Meet the team

Associate Professor Christina Aggar

Associate Professor

An important feature of Christina’s research work has been leading and working closely with peak organisations (Carers NSW, Australian Primary Healthcare Association) and industry (FEROS, ICARE), consumers, academics and clinicians to improve patient care by supporting workforce development. This has led to Southern Cross University’s first interprofessional education (IPE) clinical placement opportunity in international and rural remote facilities.

Professor Sandra Grace

Professor

Dr Sandra Grace's research interests focus on models of care, integrative medicine, inter-professional education and practice, and clinical pedagogy. Current research projects include interprofessional education and practice, primary health care service delivery and clinical reasoning.

Associate Professor Michelle Bissett

Associate Professor

Michelle Bissett is currently Associate Professor in Occupational Therapy in the Faculty of Health, based at the Gold Coast Campus. Michelle is a registered occupational therapist with extensive clinical and academic experience. Michelle’s research relates primarily to the occupational engagement of older adults across community and residential care environments. This work is motivated by her commitment to ensure that older adults age well and maintain opportunities to stay connected in their co

Dr Ya-Ling Huang

Lecturer

Her research interests focus on clinical research in acute care settings and research evidence-based practice. She has been involved in research projects which have attracted more than a quarter of a million in research grants and award as a principal and associate investigator. Her research focuses on Acute Care (Emergency; Respiratory), Sub-acute Care (Palliative; End of Life; Chronic Care), Vulnerable Populations (Older People; Cultural and Linguistic Diversity), Research Evidence-based Pract

Dr Felicity Walker

Lecturer

Dr Felicity Walker is currently a Lecturer of Nursing in the Faculty of Health at SCU. Felicity is interested in nursing workforce issues, leadership and management, and work integrated learning. Current projects engage collaborative partnerships with industry and education providers with a focus on WIL, supervision and leadership and student learning. Felicity has a background in clinical trials nursing and acute care nursing.

Dr Andrew Woods

Lecturer

Andrew is currently a lecturer of nursing at SCU. Andrew’s research has focused on workforce development, communities of practice, professional identity, interprofessional practice, immersive simulation learning and participatory research methodologies.

Professor Gillian Gould

Professor

Gould’s focus had been to improve tobacco smoking risks for Indigenous Australians. She co-developed, over a decade, multiple innovative strategies to tackle smoking with Aboriginal communities. Gould co-developed and led the first national trial for Indigenous pregnant smokers – SISTAQUIT(Supporting Indigenous Smokers To Assist Quitting) (Global Alliance for Chronic Disease (GACD)/NHMRC).

Professor Jennene Greenhill

Professor

As a nurse leader, Jennene is passionate about socially accountable health professional education and research that benefits communities, especially disadvantaged populations. Her international research profile encompasses rural health workforce, transformative learning, and health service improvement in underserved communities.

Professor Marie Hutchinson

Professor

Professor Hutchinson is experienced in a range of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods and has led and supervised large mixed-method and data linkage studies. She currently leads a number of industry-partnered research projects, and has extensive experience in conducting research in clinical settings.

Professor Fiona Naumann

Associate Dean (Education)

Professor Fiona Naumann is the Associate Dean, Education in the Faculty of Health.

Associate Professor Mike Climstein

Associate Professor

Mike has 159 papers, 14 book chapters and 38 grants (internal and external funding) totalling in excess of $7.8m (AUD) in research funding. His academic and clinical accomplishments have been peer-recognised, having received Fellowship by Sports Medicine Australia (FASMF), American College of Sports Medicine (FACSM) and Exercise and Sports Science Australia (FAAESS). Additionally, Mike has received a number of awards for his research efforts. He is an editorial board member of PeerJ and ...

Associate Professor Lyn Ebert

Associate Professor

Midwifery, Nursing, Women's health in relation to childbearing, Educational strategies that support graduate health care professionals to implement patient-centred care into their practice, and Perinatal Mental Health. I have published 30 plus peer-reviewed articles and received over $400,000 in grant income.

Associate Professor Sam Lapkin

Associate Professor

Research areas: Patient safety, medication safety, back pain, incident investigation, evidence-based practice, interprofessional collaboration, nursing education, workforce development, quality improvement, aged care, fall prevention, and clinical simulation in healthcare.

Associate Professor Gail Moloney

Associate Professor

My research interests fall broadly in the area of social and community psychology. I am particularly interested in drawing from theory to understand and design strategies and interventions for pressing social and health issues. Current and previous research interests include: social representations theory, social identity theory, organ donation, transplantation and registration on the Australian Organ Donor Register (AODR) , blood donation, social understandings of dementia

Associate Professor Paul Orrock

Associate Professor

Paul has completed projects on the health workforce and the development and assessment of clinical reasoning. His doctorate explored the osteopathic profession using mixed methods and developed a pragmatic clinical trial method reflecting whole practice. He is interested in developing models of complex interventions for testing in clinical trials.

