Conference speakers

Dr Lee Ashton

Dr Ashton is a post-doctoral researcher at the Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity & Nutrition and the School of Health Sciences. He was awarded his PhD from the University of Newcastle in March 2017. He also completed a Master of Science in Nutrition Epidemiology at the University of Leeds (UK) and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Science at Leeds Beckett University (UK) in 2010.

Dr Ashton’s research focuses on digital health interventions to help prevent chronic disease in young adults. Currently, he is project managing a national nutrition website for young adults called ‘No Money No Time’ and two online dietary assessment tools: The Healthy Eating Quiz and Australian Eating Survey. The three platforms have had over 120,000 users since launch (July 2019).

Dr Nasser Bagheri

Dr Nasser Bagheri is a Senior Research Fellow and spatial epidemiologist at the Australian National University (ANU), recipient of an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship and leads Visual and Decision Analytics (VIDEA) lab in the Centre for Mental Health Research. His research has focused on health care ecosystem and chronic diseases risk assessment, particularly, mental health, cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, dementia, and Multiple Sclerosis. His primary research focus is on the application of spatial risk assessment methods and population-based intervention studies to provide epidemiological evidence for more rational implementation of strategies for the control of chronic diseases. He also conducts research in spatial epidemiology, geo-spatial analysis and modelling, and quantifying the impact of modifiable risk factors including lifestyle and contextual factors on chronic diseases. He is also interested in visualisation of health care and services patterns to generate evidence-informed policy for better policy planning and tailored interventions.

Professor Liz Burd

Professor Burd joined the University of Newcastle in 2013 as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching). With an international reputation in the field of education, Professor Burd is particularly recognised for her pioneering research into Technology Enhanced Learning. For the last couple of years, Liz have been responsible for student services within the University. Currently, she is leading the University response for COVID-19.

Liz has received 5 University awards for Enhancing the Learning and Teaching experience and has received three nominations for THE Awards. Professor Burd holds memberships with the Fellow Higher Education Academy, is a Senior member of the IEEE and IEEE Computer Society, and Member of the American Educational Research Association, and holds research collaborations with IBM, Microsoft, British Telecommunication, BAe, and Logica.

Associate Professor Tracy Burrows

Associate Professor Tracy Burrows is an NHMRC Research Fellow at Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity & Nutrition and the School of Health Sciences. She is recognised as a Fellow of Dietitians Australia. Her research focuses on dietary intake and eating behaviours and particularly interested in investigating novel interventions to manage addictive overeating and obesity with particular interest in those with mental health conditions.

Conjoint Professor Gregory Carter

Professor Carter is currently the Senior Staff Specialist and Acting Director of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital, Waratah; and Conjoint Professor in Psychiatry in the Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle. He is a Chief Investigator for the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention (CRESP 2.0) at Black Dog UNSW. He is the Chair for the RANZCP for the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Deliberate Self-Harm.

Associate Professor Helen Chan

Dr Helen Yue-lai Chan is an Associate Professor at The Nethersole School of Nursing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and Associate Professor (by courtesy), CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing. Her research focus on gerontology and end-of-life care. She received the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Titular Fellowships in 2017, Young Investigator Awards at the 19th Hong Kong International Cancer Congress in 2012 and at the 5th Hong Kong Palliative Care Symposium in 2008. She serves as the editorial board member of Journal of Nursing Ethics and Asian Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics, co-opt member of the Education subcommittee of the Nursing Council of Hong Kong, Council member of Hong Kong Association of Gerontology, Honorary Advisor of Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, Hong Kong Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing and the Jockey Club CADENZA Hub.

Conjoint Associate Professor Richard Clancy

Richard Clancy is the Mental Health Nursing Research Fellow with Hunter New England Health, and Conjoint Associate Professor with the University of Newcastle.

In 2014, after 35 years nursing in clinical health settings, Richard took up the position of Nursing Research Fellow for Hunter New England Mental Health and commenced a PhD in translational research, evaluating the use of digital signage in an innovative way to support people who access mental health services and to influence clinician uptake of evidence based practices.

Richard has published on topics related to mental health comorbidities of substance use, physical health and recovery. In addition to his nursing qualifications, Richard has qualifications in epidemiology and the social sciences.

Richard’s position as a Mental Health Nursing Research Fellow involves promoting a clinical culture in mental health informed by research and translating evidence into clinical practice.

