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Dr Kim Bridle is currently Senior Research Officer within the Greenslopes Clinical Unit, Faculty of Medicine. Her current research focuses on liver disease treatment and pathogenesis with a focus on hepatic fibrosis, metabolic fatty liver disease and liver cancer. Dr Bridle has made important contributions to the understanding of diseases associated with altered iron metabolism and mechanisms of hepatic fibrosis.

Dr Bridle currently serves on the Research and Grants Committee of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia and is a member of the Ramsay Health Care Human Research Ethics Committee. Dr Bridle is a Section Editor for the journal, BioMed Research International.

Katie is a health and disability researcher. She did an undergraduate degree in health sciences. Though this, she gained the language and understanding of the social determinants of health, providing the framework to contextualise the health disparities she had witnessed growing up. Her passion for research was fostered when she did a research project in intellectual disability during her last semester. After learning about the significant health gap experienced by people with intellectual disability, she was motivated to make a change. Seeing that researchers were the people making the most difference, she went on to do her PhD. Her postdoctoral research focuses on working with people with intellectual disability and autistic people to improve the way healthcare is delivered to them.

Katie is woking on the EASY-Health project which aims to improve access to mainstream hospital services for people with intellectual and developmental disability. This position is with the Mater Intellectual Disability and Autism Service (MIDAS) at Mater Research.

Katie also holds a UQ Research Stimulus Fellowship and is continuing herprimary care research to improve healthcare experiences for Autistic adults. This position is with the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability (QCIDD) at Mater Research Institute-UQ.

Dr Sandra Brosda is a Research Fellow within the Surgical Oncology group led by Professor Andrew Barbour.

Dr Brosda was awarded a PhD in bioinformatics and cancer genetics from the University of Queensland in November 2020. Her research focused on biomarker discovery and intra-tumour heterogeneity and tumour evolution in oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC). In 2021, Dr Brosda was awarded a Cure Cancer Australia PdCCRS grant and an MSH project grant to further investigate tumour evolution to improve precision medicine in OAC.

She has been involved in research projects covering genetics, epigenetics, spatial transcriptomics, radiomics, ctDNA and quality of life assessments in the context of cancer. Overall, her research applies bioinformatics tools and approaches to cancer genomics to improve precision medicine and health outcomes for patients with melanoma, oesophago-gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer.

Dr Bena Brown is a clinician/researcher who brings her passion for caring for people with cancer and their families to her current role in the FNCWR team, where her focus is on delivering projects that optimise survivorship and cancer health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These projects include implementing novel models of care such as navigation and health behaviour intervention, optimising communication and access to services through the development and evaluation of culturally responsive resources.

Bena has more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, has presented at multiple national and international conferences, and has been awarded over $3.6 million in research grants.

She is also an Advanced Speech Pathologist (Cancer Care) at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital and provides RHD supervision for higher-degree students in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in UQ's Health and Behavioural Sciences Faculty. Bena is a member of the Human Research and Ethics Committees at Metro South Health and serves on State-wide committees for the Queensland Collaborative for Cancer Survivorship and the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA) Patient-Reported Outcome Working Group.

Outside her research and clinical career, Bena is mum to two boisterous boys, a keen yogi, and passionate student and board member at Vulcana Circus.

Melissa is no longer active in research, and so is unable to supervise new students.

BIOGRAPHY

Melissa Brown completed her PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne in 1993, on the structure and regulation of genes encoding colony-stimulating factor receptors in human leukaemia.

She then undertook postdoctoral training at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) in London, funded firstly by an EMBO and then by an ICRF postdoctoral fellowship, working on the isolation and characterization of the first breast cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA1.

She joined The University of Queensland in 2000 as a Lecturer and is now a Professor and Executive Dean. In 2005 she undertook a six-month sabbatical at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at The University of Oxford.

The focus of Melissa’s research is cancer genetics, in particular understanding the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of breast cancer genes and the impact of genetic variants on cancer risk and progression.

