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Megan is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the School of Public Health. Her program of research is focused on approaches to support local decision-makers design effective policy to improve nutrition and food security outcomes, through incorporating evidence and an understanding of the policy context. Megan’s research in partnership with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and community retail settings follows a public health and nutrition career working in policy and service provision in government, remote retail and the international development sectors.

Dr Alize Ferrari leads the Epidemiology and Burden of Disease Research Stream at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. This stream undertakes a program of work featuring the collection of new epidemiological data for mental disorders, analysis of existing data to quantify the distribution of mental disorders, quantification of the fatal and non-fatal consequences of mental disorders, and the development of methodological frameworks to improve the precision at which we collect and analyse epidemiological data. Dr Ferrari is an Affiliate Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Queensland. She is the Team Lead for the Mental Disorders Research Team within the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study. The GBD initiative is led by IHME and quantifies health loss from over 350 causes. She is the Primary Investigator on the Queensland Urban Indigenous Mental Health Survey. This is a population-based mental health survey of adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Southeast Queensland. It will determine the prevalence of mental and substance use disorders, mental health services being accessed, and implications for service reform.

Professor Jason Ferris, is the co-lead for Kaleidoscope Research Collaborative at the School of Public Health, UQ. He is also the Director of Research and Statistical Support Services for the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences and the UQ Deputy Director of Data Science Collaborative Research Platform (CRP). He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and the Chief Data Scientist for the Global Drug Survey (2013-). Since 2019 he has held a ministerial appointment as an Advisory Council Member to the Queensland Mental Health Commission and is an interRAI Fellow (interrai.org) and contributes internationally as a World Health Organization (WHO) advisor, providing expertise and technical guidance on substance use trends and harm‑reduction policy development.

Since 2020, Professor Jason Ferris, in collaboration with Dr Dom Gorse (Director of UQ's Data Science CRP) and many others from QCIF and UQ, have been working on the development and deployment of KeyPoint - an innovative data infrastructure, data governance and digital solution enabling researchers to access, manage, analyse and share sensitive research data in a scalable, fully governed and highly secure environment. The work has received a number of accolades. In 2023, The University of Queensland recognised the value of KeyPoint winning the Award for Excellence in Innovation. In 2022, the Faculty of Medicine recognised his commitment and leadership to the University awarding him and the team the Innovators of the Year Award. Professor Ferris and Dr Gorse are now developing a UQ solution for a Trusted Research Environment (UQ-TRE). Professor Ferris has received other recognition as well. In 2021, the Faculty of Medicine recognised the outstanding support of RASSS with a Service Excellence Award. In 2020, The University of Queensland recognised his contributions to his research field: he was awarded the Faculty of Medicine Leader of the Future Award (Academic) and The Director's Choice Award for contributions to the Centre for Health Services Research. In 2019, he was awarded The Outstanding Mid-Career Researcher within the Centre for Health Services Research and was also chosen as a finalist for the Faculty of Medicine Leader of the Future Award (Academic). Additionally, across the Faculty of Medicine, his Research and Statistical Support Service, was nominated for a Service Excellence Award (2019 and 2020). In 2015, he received the University of Queensland, Early Career Researcher Award within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science. In September, 2014, he received a Highly Commended Early Career Researcher Award within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science.

He has been involved in a number of key projects: The Queensland Evaluation of the Alcohol Fuelled Violence Policy (QUANTEM), The Overarching Evaluation of the National Support for Child and Youth Mental Health Program (CHYME), the evaluation of ProjectSTOP (a decision-making national database for pharmacists aimed at preventing the use of pseudoephedrine based products as a precursor in the manufacture of methamphetamine), and a national review of the links between random breath testing and alcohol-related road traffic accidents. Jason has over 20 years of social science and public health research experience. He has a well-established publication record with a strong focus on alcohol and drug research and public health. With a Master degree in biostatistics he has well developed and expansive quantitative methods skills and a broad range of experience in many of the facets of both social science and medical research. In 2014 his PhD on alcohol epidemiology was conferred.

Previously, as a senior statistician at the Institute for Social Science Research he developed and taught a number of training models in research methods and statistical analysis as part of the Methods for Social Analysis and Statistics (MFSAS). Since its inception in 2012 he has been course coordinator and trainer for a number of these training modules (see below). From 2016-2018 he was the Director of MFSAS. Between 2016-2017 he was also the ISSR Co-postgraduate Coordinator.

