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I am an early career researcher with <3 years post-PhD and estimated research time relative to opportunity of 20 months. Currently, I am a Research Fellow and Lecturer at The University of Queensland’s (UQ) Centre for Online Health (COH). I have years of study and work experience, including consumer and community involvement, in various healthcare settings in Brazil (2009-2019), the UK (2003-2008) and Australia (2019-present). I came to Australia in December 2019 for a 12-month PhD research placement at UQ after winning a highly competitive scholarship from the Brazilian Government. I have a Bachelor of Pharmacy, a Graduate Certificate in Project Management, a Master of Philosophy in Public Health, a Diploma of Higher Education in Youth and Community Studies and an OCN Level 3 Certificate in Community Development. I completed my PhD in Public Health in 2021.

I have a proven track record for delivering high-quality projects, with national significance, including policy change and integration into the national strategy in Brazil, and the implementation of a digital model of care developed in Australia. My track record demonstrates a rising career trajectory. My research interests are telehealth, virtual care and digital health, including digitally disrupted models of care for chronic conditions, trust and confidence in telehealth and digital health, digital health literacy, health services research, including implementation and evaluation strategies, mixed-methods, cross-sectional studies, co-design and qualitative inquiry, community and consumer involvement in research and service redesign.

Dr Carl Francia (Saibai Koedal awgadhalayg) is a Torres Strait Islander physiotherapist and cardiovascular epidemiologist whose research focuses on improving cardiovascular health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through Indigenous-led, community-partnered research.

Based at The University of Queensland's Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, Carl leads research examining acute rheumatic fever (ARF), rheumatic heart disease (RHD), cardiovascular health, health services, and implementation of evidence into policy and practice. His work combines epidemiology, health systems research, and community partnership approaches to support prevention, early detection, long-term management, and elimination of RHD.

Carl currently coordinates the NHMRC Synergy-funded iPreventRHD program, a national Indigenous-led research initiative focused on life-course approaches to preventing and managing RHD. He is also a Chief Investigator on an MRFF-funded project exploring cardiovascular health among First Nations women and girls and is involved in community-led climate and cardiovascular health initiatives in the Torres Strait.

Research interests include:

• Cardiovascular epidemiology and population health • Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease • Indigenous health and health equity • Implementation science and health services research • Climate change and cardiovascular health • Indigenous Data Sovereignty and community-led research

Carl welcomes enquiries from Honours, Masters, and HDR students interested in Indigenous health, cardiovascular disease prevention, epidemiology, implementation science, health systems research, and community-partnered research.

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.

Mehedi is a public health researcher with strong expertise in quantitative data analytics. He has over eight years of professional experience in developing and developed countries. He has built a distinguished career in public health research, focusing on critical areas such as reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH), nutrition, non-communicable diseases, mental health, sleep health, social determinants of health and health inequalities.

Mehedi completed his PhD from the University of Queensland in 2022. In his doctoral thesis titled “Future direction of maternal and child health in low- and middle-income countries”, he utilized data of over 4.3 million participants extracted from 284 national surveys conducted in 75 low- and middle-income countries to understand the future projections of maternal and child health-related indicators and gaps in progress, with geographical variations across countries. His doctoral research resulted six publications in reputed international journals and provided valuable insights for global and country leaders in their pursuit of achieving health-related Sustainable Development Goals.

Mehedi has a charming engagement with research community. He has reviewed manuscripts for eight international journals and published 45 peer-reviewed articles, many of which appear in high-impact journals. His work has gained media attention, with coverage of more than 15 research stories.

In addition to his research and professional activities, Mehedi is an active member of several professional international collaborative groups, including Global Burden of Diseases, the American Society for Nutrition, the International Health Economics Association, the Society for Research in Child Development, and Health Systems Global, where he collaborates with fellow experts and stays at the forefront of developments in his field.

Mehedi is a Global Change Scholar (2018 cohort) of the University of Queensland and a recipient of several prestigious scholarships and awards. He recently honoured with a national award in the Pregnancy Monitoring Innovation Challenge 2022 funded by the Aspire to Innovate (a2i), Bangladesh, recognizing his innovative contributions to maternal and neonatal health.

Mehedi’s current research focuses on unveiling environmental exposures in pregnancy and risk in adverse birth outcomes in Queensland, Australia.

Dr Jaimon Kelly is a consultant Accredited Practising Dietitian and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Online Health, and one of Australia's and the world's leading experts in digital and telehealth-delivered nutrition care for chronic disease.

He holds a PhD in technology-supported lifestyle interventions and leads a research program that established the international evidence standard for telehealth-delivered nutrition care. His work has changed what is recommended internationally, what is funded and practised nationally, and how equitably digital nutrition care reaches the community.

Dr Kelly led the dietetics profession's first national telehealth position statement for Dietitians Australia and the national evaluation of dietetic telehealth under Medicare, and his research has been embedded in routine care, professional guidance and health policy in Australia and internationally. He was recognised with a University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor's Award for Early Career Research Excellence and, in 2024, a UQ Foundation for Research Excellence Award for promoting telehealth equity and innovation.

He works in private practice, primarily providing professional consultancy services for kidney nutrition, and also consults in cardiovascular disease and diabetes. You can learn more about his private practice here - https://www.mynutritionclinic.com.au/home/jaimon-kelly/

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research sits at the intersection of nutrition, health service delivery and digital health, and asks how technology can make high-quality, patient-centred nutrition care both effective and equitable for people living with complex chronic conditions.

My interests are in 1) Nutrition and dietetics, primarily diet quality and methods to improve it in people with chronic kidney disease and other complex chronic conditions; 2) Health service delivery, focused on models of care that move evidence into routine practice and funding; and 3) Digital health, specifically preparing the workforce, co-designing and testing technology-assisted lifestyle interventions, and building digital health trust, literacy and equity of access. A consistent thread across this work is simplifying nutrition communication for clinicians and for people living with chronic conditions, so that digital nutrition care reaches everyone, including culturally and linguistically diverse communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Dr Sally Mortlock is a genetic epidemiologist and NECST Research Fellow who leads the Genetic Epidemiology stream at the Australian Women and Girls Health Research (AWaGHR) Centre, University of Queensland. Her research integrates genomics with life course epidemiology to understand how genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors shape women’s health across the lifespan.

Her work focuses on reproductive and menstrual health, particularly endometriosis and related conditions, with the aim of improving understanding of disease mechanisms, risk, diagnosis, and personalised approaches to care.

Research areas include:

• Genetic epidemiology and reproductive genomics
• Women’s health across the life course
• Endometriosis and reproductive disorders
• Longitudinal cohort studies and life course epidemiology
• Genetic risk prediction and causal inference methods (including Mendelian randomisation)
• Multi-omics and biological pathway analysis

Dr Mortlock previously spent seven years as lead computational biologist within the Genomics of Reproduction Disorders group at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, contributing to internationally recognised research in reproductive genomics. She now combines this expertise with large-scale longitudinal health data, including genetic resources within the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, to investigate women’s health trajectories over time.

Dr. Bushra Nasir is the lead researcher on multiple large-scale, national studies, 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.

Maiden name: Ellen Maree Leslie

Dr Ellen Wessel is a Research Fellow in the School of Public Health, with backgrounds in both public health and criminology. Her research interests include women's health, alcohol and other drug use, and policing.