Dr Claudia Bull is a Research Fellow in psychiatric epidemiology at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR), University of Queensland. She holds a Bachelor of Nutrition with First Class Honours (2017) and a PhD in Health Services Research from the Griffith University School of Nursing and Midwifery (2022). Claudia's research largely focusses on undertaking complex data analysis using large, linked, population-based administrative datasets to understand equity, patterns of health service use, and outcomes in vulnerable Australian populations. She is particularly interested in the intergenerational and lifetime effects of child abuse and neglect in Australia, as well as understanding how health services can better support Child Protection efforts. Claudia is also well-versed in the development, psychometric evaluation and implementation of PROMs and PREMs for health systems performance measurement. She is internationally recognised for her research related to PROMs and PREMs, having published several seminal and highly cited papers, as well as pioneering methods for consumer engagement in deciding what questions are relevant and important in PROMs and PREMs. Claudia is an inaugural member of the South Australian Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health's Generic PROM Selection Subcommittee, and is currently collaborating internationally with researchers in The Netherlands, Iran, France and Spain to cross-culturally validate an Emergency Department PREM. Claudia's expertise in population-based linked administrative health data analysis, as well as PROMs and PREMs, positions her as a well-rounded and capable researcher. Claudia's international collaborations underscore her ability to work across cultural and geographical boundaries, enriching her research with a global perspective. Moreover, her track record of published research, practical involvement in healthcare initiatives, and ongoing projects reflect a proactive and influential presence in the field.

Dr. Sabrina Sofia Burgener is Deputy Lab Head of the Disease Modelling Team of the Inflammasome Laboratory and Senior Research Fellow in Immunology at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland.

As Deputy Lab Head of the Inflammasome Group at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), Dr. Burgener is an innate immunologist with over 12 years of cross-functional expertise in immunology, disease modelling and molecular biology. My research program focuses on a holistic understanding of inflammasome signalling in pre-clinical disease models to harness the development of new diagnostics and anti-inflammatory therapeutics.

After obtaining her professional training as a Veterinary Technician, they completed their PhD in Immunology under supervision of A/Prof. Benarafa at the University of Bern, Switzerland in 2017.

For their work on the cytoprotective role of Serpinb1 and Serpinb6 in neutrophils, they received several international awards such as the Society of Leukocyte Biology Presidential Award in 2016 and the Dr. Lutz Zwillenberg Prize in 2020. Before joining the Inflammasome Lab in 2019, Dr. Burgener had been a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Virology and Immunology at the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern. In the Schroder lab, Dr. Burgener leads a team of Honour and PhD students, interested in understanding how caspase-1 drives inflammatory diseases and if targeting caspase-1 in diseases such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and Alzheimer’s disease comes at the cost of increased susceptibility to infection. Their research is funded by SNSF Postdoc Mobility Fellowship (2020-2022) and the Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological Research Fellowship (2022-2023).

Professor Philip Burgess is a researcher in the field of mental health services research and evaluation. He is a Professor with the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland, based at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research.

Philip holds qualifications in clinical psychology and has over 30 years of experience in the design, analysis and reporting of research projects, including systematic literature reviews, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, studies based on routinely collected administrative health and mental health data, epidemiological survey data, and evaluations of health programs and interventions using observational and quasi-experimental research designs.

Philip’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, he 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.

Professor Burne is a leading Australian researcher in the field of biological psychiatry. Prof. Burne has >150 peer reviewed publications, which have attracted over 8500 citations (H-index 50). His research impact is evident by his 11 papers with >200 citations, with two recognised as Web of Science ‘Highly Cited Papers’. Together with collaborators he has been awarded >$8 million in research funding. Since 2003 he has supervised 17 PhD students, and 28 honours students Prof. Burne has a broad background in behavioural neuroscience, with specific training and expertise in animal models. As a Professorial Research Fellow with the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and Group Leader at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) the focus of his research includes cognitive testing in rodent models of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, as well as psychopharmacological studies and research on clinical populations. As a CI on several university- and NHMRC-funded grants, he has helped establish infrastructure at QBI for behavioural assessment and methods of automated operant-based cognitive tests in rodents. Prof. Burne is a past president of Biological Psychiatry Australia, he is the Queensland representative for the Australasian Neuroscience Society, and he is a member of the NHMRC Animal Welfare Committee.

Prof. Burne’s group studies brain development and behaviour in animal models to learn more about neuropsychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia. Research is focused on investigating the underlying biological basis for schizophrenia, with the goal of finding public health interventions that will alleviate the burden of this disease. The group has been exploring the impact of developmental vitamin D (DVD) deficiency on brain development, the impact of adult vitamin D deficiency on brain function and behaviour, and the neurobiological affects of having an older father. More recently his group has been focussed on assessing cognitive function in rodents. Prof. Burne’s research is carried out in close collaboration with Professors John McGrath and Darryl Eyles, in a multidisciplinary team. Together they have an integrated research program using a broad range of neuroscientific techniques to explore potential causes of schizophrenia. There is a particular focus on early life, nongenetic risk factors and the team has skills in epidemiology, psychiatry, neuroanatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology and behavioural neuroscience. The Burne group is currently developing animal models related to risk factors for schizophrenia and autism.

A/Prof Lucy Burr is an experienced respiratory physician, training supervisor and clinical trials researcher at Mater Health and Mater Research – University of Queensland (UQ). She has a PhD (2017) in bronchiectasis microbiology and is an Associate Professor at the School of Medicine, UQ. She is the Director of Respiratory, Sleep and Cystic Fibrosis medicine at the Mater Hospital, Brisbane.

As well as directing the respiratory clinical service at the Mater, Lucy has an active role in teaching both specialist trainees and medical students. She is a RACP college supervisor and trains one advanced trainee and four basic trainees per year. She directly supervises four medical students in her clinical team per year. Lucy is also currently supervising 5 PhD students, researching diverse fields such as glucose control in cystic fibrosis, asthma, fatigue, IL-22 and the effect of sleep on social cognition.

Lucy is recognised nationally for her clinical work on respiratory infections. She is the chair of the Acute and Critical Care panel for the National COVID-19 clinical evidence taskforce and a member of the guideline leadership group. Additionally, she is the recent chair (2020-2022) of the expert reference group on COVID-19 for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She is a recent (2019- 2021) convenor of the respiratory infectious disease special interest group of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, the Queensland TSANZ branch president and past president (2017-2020), a recent board director of the TSANZ national body and current Chair of the Australian Bronchiectasis Consortium. Lucy is currently serving on the TSANZ annual scientific meeting and World Bronchiectasis conference steering committees. She is recognised internationally for her work on Cystic Fibrosis (top 1.8% expertscape February 2024) and Bronchiectasis (top 2.2% expertscape February 2024) and has published in high impact clinical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet Respiratory Medicine, across a range of respiratory and infectious disease subjects, with >1500 citations in the past 5 years.

In addition to her clinical work, Lucy is the custodian and manager of the David Serisier Research biobank at Mater Research, a clinical repository of human samples from patients living with respiratory diseases. Lucy is also an experienced principal investigator on many pharmaceutical studies ranging from phase 1b to phase 4 studies investigating therapeutics for CF, IPF, COPD, COVID, influenza pulmonary hypertension and bronchiectasis. She has designed and lead non-pharmaceutical interventional studies investigating the role of macrolide in modulating inflammation in healthy adults. She is the group leader of the respiratory clinical trials unit at Mater Research, and the program lead for the chronic and integrated care program at Mater Research.

Lucy has a proven track record in collaborative and translational research. She is currently a consultant on 2 peer reviewed external grants totalling $1,306,000, including one involving biobanked samples, and is a chief investigator on a 2021 Ideas grant and a 2021 MRFF grant totalling more than $3 million dollars.

Dr Tamara Butler is an Aboriginal woman of the Undumbi people from the Sunshine Coast region of Queensland, Australia and a NHMRC Emerging Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. She works withing the First Nations Cancer and Wellbeing Research Program. Her work is focused on women’s cancers with the goal of improving cancer outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, families, and communities. Broadly Dr Butler’s research interests also include First Nations research methods and process, co-design, wellbeing, and psychosocial aspects of cancer care.

Gerard Byrne is the Mayne Professor and Head of the Academy of Psychiatry within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland and Director of the Older Persons' Mental Health Service at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. His primary research interests include Alzheimer's disease (particularly the neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with AD), and personality, anxiety and depression in older people. Recent published work has included papers on generalised anxiety disorder in older people, dementia and delirium in the general hospital setting, and the role of lifestyle factors in predicting cognitive trajectory in middle age and later life.

Biography:

Gerard completed his medical degree and an intercalated science degree in Sydney at the University of New South Wales and the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals. Following an internship at the Royal Newcastle Hospital, he undertook two further years of general medical training at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane. He subsequently completed his five years of psychiatry training at The Prince Charles and Wolston Park Hospitals. His PhD in psychiatric epidemiology was undertaken at the University of Queensland under the supervision of Beverley Raphael AM. He has been Head of the UQ Discipline (now Academy) of Psychiatry since 2001 and Director of Geriatric Psychiatry (now the Older Persons' Mental Health Service) at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital since 1995.

He a member of the Repatriation Medical Authority and chairs the Research Advisory Committee of the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital. He is a member of the advisory board of the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research at the Queensland Brain Institute. He is a former member of the board of directors of the International Psychogeriatric Association.

He is a past chairman of the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age (FPOA) of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) and a former member of the RANZCP General Council. He is a former chair of the RANZCP Sub-committee for Advanced Training in Psychiatry of Old Age and member of the RANZCP Committee for Training. He is a member of the RANZCP Foundation Committee and a member of the Queensland Brain Bank Scientific Advisory Committee.

Gerard also serves as a member of NHMRC GRPs and reviews research grant applications for NHMRC, ARC, Hong Kong MRC, New Zealand RC, Netherlands Organisation for Health Research & Development (ZonMw), U.S. Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Australia Research Fund, and Pfizer Neuroscience Research Grants, amongst others.

He is a member of the editorial board of the journal, Clinical Gerontologist.

He reviews manuscripts for Molecular Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, Brain and Cognition, Journal of Affective Disorders, Journal of the American Geriatrics Association (JAGS), Journal of Psychiatric Research, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Age and Ageing, Aging and Mental Health, American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Australasian Journal on Ageing, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, BMC Psychiatry, Depression and Anxiety, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and International Psychogeriatrics, amongst others.

In 2012 he won the Senior Research Award of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

In 2013 he delivered the Bostock Oration of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

In 2016 he was awarded a Meritorious Service Award by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

Peter Cabot is the Professor and Head of School in the School of Pharmacy. He joined the School staff in this position in 1999 after completing postdoctoral positions at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore USA, The NIH, Baltimore USA and within the School of Pharmacy at UQ.

The primary focus of my research is on the elucidation of the peripheral mechanisms involved in analgesia associated with inflammation. Key discoveries were made in this field that highlighted the importance of the immune system in inflammatory pain. The results of which were published in the notable journals; JBC, PAIN, Nature Medicine and The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Liam is an Associate Professor in Telehealth and Director of Telehealth Technology for the University of Queensland’s Centre for Online Health.

Liam has a PhD in Medicine. His research is centred on pragmatic trials of telehealth services. Liam has a special interest in the use of telehealth for Indigenous health and rural health care delivery. He is involved in telehealth service development, delivery and evaluation across a broad range of telehealth services. Liam uses implementation research principles to understand why telehealth services work well in some scenarios and not others. He evaluates the effectiveness of telehealth from multi-disciplinary perspectives including clinical effectiveness, patient perspectives, economic aspects, organisational aspects, and socio-cultural, ethical and legal aspects.