I am a public health sociologist with research interests in the health and wellbeing of people experiencing marginalisation and the social determinants of (sexual) health. I am the course coordinator of PUBH7033 Foundations of Public Health and PUBH7003 Qualitative Research Methods. I am engaged in social research projects related to HIV, sexual health, young people, LGBTIQ+ health, sex worker health and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Dr Alana Gall is a proud Pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) woman whose ancestral heritage links to the north-east coast of Lutruwita (Tasmania), and more recently, the Bass Strait Islands of Cape Barren and Flinders Island.

Alana is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the First Nations Cancer & Wellbeing Research team, and the Project Manager of the What Matters 2 Adults Implementation project. Alana’s research focusses on wellbeing and holistic health for Indigenous peoples globally. The aim of the WM2A-I study she is managing, is to test the most appropriate and effective methods for implementing the newly developed WM2Adults Wellbeing measure - the first nationally-relevant wellbeing measure developed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults.

Alana has a background in nutritional medicine and has more than 10 years’ experience in research, research translation, community engagement, health education and clinical consultation. Alana’s PhD thesis, titled Exploring Wellbeing from Indigenous Perspectives, centres primarily on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ wellbeing but also includes a focus on the domains of wellbeing for Indigenous peoples in Canada, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and the United States.

On a personal note, Alana is passionate about empowering others to take control of their own health and believes better health and wellbeing can be achieved at a population level through transdisciplinary approaches that adhere to holistic models of health and wellbeing. Alana is also passionate about education, understanding on both an academic and personal level, that this is one significant way to lift individuals, families and communities out of poverty – having hope for the future is imperative to good health and wellbeing. Due to this passion, Alana produced a free worksheet for children during the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with Wingaru Kids about antimicrobial bush medicines and would love to collaborate in this space more.

Victor is a Postdoctoral researcher at The University of Queensland, with a clinical and academic background in rehabilitation medicine, public health, and digital health equity. His research focuses on enhancing healthcare access for culturally and linguistically diverse communities, particularly through the development of telehealth innovations and inclusive service design. He has experience teaching public health and epidemiology to medical students and mentoring postgraduate researchers. Victor has co-authored peer-reviewed publications, contributed to national surveys, and helped develop validated tools, including the Digital Health Acceptability Questionnaire.

He completed his Medical Doctor degree in Peru, followed by a specialisation in Rehabilitation Medicine, and later earned a Master of Public Health and a PhD from UQ. His doctoral research explored equity in telehealth access and was supported by multiple competitive scholarships and grants. Victor has also held leadership roles in Peru’s national health system and sports medicine programs, including the PanAmerican Games Lima 2019. His work has been recognised through awards for research excellence, equity, and inclusion.

Paul Gardiner's multidisciplinary research promotes active ageing with a focus on helping people improve and maintain quality of life. His PhD research reported for the first time that it is feasible to reduce sedentary time in older adults. His current research builds on this to examine behavioural approaches to dementia prevention.

He is part of the Our Voice Citizen Science global research network. This network has over 30 members across six continents and aims to improve health equity through allowing citizens to discover their environment, discuss their findings, and advocate for change.

He has a strong interest in diversity, equity and inclusion and co-founded the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Special Interest Group of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA).

Previous research areas have included evaluation of drug and alcohol treatment services, development and dissemination of parenting programs, stillbirth epidemiology, and women's health.

Professor Coral Gartner is an international expert in tobacco control policy and the world's leading expert on electronic nicotine delivery systems (or e-cigarettes). She is the Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame (Tobacco Endgame CRE), an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and the Chair of the Interdisciplinary Tobacco Endgame Research Network, the country lead Investigator for Australia with the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project), and a Co-Investigator with the SewAUs Wastewater Epidemiology Project. She is currently the Director of Research at the University of Queensland's School of Public Health, the Regional Editor for Australasia for the BMJ journal, Tobacco Control, after serving as a senior editor from 2012-2018. She is the immediate Past President of the Oceania Chapter of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT-O).

She leads a multidisciplinary research team of international experts (located in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, England, and the Netherlands) to develop the evidence base for tobacco endgame strategies and to identify the most promising policies that could end the cigarette epidemic in Australia, and beyond. Her research program includes consideration of how these policies could be implemented, while mitigating potential unintended impacts and increasing equity. Her research methods span cohort studies, clinical trials, policy analyses, simulation modelling and mixed methods research.

Professor Gartner joined the University of Queensland in 2006. With undergraduate qualifications in environmental health and a PhD in environmental epidemiology, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship on tobacco control policy and held a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (2014-2018). In 2019, she led the development of UQ’s flagship cross-faculty postgraduate programs in Environmental Health Sciences.

Professor Gartner has published over 300 academic works, including journal articles, book chapters, and submissions to government inquiries, and has served as an expert witness to a number of government inquiries and consultations. She has also authored articles on tobacco control topics for The Conversation.