Professor Clare Collins

Professor Collins is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow, Director of Research for the School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medicine at the University of Newcastle. She leads a large team of research dietitians internationally in developing food and nutrition eHealth tools, programs and evaluating the impact on eating patterns and diet-related health across key life stages and chronic disease conditions. Professor Collins has published over 350 manuscripts and supervised 30 Higher Degree Research candidates to completion. Professor Clare Collins is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Fellow Nutrition Society of Australia and Fellow of the Dietitians Australia (DA). In 2018 she was awarded the DA President’s Award for Innovation in Honour of the Memory of Josephine Rogers and in 2017 the Hunter Medical Research Institute, Researcher of the Year.

Prof Collins is a sought after media commentator. She is a regular guest of Dr Karl on TripleJ Science Hour and has presented for ABC Catalyst. She co-created the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), The Science of Weight Loss - Dispelling Diet Myths, has been completed by over 57,000 people across 180 countries. Professor Collins is the most read Australian author for The Conversation with over 90 articles and 10 million readers globally.

Dr Agatha Conrad

Dr Agatha Conrad is a senior Research Development Officer for Hunter New England Mental Health. Dr Conrad holds a PhD in psychology and Doctorate in clinical psychology. She is also a registered clinical psychologist and is a conjoint Lecturer at the University of Newcastle.

Dr Conrad is part of the Mental Health - Research, Evaluation, Analysis & Dissemination (MH-READ) unit, which has a brokerage and research/evalaution management and support role to all HNE MH staff and affiliated researchers. MH-READ unit is based at the University of Newcastle Priority Research Centre (PRC) for Brain & Mental Health Research (CBMHR).

Professor Mitch Duncan

Professor Mitch Duncan is an NHMRC Career Development Fellow (Level 2) in the School of Medicine and Public at the University of Newcastle. His research is focused on understanding the combined influences of physical activity, and sleep health on health outcomes, and developing and evaluating technology-based interventions to improve them. Mitch has led the development of a number of different e- and m-health interventions including a smartphone app to help adults improve their physical activity and sleep.

Professor Jane Farmer

Jane Farmer is Director of the Swinburne University Social Innovation Research Institute, which focuses on the nexus of new technology, design thinking, data analytics and social and health sciences. The Institute tackles health and social challenges identified by industry partners drawing on new technologies and data science. The Institute also studies the impact of emerging technologies on society. Jane has a background in information science, community co-design and novel service design mainly in rural health and community services. She has published over 120 articles, two books and won around $16m in research grants in Australia, Europe and Canada.

Dr Sally Fitzpatrick

Dr Fitzpatrick is a clinical psychologist and researcher who is passionate about understanding the factors that contribute to the mental health and wellbeing of all Australians. She is particularly passionate about translating this knowledge into evidence-based programs that enhance the mental health and wellbeing of our communities. She holds a Master of Clinical Psychology and a PhD, and is a conjoint Senior Lecturer at The University of Newcastle and holds an Honorary Postdoctoral Fellowship with Macquarie University.

Associate Professor Roger Ho

Associate Professor Roger Ho is an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore and a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at the Department of Psychological Medicine, National University Hospital.  He is the Education Director coordinating teaching, resident training and research for undergraduate and postgraduate students. He received basic medical training (MBBS) and higher research degree (MD) at the University of Hong Kong. He possesses professional psychiatric qualifications in Singapore, Ireland, United Kingdom and Canada. He is the author or co-author of more than 170 articles published in peer reviewed journals and 6 books published by Hodder Arnold (UK) and Taylor and Francis (US).

Dr Sally Hunt

Dr Sally Hunt is a Clinical Psychologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, Australia, where she trains post-graduate psychologists. She has worked both clinically and in a research capacity in the field of mental health for over 20 years, and completed her PhD in 2015. Sally’s research examines the relationship between substance use and mental health disorders, with a focus on developing and disseminating eHealth interventions for these problems. Sally was the recipient of the 2018 Australian Rotary Health Impact Award for her work on the development and dissemination of the eCliPSE program to increase access to evidence-based eHealth interventions for co-occurring mental health and substance use problems. Currently Sally is leading research into the increasing use of alcohol by Australian women and the development of an online intervention to support women’s health and well-being and is a current University of Newcastle Women in Research Fellow.

Dr Melinda Hutchesson

Dr Melinda Hutchesson, is a dietitian and Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle. She is a principal investigator within the Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition, where she is also the deputy lead of the Nutrition and Dietetics theme of research. Dr Hutchesson is currently leading a program of research to understand the determinants of health risk behaviours among university students (e.g. poor diet quality, physical inactivity, poor sleep, and excessive alcohol intake) and their impact on mental health and academic achievement.

Dr Emma Kerr

Dr Emma Kerr is a Clinical Psychologist and Online Counsellor at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Emma has experience providing therapy via various online platforms and has been involved in the development of the Online Counselling service at the University of Newcastle over a number of years.

