Meet our team of dedicated researchers

The IMeRSe project is comprised of a multidisciplinary team of renowned experts that are dedicated to improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Professor Amanda Wheeler

Professor Amanda Wheeler  is  Professor  of  Mental  Health  at  Griffith  University. She  has  worked  as  a  health  practitioner,  educator  and  researcher  in mental  health  and  pharmacy  practice  for  almost  20  years.  She  is nationally  and  internationally  recognised  for  her  expertise  in  these areas.  Her  research  focuses  on  quality  improvement,  professional practice,  workforce  development  and  capacity  building.  These themes  come  together  with  the  common  goal  of  improving  outcomes for  consumers  and  carers  and  are  integrated  across  the  full  scope  of her  work.

Dr Jean Spinks

Dr Jean Spinks is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Health Economics. She is an early career researcher with a focus on access to medicines. Her PhD thesis focused on the economic implications of complementary and alternative medicine use in people with type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Prior to beginning her PhD, Jean evaluated submissions from pharmaceutical companies seeking PBS listing of their medicines, under a research contract between Monash University and the Australian Department of Health and Ageing.

Jean is a pharmacist who has worked in both community pharmacy and hospitals. She has post-graduate qualifications in public health, and has undertaken the two-year Victorian Public Health Training Scheme, run by the Victorian Department of Human Services.

Dr Fiona Kelly

Dr Fiona Kelly is a Senior Lecturer of Pharmacy Practice at Griffith University with expertise in three key areas: (i) perspectives of pharmacy staff, health consumers and carers on person-centred care; (ii) innovative implementation strategies in pharmacies; and (iii) consumer views on, access to and use of non-prescription medicines. Fiona has co-authored 46 peer-reviewed publications, and was lead author of a publication exploring patient-centred care from the perspective of the consumer health organisations that support people alongside mainstream health providers.

More recent involvement in patient-centred research has encompassed exploration of associated needs amongst young people and consumers with mental health conditions and their carers. As an educator, Fiona has innovatively used the online repository of 25 000 video and audio clips of patient experiences created by Oxford University’s Health Experiences Research Group (healthtalk.org) to foster development of person-centred pharmacy students. In 2015, this work was presented at an international pharmacy education symposium and acknowledged by healthtalk.org.

Dr Adrian Miller

Professor Adrian Miller is of the Jirrbal people of North Queensland and is the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Leadership at Charles Darwin University. Adrian has research and teaching interests predominantly in Indigenous education, health and social justice. He has worked in senior academic roles for a number of university organisations for more than 20 years. Adrian currently contributes significantly to the University’s research profile by providing leadership and management of the Indigenous Research Network.

Adrian has expertise in Indigenous affairs and cross-cultural communication and presented at national public health conferences. He has published his research findings in a number of international peer reviewed journals. Prior to joining Griffith University, Adrian was the Professor and Head of School at Southern Cross University and founding Head of the Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University, where he led overall strategy development and administration.

Dr Kerry Hall

Dr Kerry Hall is Research Fellow at the School of Human Services. Kerry is an Aboriginal woman from Cape York Peninsula and has been an Endorsed Enrolled Nurse for more than 25 years, and is an Aboriginal Health Practitioner, with extensive experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. Her PhD examined the incidence, predictors and outcomes of acute respiratory illness in urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged less than five years in the community. Kerry is also a member of the Centre for Children's Health Research QUT, Indigenous Research Reference Group and a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Expert Panel for Baby health outcomes ‘SISTAQUIT Trial’ CBMHR (Centre for Brain and Mental Health Research), School of Medicine and Public Health University of Newcastle. Her professional interests broadly include primary health care, community engagement, capacity building, health inequalities, and access to primary health care with a particular interest in cultural safety.

Kerry is a member of the Lung Foundation Australia's "National Strategic Action Plan for Lung Disease Advisory Group".  Lung Foundation Australia received funding to consult on and deliver a National Strategic Action Plan for Lung Disease for the Federal Department of Health.

Dr Jie Hu

Dr Jie Hu is originally from China and has lived and worked in New Zealand, Singapore, and Australia. She is experienced in data management and analysis in public health and health services research projects. In the past two years, she has been working closely with health professions from Aboriginal health services and patients from Indigenous communities to evaluate a chronic disease self-management program.

Dr Liz Kiata-Holland

Dr Liz Kiata-Holland is a social scientist working in primary health care research. Specialising in qualitative research she is experienced in inter-cultural mixed methods research. Living in an inter-cultural relationship for many years, Liz moved from New Zealand to Queensland in 2012 to stay near her close-knit family.

Professor Paul Scuffham

Professor Paul Scuffham joined Griffith University in 2006 as Professor in Health Economics and has since established the Centre for Applied Health Economics. He is the Director of Population and Social Health within Griffith Health.

His research interests span a wide range of issues including modelling costs and benefits of health care interventions; econometrics; public health (especially cardiology, mental health, injury prevention, vaccines and telemedicine); valuation of health outcomes; and comparing the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of health systems. He has specialist expertise in economic evaluation methods and modelling.

Professor Robert Ware

Robert Ware is a Professor of Biostatistics at Griffith University. Robert’s research expertise centres on the design and analysis of longitudinal cohort studies and, in particular, developing statistical methods to deal with the impact of attrition, missing data and non-compliance on effect estimators. As a consequence of his research program Robert has developed an extensive theoretical and practical knowledge of the design, conduct and analysis of cohort studies. He is the Chief Investigator responsible for statistical design and analysis on three NHMRC funded longitudinal cohort studies (total funding >$3.5 million). Robert has co-authored more than 230 peer-reviewed articles in academic journals covering topics including vaccine epidemiology, intellectual disability, paediatric respiratory medicine and cerebral palsy. His publications have appeared in top ranked international medical journals including Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet, as well as in leading specialist medical (Clinical Infectious Disease, Pediatrics, Chest, Critical Care Medicine), epidemiological (American Journal of Epidemiology and Annals of Epidemiology), and statistical (Statistics in Medicine) journals.

Ms Anni Bohn

Anni Bohn is a project manager with over 25 years’ experience in higher education sector management in Australia and Europe. Her international project management experience covers working with International aid organisations including the UN. She has strong skills in intercultural management and gender mainstreaming applied in international projects.

Mr Robert Jones

Robert Jones is a project support officer with over 10 years’ experience in both Australia and North America. His experience covers working in the areas of higher education, government and logistics.

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