Associate Professor Sally Sargeant

Associate Professor

Sally's primary research interests are language and communication in healthcare, together with the psychological principles that underpin interactions. This covers many areas, ranging from conversations in clinical care with patients, to the training of health professionals and institutional processes. She uses qualitative and quantitative methods, and works with clinicians, health professions' educators and community members. Her recent work focuses on Internet forum communication about.

Dr Joanne Bradbury

Senior Lecturer

Most of my research work is in multi-disciplinary research collaborations, which have collectively sought $3.5M in income, netting almost one million dollars for research. A career highlight is a publication that reviews the evidence for the theory that the modern human brain would not have evolved without the inclusion of seafood in the diet. Another was a multi-agency collaboration that resulted in a publication in the MJA and an expert appearance before a Federal Senate committee hearing.

Dr Louise Horstmanshof

Senior Lecturer

Dr Horstmanshof is an active researcher and has peer review publications in the field of higher education, preparation of the health workforce, productive ageing, simulation and communication. She is a regular reviewer for several national and international journals.

Dr Suzanne McDonald

Senior Lecturer

Dr McDonald's research interests focus on (1) the development and application of N-of-1 trials and single-case designs in areas within medicine, psychology and digital health (2) understanding and changing health-related behaviours in patients and health professionals (3) designing and evaluating complex interventions.

Dr Nedeljka Rosic

Senior Lecturer

Her research is focused on medicinal bio-products, skin protection using natural marine sunscreens, environmental stress markers, host-microbe interaction, genomics and protein engineering. Nela collaborates nationally and internationally with scientists and industry partners from both academia and industry sectors including the CSIRO, the leading Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia.

Dr Alex Barwick

Lecturer

Alex researches foot screening techniques for peripheral arterial disease, preventative footwear, diabetes-related foot complications, and embedding research skills into health workforces. She uses a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Dr Emily Burch

Lecturer

Emily's current research is dedicated towards improving the diet quality and overall health and wellbeing of Australians living with diabetes. Her research is currently focused on gaining a deeper comprehension of the variables that affect diet quality changes among those who have been newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Lisa Charmer

Lecturer

Current HDR 'Maternity care practitioners experience of personal trauma during the birthing journey and the impact this has on their future care provision, decision making, and ongoing well-being'. Interests in midwifery education and maternity care practitioners' mental well-being, with an interest in rural and remote maternity services.

Dr Claire Hutchinson

Lecturer

Claire has an extensive background in emergency nursing, working in education and clinical consultant roles before moving into an academic role in 2020. Claire started her career as a medic in the Royal Navy before training as a Registered Nurse in the UK. Claire completed her PhD in March 2023.

Dima Nasrawi

Lecturer

Experienced Registered Nurse with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in Research and teaching in the school of health and human sciences. Dima is a current PhD candidate and a unit assessor at Southern Cross University. Dima is a Cardiac Nurse and a member of the Australian Cardiac Rehabilitation Association.

Lucy Shinners

Lecturer (Teaching Scholar)

Lucy is an early career researcher in the field of artificial intelligence in healthcare. Her PhD pursuits focus on exploring healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) in the delivery of care. As both clinician and educator, Lucy has observed the growing use of technology impacting the journey of the patient, the student and the healthcare workforce and so she has a particular research interest on the process of development and application of AI in ...

Donna Wilson

Lecturer

Dr Peter James

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Peter has acquired methodological knowledge and skills in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method research, systematic reviews, public health, and health service research. To date he has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in reputable journals and four book chapters and has peer-reviewed for over 30 international reputable journals. His research interests include 1) health and health services research among survivors of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, 2) traditional and c

Dr Marilyn Clarke

Academic Advisor & Project Training Lead

Dr Marilyn Clarke is an obstetrician and gynaecologist. She is a Worimi woman from Port Stephens area and has been working on Gumbaynggirr country for the past 20 years. She works part time as part of the iSISTAQUIT project which aims to improve the smoking cessation rate in pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Dr Karen McFadyen

Associate Lecturer

Working with iSISTAQUIT “implementing Supporting Indigenous Smokers To Assist Quitting” - a multi-component intervention to improve health providers’ provision of smoking cessation care to pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Dr Nicole Ryan

Research Fellow

Nicole manages all aspects of the research components of the iSISTAQUIT Scale-Up project, iSISTAQUIT mobile phone App project and SISTAQUIT RCT project. These projects support health services and health professionals through culturally-specific training for the smoking cessation care and healthy pregnancy of women carrying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies.