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.
Stephen is a Narungga and Ngarrindjeri man from South Australia, and Senior Research Fellow with the University of Queensland Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and PhD candidate with the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland.
Stephen is an epidemiologist and public health researcher who has worked with Aboriginal communities and organisations across Australia. Stephen has experience in conducting health services research, sexual health, adolescents and young people’s health and wellbeing, and Indigenous methodology.
Stephen completed a Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology at the Australian National University in 2019, and has a Master of Public Health (Flinders University, 2013), a Graduate Certificate Health Services Research and Development (The University of Wollongong, 2012), and a Bachelor of Health Sciences (Public Health) (The University of Adelaide, 2008).
Dr Stuart Leske is a Senior Research Fellow and Program Manager of a Centre of Research Excellence in Urban Indigenous Health at UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP).
Stuart currently endeavours to support Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait researchers by seeking to provide more in technical (e.g., literature review, writing, editing, data interpretation and visualisation) and leadership skills then he takes in cultural knowledge from Indigenous staff.
Stuart has reviewed 27 times for the Lancet Group journals (13 x The Lancet Public Health, 7 x The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific, 5 x The Lancet Psychiatry, 2 x The Lancet Regional Health - Americas and 1 x eClinicalMedicine).
Stuart enjoys two-way learning with all people he works with.
Dr Ming Li commenced with UQ’s School of Public Health in Jan 2024 as a Senior Research Fellow in cancer research under Prof Gail Garvey leading The First Nations Cancer and Wellbeing Research (FNCWR) program after a 16-year research in chronic disease epidemiology at University of South Australia. Her research is focused on understanding the impact of social and environmental factors on health-related behaviours and health conditions such as overweight and obesity, metabolic disorders, and cancer in children and adolescents and adults from different cultures in both developing and developed countries.
Ming has worked on projects on diabetes and cancer among the first nations peoples in the spectrum of prevention, treatment, complications and survival using linked data at national, state, and local level. Her research has a profound impact on developing guidelines, clinical practice, health policy, and health education. Ming has established sustained international and national collaborations and successful completion of master’s and PhD programs.
Ming is an overseas trained medical doctor and a high achiever at her PhD program and has received extensive training in epidemiological research methodology, nutritional epidemiology, clinical epidemiology, biostatistics, health education and promotion, social medical science at the University of Newcastle. Her multidisciplinary training provides the foundation for exploring the pathways of cancer and other chronic diseases and for developing effective approaches in tackling these health risks and improving the wellbeing of First Nations peoples.
Ming is working on funded projects including Healthy Hearts, CostMod, Canco, Synergy, and Blood Cancer with a growing passionate team comprised of PhD students and early to mid-career researchers.
Dr. Bushra Nasir is the Director of the Medical Research Futures Fund in Primary Health Care Digital Innovations - ID-INSPIRED and a mid-career researcher with a substantial career trajectory in health research. Her expertise and instrumental involvement in multiple large-scale grants are demonstrated through numerous top-tier publications, media and news citations, and recognition in national and international policy documents. She has contributed to developing several global health policy recommendation publications, including a World Health Organisation review investigating the retention of the health workforce in rural and remote areas. Her contribution to this discipline is further substantiated by her peer-review activities and international and national collaborations with wide outreach and engagement initiatives.
Her collaborative networking qualities contribute to numerous roles in various research committees, including as a previous Chair of the Faculty of Medicine Early Career Researcher Committee. Her work has also resulted in increased research capacity building in regional and rural South East Queensland, supporting clinicians, medical students and educators, and other healthcare service providers conducting clinical and epidemiological research projects. She is also a research mentor and member of several national organisations. Her ongoing leadership, management, networking, and knowledge expertise, contribute to the progress of research practices with academics, experts, and clinical scientists.
Dr Victor M. Oguoma (BSc, MScPH, PhD, MBiostat) is a Senior Research Fellow at the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health.
Dr Oguoma joined UQ in February 2022. Before this time, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Health Research Institute University of Canberra (UC) and Senior Research Officer at the Menzies School of Health Research Darwin (Menzies). He held an honorary appointment at the Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait and currently holds an honorary appointment at the Menzies in Darwin.
Dr Oguoma completed his public health PhD studies in cardiometabolic disease epidemiology at Charles Darwin University before taking up an academic appointment at the Menzies where he conducted research on chronic middle ear and respiratory disease in Indigenous children. He then moved to UC Health Research Institute where he worked on the Kuwait Diabetes Epidemiology Program and the ACT Health and Wellbeing Survey as lead epidemiologist and biostatistician. He also holds a Master of Biostatistics degree from Macquarie University through the prestigious Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia program, a Master of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Medical Parasitology at Nnamdi Azikiwe University. Before his relocation to Australia in 2013, Dr Oguoma held several roles in implementing strategies to control neglected tropical diseases in Nigeria, West Africa. Since 2017, he has led/contributed to the design, implementation, and analyses of large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and epidemiological studies in the Indigenous populations of Australia, sub-Saharan Africa, and diverse populations in Kuwait. He has over 10 years of experience in public health, epidemiological, and applied biostatistics research across sectors - non-governmental organisations and academia in Australia, Africa, and the Middle East.
In collaboration with other researchers, Dr Oguoma has attracted over AU$10M in competitive National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), and International-funded collaborative research grants as Chief Investigator since 2017. He has over 60 published works in peer-reviewed journals of national and international reputation. Dr Oguoma is an Associate Editor for the Australian Journal of Rural Health. He is available to supervise Ph.D. students.
Funding awarded prior to joining UQ:
2021-2026 ‘Azithromycin before Birth’- Single dose azithromycin shortly before birth to reduce infection in Aboriginal mothers and babies: a randomised controlled trial. NHMRC Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies. AU$3,632,163 (CIG)
2020-2025 ‘Deadly Ears at Discharge’ - A hospital-based randomised controlled trial of an additional ear and hearing assessment to inform discharge planning by a trained Aboriginal Ear Health Worker in Aboriginal children with chronic ear infection. NHMRC Clinical Trials and Cohort Studies. AU$2,212,847 (CIE)
2017-2021 A community-based randomised trial of lifestyle intervention using targeted shared care approach on pregnancy outcomes in Nigerian women with gestational diabetes mellitus but without diabetes mellitus - (Enugu State) Nigeria. Bringing Research in Diabetes to Global Environments and Systems programme (BRIDGES 2) - The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly). USD 127,982 (CIF)
2017-2021 A randomized trial of an intensive education intervention using network of involved diabetes patients to improve glycaemic control of type 2 diabetes patients - (Delta State) Nigeria. Bringing Research in Diabetes to Global Environments and Systems programme (BRIDGES 2) - The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly). USD 66,350 (CIB)
Associate Professor Rae received her PhD in 2007 in the area of reproductive physiology and has been working in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maternal and infant health and chronic disease since that time. She began as the Group Lead for the Indigenous Health Research group at the Mater Research Institute in a role that bridges the Mater, University of QLD and is actively growing partnerships with the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector in QLD. The importance of maternal health for Indigenous communities has been identified as a critical national research priority by Indigenous communities. Her work has had a multidisciplicinary nature and while always focused on the health of Indigneous Australians she has published in areas including pregnancy and birth outcomes, nutrition, psychosocial health, growth and development during infancy, the use of arts in health education to name a few.She has a particular passion for working in partnership to co-design research projects that support improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Her specific focus has primarily been to develop programs that reduce chronic diseases which afflict Aboriginal people more commonly through early detection and diagnosis, health education, and developing a thorough understanding of risk factors that impact on this community. She has mentored her team of staff and students to co-produce and co-disseminate findings from these programs of work and to build research capacity for all team members including those who identify as Indigenous and for those from rural locations of research studies.
Prior to her role at Mater Research, she was the inaugaral Director of the Gomeroi gaaynggal program (2007-2019), which had two major programs of work 1. ArtsHealth for community engagement, health education and health promotion and 2. A Health research program for understanding the development of chronic disease in the Indigenous community through the Gomeroi gaaynggal cohort. Program 1 was successful in transitioning its funding to local Aboriginal community-controlled sector in Tamworth (2019). Prior to its transition, she led a community focussed ArtsHealth program to improve health knowledge, particularly in the areas of social and emotional wellbeing in the community, with the assistance of a team of beginning Indigenous researchers. Over 100,000 hours of community education were delivered through this program. 2. The Gomeroi gaaynggal cohort work has involved the recruitment and retention of a prospective longitudinal cohort of Indigenous women from pregnancy through until the infants are 10 years of age highlighting her expertise in working with Indigenous families during their antenatal and early childhood years. The importance of maternal health for this population is a critical priority to improving the life-long health of the Indigenous communities of Australia.