Liam also has an active research agenda in health informatics, in particular, in imaging informatics. Liam’s work focusses on skin imaging for melanoma detection. Liam chairs dermatology working group for the DICOM standards development organisation as well as the technology standards working group for the International Skin Imaging Collaboration: Melanoma Project. This project is an academia and industry partnership designed to facilitate the application of digital skin imaging to help reduce melanoma mortality. Liam is technology lead for the Australian Centre of Excellence in Melanoma Imaging and Diagnosis. Liam has previously been a member of the Standards Australia IT-014 Health Informatics technical committees for telehealth and messaging and communication.

Liam is Vice-President of the Australian Telehealth Society and an executive member of the International Teledermatology Society.

Liam has 25 years industry experience as a health informatician. His immediate past role was the Manager of Medical Imaging Informatics at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Previously, Liam had over a decade’s clinical experience as a diagnostic radiographer.

Professor John Cairney is the Head of School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences. He is an academic leader in the field of paediatric exercise medicine and child health research and is particularly well-known for his work on developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and its impact on the health and well-being of children. Prof John Cairney started at UQ in January 2020.

Until the end of 2019, he was the Director of Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto and Director of the Infant and Child Health (INCH) Research Laboratory at both the University of Toronto and McMaster University. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Public Health Sciences and Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University and a core scientist with the Offord Centre for Child Studies, CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University, and the independent Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

Professor Cairney completed his PhD studies at the University of Western Ontario and has held academic appointments at Brock University, the University of Toronto and McMaster University before his current UQ role. He has held, among other research leadership positions, a Canada Research Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and a Professorship in Child Health, and subsequently a Research Chair, in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University.

Professor Cairney has been the recipient of ~$A17 million in research grants as a principal investigator and has some 310 published works with a Scopus h index of 51 (Aug 2022).

Professor Cairney is a former President of the North American Society of Pediatric Exercise Medicine.

Professor Leonie Callaway is an Obstetric Physician, with a strong track record in clinical research relating to gestational diabetes, hypertension in pregnancy, medical disorders of pregnancy, clinical trials, clinical studies and epidemiology. Research funding to date has totalled in excess of 12 million dollars. This includes funding for a number of clinical trials and clinical studies as Chief Investigator supported by both the NH&MRC and the Medical Research Futures Fund.

Prof Callaway has a long track record of successful PhD scholar supervision. She has a particular interest in the issues of work life balance and wellbeing for scholars undertaking research higher degrees.

At present, Prof Callaway holds a number of roles including Director of Research within Women’s and Newborn Services at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Executive Director of the Women’s and Children’s Stream for Metro North Hospital and Health Service District and Co-Chair of the Queensland Maternal and Perinatal Quality Council. This work has been supported by qualifications in Executive Leadership and as a Company Director.

Prof Callaway’s past leadership experience is broad, and includes the domains of clinical education, health service delivery and research. Previous roles include Chair of the Board of the Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society, Deputy Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland, Acting Director of Internal Medicine Services at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and Head of the Royal Brisbane Clinical School for the University of Queensland.

Prof Callaway is particularly interested in the role of values such as integrity, respect and compassion, and their importance in workplace culture and wellbeing.

I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Digital Health and Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) interested in the prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases, especially obesity, across the lifecourse.

Through research, I aim to add health to life and equity to health by changing policies and practices to reduce the impact of obesity.

My research program aims to forge a new nexus across dietetics, digital health and public health to improve healthy weight. In my Postdoctoral Fellowship, I have established a new evidence base that supports precision public health approaches to the prevention and management of obesity, including innovate methods of public health surveillance that can use data from sources such as electronic medical records. I trained as a Paediatric Dietitian and have experience as a clinician-researcher working in Queensland's healthcare system, specifically in preventing and managing childhood obesity via clinical, community, and public health programs.

I have used epidemiology, public health informatics, action research, co-design, and ethnographic methods to generate new knowledge in obesity and digital health. I was awarded my PhD (UQ) in November 2020, which developed and validated i-PATHWAY, a clinical model to predict childhood obesity from the first 1,000 days to help guide its prevention. This research was the first of its kind in Australia and uncovered new evidence for risk factors for childhood obesity that are evident from the early years.