This presentation will share how e-technology was utilised at the University of Newcastle Counselling and Psychological Service to support student’s wellbeing during the COVID19 pandemic. It will explore student’s acceptance, the strengths and limitations of using e-technology in counselling and a way forward.

Dr Louise La Sala

Dr Louise La Sala is a research assistant with the suicide prevention team, led by A/Prof Jo Robinson, at Orygen. Her PhD explored adolescent behaviour on social media, focusing specifically on the social and emotional development of teenagers and how that related to typical and problematic social media behaviours. Extending this interest in online behaviour and the social and psychological impact digital technologies can have on young people, Louise now works on the #chatsafe project, exploring the role social media can play in youth suicide prevention.

#chatsafe is a set of evidence-informed guidelines that provides tools and tips to young people to keep them safe when communicating online about suicide. Recently, #chatsafe launched a 12-week national social media campaign, which was entirely co-designed by young people across Australia and subsequently evaluated by over 400 young people in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. To date, the #chatsafe social media campaign has reached over 1.5 million young people in Australia, and since its global launch in 2020, a further 800,000 young people worldwide.

Professor Regina Lee

Regina Lee is the Professor in Nursing and Acting Deputy Head and Head of International at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Newcastle, New South Wales in Australia. She is a nurse researcher promoting child and adolescent health. She graduated with a Bachelor Honour Degree from University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. Regina received her Master of Science in Community Health Nursing in New York City, United States. She completed her PhD studies at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. Regina is the President of Hong Kong School Nurses Association and she obtained her Fellowship from the American Academy of Nursing and the Hong Kong Academy of Nursing. Her research areas focus on weight management, hand hygiene, eHealth/mHealth programs, unstructured play among children and adolescents especially for those with special health needs and their family caregivers. Regina also examines the effect of health-promoting schools and roles of school nursing on students’ lifestyle behaviours.

Bronte Lyford

Bronte Lyford is a Project Officer at Everymind, and a Conjoint Fellow at the University of Newcastle. Bronte holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science (Hons), majoring in Sociology.

Bronte has worked on health promotion projects for early childhood educators and carers of people with depression and anxiety. In these roles she has developed specialised skills in the design and evaluation of e-mental health programs. Bronte is currently expanding her knowledge into suicide prevention for refugee and asylum seeker peoples.

Bronte is passionate about mental health promotion and prevention, with a particular interest in children, young people and families.

Angus McKerral

Angus McKerral is a Psychology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Newcastle. He graduated with a combined B.Arts/B.Science (Psychology)(Honours) from the Australian National University in 2017. His current research investigates driver cognition within manual and automated driving environments, including the assessment of situation awareness, risk-taking and fatigue.

Current projects focus on the impact of AV technology on individuals with intellectual and psychosocial (anxiety) disorders. We are especially interested in determining the benefits and barriers to AV uptake for these populations, and the impact of simulated takeover scenarios on subsequent attitudes and use.

Ashleigh Old

Ashleigh Old is a Psychology undergraduate student who studied and completed her final year of the Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) in 2020 at the University of Newcastle. Her honours thesis explored the relationships family day care educators have with families, their scheme coordinators, other educators and the wider community, and how these relationships may impact an educator’s ability to support children’s mental health.

Although new to the world of research, Ashleigh is passionate about the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. With the goal of working as an educational or clinical psychologist one day, Ashleigh hopes to gain more research and/or clinical experience in 2021, and study a Master in Clinical Psychology at the University of Newcastle the following year.

Professor David Perkins

Professor David Perkins is Director of the Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health, University of Newcastle, which is based in Orange, NSW.  The Centre adopts a translational research approach to the promotion of mental health, the development of mental health services and the prevention of suicide. He has held academic positions in Australia and the UK and was a senior NHS manager.  He is co-director of the International Foundation for Integrated Care Australia and served as a member of the international IFIC Board.  An active researcher, he is an associate editor of the International Journal of Integrated Care and immediate past Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Rural Health.  He is a member of a number of national and state advisory bodies on rural mental health and wellbeing.   Most recently he was the coordinator of the Orange Declaration on Rural Mental Health which seeks to reframe national and international approaches to rural mental health services.

Associate Professor Jo Robinson

Jo Robinson is an Associate Professor at Orygen, where she leads the suicide prevention research unit. Her work focuses on the development, and rigorous testing, of novel interventions that specifically target at risk youth across settings, on evidence synthesis, and on the translation of research evidence into practice and policy. It has a strong focus on the potential of social media platforms in suicide prevention. This includes the development of the #chatsafe guidelines, the first evidence-based guidelines for safe peer-peer communication about suicide online, which were recently brought to life via a national social media campaign and adapted for ten additional regions.

