Public Awareness Committee

adrienne.gordon@sydney.edu.au

@AdrienneOz

Doctor Adrienne Gordon is known nationally, and emerging internationally, as a clinician and academic establishing a strong research career in the area of stillbirth and adverse perinatal outcomes. Currently a Neonatologist in the RPA centre for newborn care, Dr Gordon is also an NHMRC Early Career Fellow at the University of Sydney. Having completed a PhD on risk factors for stillbirth, her current ECR Fellowship aims to develop and pilot test a culturally appropriate information resource for pregnant women targeting health behaviours that can optimise pregnancy outcome.

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. 

l.mccowan@auckland.ac.nz

Professor Lesley McCowan is a sub-specialist in Maternal Fetal Medicine who became Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Auckland in 2009. In 2011 she received a New Year’s Honour (Officer of New Zealand Order of Merit) for services to health.

Her clinical work is in high risk pregnancy, especially pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction, and she chairs the National Women’s Hospital perinatal mortality review process. She was a founding member of the National Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee which reports on perinatal mortality nationally. Lesley is also the secretary of the New Zealand Committee of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

euan.wallace@monash.edu

@euan_wallace

Euan Wallace currently holds clinical positions as Head of Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Monash University; Director of Obstetric Services at Monash Health; and Co-Director, The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research.  Over a period of 25 years, Professor Wallace’s research has addressed diverse aspects of fetal and maternal medicine, including fetal development and maternal physiology.  The major areas of research currently being addressed by his group are: fetal growth restriction, preeclampsia, placental ageing and stillbirth, and cell therapies.

Caroline.Homer@uts.edu.au

@CarolineHomer

Caroline Homer is currently the President of the Australian College of Midwives and is a registered midwife in Australia. She has led research into the development and implementation of innovative models of midwifery care and the development of midwifery practice and education.  Professor Homer’s other research includes the translation of research into clinical practice particularly in maternity care, clinical risk management strategies, and the development of educational strategies to prepare midwives for practice.

Senior Clinical Lecturer in Obstetrics

Tommy's Stillbirth Research Centre, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom

>>Institution profile

Mater Research Institute - The University of Queensland

aleena.wojcieszek@mater.uq.edu.au

@aleenawoj

Aleena’s research background is in health psychology and clinical perinatal epidemiology specific to reproductive health and decision-making. Her current work is focused on implementation science in the context of perinatal health, particularly improving mothers’ and babies’ health and preventing adverse pregnancy outcomes such as stillbirth.

Aleena worked on the Lancet series on Ending Preventable Stillbirths, published in January 2016, where she co-authored two series papers and drafted the series executive summary. She has also collaborated with the World Health Organization and Norwegian Institute of Public Health to develop global frameworks and customisable technical tools for electronic health registries for maternal and child health – coined eRegistries. Aleena is a Cochrane systematic reviewer and member of the Australasian node of the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group. She also works closely with the International Stillbirth Alliance and is a member of its scientific network and working groups.

Aleena is an Associate Investigator on the Stillbirth CRE and Early Career Researcher (ECR) lead for its Care After Stillbirth program. She recently submitted her PhD thesis on informing clinical practice for care during subsequent pregnancies following a stillbirth and co-leads the Stillbirth CRE's subsequent pregnancy research stream.

Claire is the Founder and CEO of Still Aware. A passionate advocate, Claire hopes to bring about change and a high level of awareness that stillbirth deserves. Claire’s efforts have been recognised when she was awarded South Australia’s Local Hero, in the 2016 Australian of The Year Awards.

d.ellwood@griffith.edu.au

David Ellwood joined Griffith University in early 2013 to take up a joint appointment as Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and Director of Maternal-Fetal medicine at Gold Coast Health. Prior to this he was Deputy Dean at the Australian National University Medical School in Canberra. He has held various roles within the School of Medicine including Academic Lead for Selections, and has been the School’s Equity & Diversity champion. Since 2015 he has been Deputy Head of School (Research) and in August of this year was appointed to the position of Dean, and Head of School of Medicine. He remains clinically active working as a sub-specialist in maternal-fetal medicine and has long-standing research interests in a range of adverse of outcomes of pregnancy.

He is the Co-Director of the Stillbirth CRE and has published extensively in this area. He is also the Chair of the Queensland Maternal & Perinatal Quality Council which is responsible for monitoring pregnancy outcomes across the State. In addition to his local and State roles, he has an important national role in the standards of medical education as the immediate past-Chair of the Medical School’s Accreditation Committee of the Australian Medical Council (AMC), and is currently the President of the AMC.

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.

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.

kate@stillbirthfoundation.org.au

Kate Lynch joined Stillbirth Foundation Australia as CEO in September 2018, where she is working to reduce the incidence of stillbirth, improve support where it does occur and ensure more healthy births through research, education and advocacy.

Prior to the joining the Foundation, Kate served as the Chief Executive Officer of the industry association for generic medicines for almost six years. Over a twenty five year career in the pharmaceutical and healthcare technology industry, Kate has worked with products spanning pre-clinical through to off-patent status. Her industry experience is with major pharmaceutical, bio-technology, local start-up, device and consultancy.

Kate has led many highly coordinated campaigns, successfully delivering funded access to healthcare products in the ANZ market, by developing value propositions supported by robust clinical and economic outcomes research, statistically pooled data and informed by local expert advice. She values strong relationships and believes that through collaboration positive and lasting change can be achieved.

Kate has a Masters of Economics, Graduate Diploma in Health Economics and a Bachelor of Economics with Honours. She has four teenage children and in addition to motherhood, enjoys skiing and sailing.