At The University of Queensland (UQ), I am a member of the Queensland Digital Health Centre, located within the Centre for Health Services Research (Faculty of Medicine). I established and currently Co-Chair the UQ Digital Health HDR Cohort, which provides research mentorship and support to ~20 PhD, MPhil and Honours research students.

Our team partners closely with multiple healthcare and research organisations across Australia to innovate and translate obesity research into practice, including Health and Wellbeing Queensland (public health and prevention of chronic diseases), Queensland Health (healthcare system) and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (digital health research). I hold an Honorary Appointment with Health and Wellbeing Queensland, and an Affiliate Research Fellow position with the Faculty of Medicine (UQ) to help bridge the gap between obesity research and practice.

Sandra Capra AM joined the Faculty of Health Sciencesand then the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciencesi 2008 as professor of nutrition. Professor Capra received her BSc(Hons) and Diploma in Nutrition and Dietetics from Sydney University, her MSocSc from the University of Birmingham and her PhD from the University of Queensland.

After more than 15 years in professional practice in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and New Zealand Prof Capra entered academia full time. Professor Capra has a strong commitment to allied health professions and has served three terms as President of the Dietitians Association of Australia, has been a member of the Council of Pro Vice Chancellors and Deans of Health Sciences and served on many national policy making committees including the Nutrient Reference Values Steering Committee and the Dietary Guidelines Working Party of the National Health and Medical Research Council. She served sixteen years as Chair of the Board of Directors (President) of the International Confederation of Dietetic Associations from 2004-2016. She was an Independent Director of Health Workforce Australia 2010-2014.

Professor Capra is an expert on allied health in general and nutrition and dietetics curricula and competencies in particular and reviews educational programs both in Australia and overseas. In early 2017 she was appointed Executive Director of the International Commission for Dietetics and Nutrition Education and Accreditation, implementing an international program of competency development and program accreditaion. She is regularly invited to speak on the topic of educational standards, quality and competence. Professor Capra has been recognised for her service to nutrition and dietetics education and research by being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003, a Fellow of the Dietitians Association of Australia (the first appointed) and elected to life membership of the DAA. She was named one of the Westpac/Financial Review "100 Women of Influence" in the global category in 2014.

Professor Capra designed and developed the Master of Dietetics Studies, an innovative and distinctive program within Australia, and sought and achieved accreditation for this novel program as well as more recently its reaccreditation. Graduates are complimented on their skill and employability.

She has acted as a consultant to governments, in the area of foodservices for hospitals, detention centres, custodial facilities as well as serving on numerous governent committees at the state and national level.

Prior to her move to the University of Queensland she was the Head of School, School of Health Sciences and Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle, NSW. Before that she was at QUT for 15 years.

She was appointed Emeritus Professor in January 2019, and retains an active interest in research and mentoring.

Research Interests

Professor Capra has positioned UQ as a leader in research in nutrition. Her personal research interests focus on nutrition and dietetics practice, food and nutrition policy and quality outcomes for food and nutrition services in a variety of settings. Much of her work focuses on the development of tools to use in practice and developing systems for quality improvements and outcomes measurements of service delivery. Studies include nutrition service delivery models, best practice, tools development, measurement in dietetics and outcomes research in dietetics, staffing and efficacy. This is not limited to clinical fields, but includes other domains of policy and public health and service delivery and alllied health more generally. Professor Capra was a principal investigator on the Department of Health and Ageing “Implementing best practice nutrition and hydration support in Residential aged care” which was part of the national “Encouraging Best Practice in Residential Aged Care” program. She has developed tools now used across Australia such as the Malnutrition Screening Tool, the Meal Assessment Tool, and the Acute Care Patient Satisfaction with Foodservice Questionnaire. many of her former students have proceeded to key leadership roles in Australia and overseas.