Examples of other current projects include the development of a multi-layered and systematic approach to youth suicide prevention across north-west Melbourne, the establishment of a self-harm monitoring program in emergency departments across Victoria, and a large-scale school-based study.

A/Prof Robinson has a keen interest in policy development and evaluation. She has led the development of two major policy reports and is regularly called upon to provide advice to state and federal government.

Professor Luis Salvador-Carulla

Luis Salvador-Carulla is the head of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Research School of Population Health, Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra (Australia). He is also Honorary Professor of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney (Australia). His field of interest is decision support tools for the analysis of complex health systems and policy in mental health and wellbeing. He has been advisor to the Government of Catalonia (Spain), the Spanish Ministry of Health, the European Commission (EC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System (Australia). He coordinated the European Commission (EC) project eDESDE-LTC for the development of an European classification of services for long term care and the Integrated Atlas of Mental Health Project for mapping mental health services in over 40 local areas around the World. He is a CI in the Horizon2020 project PECUNIA for producing standards units of costs analysis in Europe and EMPOWER to produce an eHealth Platform for improving mental health and wellbeing at the workplace.

He received the Leon Eisenberg Award of the Harvard Medical School in 2012 for his contributions in the field of developmental disorders.

Elloyse Saw

Elloyse (Elly) Saw is a PhD student in the Faculty of Health and Medicine at the University of Newcastle, and a Project Officer at Everymind. Elly holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Hons), majoring in Sociology and Anthropology.

For her PhD, Elly is evaluating an online program for people who support, love and care for someone with anxiety and depression. Elly’s dissertation builds on her project work in mental health promotion and suicide prevention at Everymind. In these roles she has contributed to the design, implementation and evaluation of e-health programs and resources.

Elly is passionate about mental health promotion with a particular interest in increasing access and support to hard-to-reach communities.

Associate Professor Wenru Wang

Dr Wang Wenru is a tenured Associate Professor at Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (ALCNS), National University of Singapore (NUS). She is the Program Director of Chronic and Long-term Care Research of ALCNS. She is also an Honorary Ambassador of World Federation of Critical Care Nurses, and a member of Alexandra Health System Nursing Research Committee in Singapore. She has been appointed as an Associate Editor of “BMC Nursing”, and a member of the editorial board of several international nursing refereed journals.  A/Prof. Wang’s research interests include cardiovascular nursing and cardiac rehabilitation, developing psychometric measurement tools, and chronic diseases management. Over the past years, she has been awarded over 30 external competitive grants with a mount of over 2.5 million SGD. She has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers in international/regional refereed journals and has been recognized with several national and international awards for the achievement in her research endeavours.

Professor Rhonda Wilson

Prof Rhonda Wilson RN CMHN PhD is Professor in Nursing, and Deputy Head of School of Nursing and Midwifery (Central Coast) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She returned to Australia in 2019 after living and working in Denmark (University of Southern Denmark) where she was Associate Professor of E Mental Health and Head of Research for the Telepsychiatric Centre in a regional psychiatric hospital service area.

Rhonda has published extensively in international journals, book chapters and conference papers. She is a Registered Nurse in Australia, and a Credentialled Mental Health Nurse, currently serving on the Australian Nurses and Midwives Registered Nurse Course Accreditation Committee and the Accreditation and Education Committee for the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses

Through her work as a mental health clinician and as a researcher, Rhonda has specialised in the mental health care of hard to reach populations in regional and rural communities, and particularly with young people. Her main interests are in developing evidence-based precision digital therapeutics aimed at enhancing recovery.

The main theme for her research is Technology Enhanced Mental Health. This involves a number of research projects working on various aspects of digital health research with a focus on technology that enhances person-centred recovery.

Dr Melvyn Zhang

Dr. Melvyn Zhang is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the National Addictions Management Service, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor with the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University Singapore. His research interests are in E-Health, M-Health and addiction Psychiatry. He has widely published and sits on the editorial board of JMIR Mental Health and Technology and Healthcare.

Associate Professor Jiemin Zhu

Jiemin Zhu is a PhD graduate from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at University of Newcastle. Currently she is an associate professor in the Department of Nursing, School of Medicine, Xiamen University.

As an early career researcher, Jiemin has obtained nine grants (CNY 1,450,000 in total) and published nine publications in world renowned healthcare journals and 7 publications in Chinese nursing journals.  Psychosocial interventions are her main research theme since 2015 to present. This is also the best funded research theme from a wide range of funding bodies such as National Natural Science Foundation of China, Hunter Cancer Research Alliance at Australia, and Dean Foundation from School of Medicine at Xiamen University. The work covers patients’ care focusing on their self-efficacy, psychological well-beings, and quality of life.