Professor Gail Garvey is a proud Kamilaroi woman, a NHMRC Research Leadership Fellow, and Professor of Indigenous Health Research in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland.

Professor Garvey has established an extensive and targeted research program focused on cancer and the wellbeing of Australia’s First Nations people.

Gail was among the first researchers to recognise the substantial impact of cancer on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and her work has contributed greatly to key policy and practice changes to improve their cancer outcomes. Professor Garvey currently leads a Centre of Research Excellence – Targeted Approaches to Improve Cancer Services (TACTICS) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (NHMRC #1153027 2019-2023). The TACTICS CRE focuses on emerging priorities in cancer-related health services research and actively promotes the translation of research knowledge into Australian public health policy and practice. The CRE also focuses on building research capacity through training the next generation of researchers in cancer control.

Gail leads work in psychosocial aspects of cancer care for First Nations Australians. Her research into the psychosocial aspects of cancer care for First Nations cancer patients, is a critical component to improving their cancer outcomes. Professor Garvey and her team developed and validated a new tool to measure the unmet support needs of Indigenous cancer patients, which is now a recommendation in the Optimal Care Pathway guidelines.

Professor Garvey's research program also focuses on understanding and measuring the dimensions of wellbeing important to and valued by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the life course, which is important for developing/evaluating health interventions.

Originally trained as a teacher, Gail began her research career at the University of Newcastle in the 1990s where she was one of the first researchers to examine issues around the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical students. Since then she has been involved in a wide array of research collaborations both within Australia and overseas spanning three decades.

Along with her research expertise, Gail's strengths lie in her leadership and her collaborative approach to bringing key stakeholders - Indigenous consumers, researchers, and clinicians - together to achieve common goals. Career highlights include conducting the first Roundtable to identify research priorities in cancer for Indigenous Australians (2010); establishing the National Indigenous Cancer Network (2013) in collaboration with Cancer Council Australia, the Lowitja Institute, the Indigenous Health InfoNet and Menzies School of Health Research; instigating and convening the inaugural World Indigenous Cancer Conference in 2016 (Brisbane); and co-hosting the 2nd conference in 2019 (Canada).

Since 2011 Gail has received over $50 million in grant and government funding, including a NHMRC Investigator Leadership Grant (NHMRC #1176651 2020-2024). Over the same period Gail has published more than 180 papers in peer-reviewed.

Professor Christian Gericke is a Neurologist and Public Health Physician. He directs the Canberra Specialist Epilepsy Centre at Deakin Private Hospital in Canberra and consults at Cadogan Medical in Brisbane.

He is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Australian National University, Honorary Professor of Public Health at the University of Queensland, Convener of the Specialist Medical Review Council (SMRC) for the Australian Government and Visiting Scholar at the Uehiro Oxford Institute, University of Oxford. He regularly acts as an Independent Medical Expert for the Supreme Courts and the Coroners Courts in all Australian jurisdictions and for the High Court of Justice in England (King's Bench).

Previously, he worked as an academic neurologist at Calvary Mater Newcastle, the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, King’s College Hospital in London, and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

After graduating from medical school in Berlin, he trained in neurology at the Charité, followed by fellowships in adult and paediatric epilepsy in Strasbourg and Geneva. He holds two research doctorates and master's degrees from the University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics and the University of Melbourne.

He chairs the Neuroepidemiology Section of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and serves on the International League against Epilepsy (ILAE) Standards and Best Practice Council.

Dr Dereje Gete is a Research Fellow at the Australian Women and Girls’ Health Research Centre, School of Public Health. Dr Gete was awarded his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Queensland in 2022. His doctoral dissertation examined the role of pre-pregnancy dietary patterns on adverse birth outcomes, child health, and well-being, using the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health and the Mothers and their Children's Health study.

Dr Gete is currently conducting epidemiological research using large population-based cohort studies, including the Genetic variants, Early Life exposures, and Longitudinal Endometriosis symptoms Study (GELLES) and Mothers and their Children’s Healthcare Experience Study (MatCHES), linked with national administrative health databases. His research focuses on advancing understanding of women's and children's health through longitudinal and linked-data epidemiology, with particular interests in endometriosis, nutrition, and infectious disease epidemiology.

Hebe Gouda is an epidemiologist with research experience in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Egypt. She has a Masters of Public Health and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. She currently focuses on three related streams of research including: 1) Measuring mortality and disease burden with a particular focus on the epidemiological transition in low and middle income countries; 2) Evaluating health systems approaches and responses to population health burdens and 3) Measurement, data and information: the ethics and epistemology of population health research methods.

