health worker and researcher with qualifications in epidemiology and training in diagnostic and assessment of FASD at the University of Washington, USA. She has lead awareness and education on FASD on Cape York Peninsula and presented widely across Australia since 1992 as well as Canada.

f.boyle@uq.edu.au

@FranBoyleOz

Associate Professor Fran Boyle is a social scientist with qualifications in psychology and public health. Fran’s research focuses on people’s lived experiences of health, health services and the health system. Her expertise and experience is in the application of social sciences methods (quantitative and qualitative) and health systems thinking to guide policy and practice. Fran brings to the Stillbirth CRE a detailed understanding of perinatal bereavement and, as co-lead of the Care after Stillbirth program, is committed to improving outcomes for women and families through the implementation and evaluation of best practice parent-centred perinatal bereavement care.

vicki.flenady@mater.uq.edu.au

Professor Vicki Flenady leads the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence which aims to reduce stillbirths and improve care for families when a child is stillborn through high quality research and raising community awareness.  Vicki was lead author on The Lancet’s stillbirth series in 2011 and 2016. Vicki’s research currently focused on stillbirth prevention through better understanding of causal pathways and risk factors and is currently leading a large-scale trial on a mobile phone app for women on fetal movements to reduce stillbirth rates. With a clinical background in midwifery and neonatal nursing and masters and PhD in perinatal epidemiology in stillbirth prevention, Vicki has a keen interest in addressing evidence practice gaps in maternity care. Vicki is an active member of the International Stillbirth Alliance. 

sue.kruske@iuih.org.au 

Professor Sue Kruske has contributed to health services in a variety of roles and settings including clinical, policy, education and research. She has a background in midwifery and child health nursing and worked for many years in remote Indigenous communities. Sue was previously the Director of the Queensland Centre of Mothers and Babies before taking up her current role as Regional Manager of Maternal and Child Health for the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health where she has worked for the past 5 years. Her primary areas of interests and research are in trauma, parenting, supporting the health workforce in working more effectively with women and families.

Mater Research Institute - The University of Queensland

j.sexton@uq.net.au

@JSextonMPH

Jessica Sexton is an epidemiology PhD student. Prior to joining the Stillbirth CRE, Jessica earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science – Medical Laboratory Science from the University of New Hampshire in 2012, a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from Georgia Southern University in 2015, and will earn a Master of Science in Spatial Analysis from Johns Hopkins University in 2018. As an MPH student, she investigated the determinants of neonatal sepsis in Ghana, participated in environmental laboratory studies of Vibrio spp., and studied the 2014 influenza outbreak. Upon graduation, she earned a position working for the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention as an Allan Rosenfield Global Epidemiology Fellow in Lilongwe, Malawi. At CDC, Jessica was responsible for the design and implementation of surveillance programs designed to address the HIV epidemic and served as the point of contact for HIV drug resistance activities. In 2017, Jessica was honoured by United States Ambassador Virginia E. Palmer to receive a Franklin Award for her service and innovation through diligence, coordination, and skilled collaboration to improve use of laboratory data and health systems in surveillance and research studies in Malawi.