Prof Lisa Hall is Professor in Epidemiology at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

Teaching: Lisa has experience lecturing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in a range of public health and research methods courses. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. At UQ she was the Director of Teaching and Learning within the School of Public Health from 2021-2024.

Research: Lisa is an active health services researcher with expertise in epidemiology, implementation science and economic evaluation. Lisa’s work examines not only the effectiveness, but also the cost-effectiveness, feasibility and sustainability of health services. Her current research focuses on the interface between evidence, policy and implementation to improve the surveillance and prevention of healthcare associated infections.

Prof Hall’s research is pragmatic and “Real world”. It is multidisciplinary and collaborative, with an emphasis on translation. She has established active multidisciplinary collaborations with a wide range of leading researchers, policymakers and clinicians. Since 2013, A/Prof Hall has been named as a Chief Investigator on grants and consultancies worth over $19 million. Key grants include:

• Researching Effective Approaches to Cleaning in Hospitals (REACH): A national stepped wedge trial of examining the cost-effectiveness of an environmental cleaning bundle. This NHMRC Partnership Grant project with the Wesley Medical Research Institute used an implementation science framework to improve uptake of best practice cleaning approaches by environmental services staff.
• National Centre for Infections in Cancer – This NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence, has now received Synergy grant funding. Based at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, it aims at improving infection surveillance and prevention in cancer patients. This is novel work examining what clinical guidelines, therapeutics and surveillance approaches should be implemented to improve monitoring and survival in this vulnerable patient population.
• “There's no place like home”: national scale up of the paediatric low risk febrile neutropenia program - National collaborative project based out of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute – MRFF funded
• General Practitioner Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme Study (GAPS Trial). A cluster randomised trial examining the economic and clinical effectiveness of a multi-modal intervention to reduce antibiotic prescribing in primary care. Collaboration between UQ, QUT and Bond with Commonwealth Department of Health funding.
• Development of the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy - Commonwealth Department of Health funding

Policy Experience: Lisa has significant policy experience at statewide and national levels. Prior to returning to academia in 2013, Lisa was a senior manager at the state health department of Queensland - responsible for the design, implementation and evaluation of infection prevention programs and policy. She was a technical expert on the Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Healthcare (ACSQHC) Healthcare Associated Infection Advisory Committee, a role she has held continuously from 2009 to 2024.

Rebecca Harris is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Queensland. Rebecca's current research focuses on women's health and cancer epidemiology using large administrative datasets. She is also experienced in multivariate and network meta-analysis models.

Associate Professor Meredith Harris is a researcher in the field of mental health services research and evaluation. She is a Principal Research Fellow with the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland, based at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research.

Meredith holds qualifications in psychology, policy and applied social research, and public health. She has over 25 years of experience in the management and administration of research projects, including systematic literature reviews, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, studies based on epidemiological survey data, and evaluations of health programs and interventions using observational, quasi-experimental and experimental research designs.

Meredith's current role is with the Analysis and Reporting Component of the Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network (AMHOCN), which leads the design, analysis and reporting of the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (http://www.amhocn.org/). In this role, she is leading a range of projects designed to improve the measurement of patient- and service-level outcomes in Australia's specialised public sector mental health services.

My work aims to ensure all children have access to safe, stable, violence-free childhoods they need to thrive in childhood and across life. This spans from extensive work on evidence-based parenting programs to major national epidemiological work on child maltreatment, corporal punishment (smacking) & mental health & wellbeing. I currently co-lead the Young Minds: Our Future study which is the Third Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (funded by the Dept of Health, Disability and Aging $8.3M) and I am part of the award-winning Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) team which generated the first nationally representative Australian data on the prevalence and mental health impact of the five types of child maltreatment in Australia.

In 2023, I was a ministerial appointee to the Child Death Review Board, which conducts systemic reviews of child deaths to identify areas to improve child safety in QLD. In 2024 the World Health Organisation appointed me to their International Technical Expert Group for Violence Against Children Estimations. I also serve on the Board of Directors for the Parenting & Family Researchers Alliance and on the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Social Issues a policy masthead.

As both a clinical psychologist and a research academic, I use a prevention lens to target risk and protective factors to enhance child and family wellbeing to reduce the presence and impact of early adversity & mental ill health. This includes a focus on parenting stress, family violence and maltreatment, and issues associated with balancing work and life.

As a researcher, I have received >$12 million in research funding and published extensively in leading D1 & Q1 journals. I am a sought-after speaker & am frequently called on by the media for comment. My work has featured on the front page of The Australian, as well as on commercial and ABC television and radio programs.