emerging thought leaders

Emerging Thought Leaders

Our Emerging Thought Leaders are early-mid career researchers selected for their passion to improve health and their drive to expand the reach of their research and influence change.

Allison Gaines

Allie Gaines

PhD candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Allie Gaines is a non-communicable disease epidemiologist and a PhD candidate jointly at Imperial College London and The George Institute for Global Health, focusing on food policy and the sustainability of the packaged food supply. She is a member of the Grantham Institute’s Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training programme. Her research primarily involves the use of large population databases connecting climate change information to food supply and nutrition data. Professionally, she has worked in healthcare technology, product design and computer science. Allison is working on ensuring people know that by making small changes in the food supply chain, we can make big differences to the environmental impact of food production.

By making more information available, Allie aims to influence consumers, industry and ultimately policymakers to take progressive steps forward to reduce the environmental impact of packaged foods and beverages and improve health of people and planet.

Amanpreet Kaur

Research Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health

Dr Amanpreet Kaur is a registered clinical psychologist with M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from NIMHANS, Bengaluru. Her areas of focus at The George Institute are reducing stigma related to mental health, improving mental health awareness and care, and development and implementation of psychosocial interventions. Amanpreet’s research interests include mindfulness and mindfulness-integrated psychological interventions, tele-medicine, palliative care, psycho-oncology, caring of carers, and development of intervention and training programs for both clinical and non-clinical populations.

Amanpreet Kaur

Amy Vassallo

Amy Vassallo

Research Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health

Dr Amy Vassallo is a Research Fellow in the Global Women’s Health Program at The George Institute for Global Health. Her research focusses on understanding sex and gender-based blindness and bias within health and medical research and evidence-based solutions, including policy reform, to address these gaps. She is passionate about using innovation and evidence to improve health related outcomes for all.

Ania Anderst

PhD candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Ania Anderst (they/them) is a PhD Candidate at Guuna-maana (Heal) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program. Guided by Dharawal and Bidjigal community members, Ania’s PhD explores meanings of home and desired outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in social housing. They aim to broaden dominant understandings of home and housing so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social housing tenants come closer to what they need in housing and home, to support social and emotional wellbeing. Their research applies Indigenous research methodologies and methods (e.g. yarning) and qualitative research methods (e.g. semi-structured interviews), conducting research at the interface of two worldviews to develop new knowledge (interface methodology). Ania is dedicated to research that reflects the lived experience of people for whom research is for, and apply equity, decolonising approaches and a relational way of working in all aspects of their research.

Ania Anderst

Ankita Mukherjee

Ankita Mukherjee

Qualitative Researcher, The George Institute for Global Health

Dr. Ankita Mukherjee is Qualitative Researcher at The George Institute. She uses qualitative methods to evaluate interventions and improve intervention design. She works across multiple mental health projects including the SMART Mental Health and ARTEMIS cluster RCT, INDIGO and ANUMATI. In her work she regularly interacts with communities, service providers and other stakeholders to understand their perspectives on projects and their implementation. Ankita is interested in using community engagement to develop mental health interventions. Her other interest is in using health policy and systems research to improve access to quality mental health care. She has an M.Phil and PhD in Social Medicine and Community Health.

Anna Campain

Biostatistician, The George Institute for Global Health

Dr Anna Campain is a biostatistician and joined The George Institute in 2018. She works extensively with routinely collected and linked health data. Anna has a special interest in using large and rich data to explore health patterns in high-risk or vulnerable populations. It is important to her that her research has a tangible impact, informing changes in clinical guidelines, health policy and resource management.

Anna Campain

Anthony Paulo Sunjaya

Dr Anthony Sunjaya

PhD candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Dr. Anthony Paulo Sunjaya is a medical doctor originally from Indonesia and currently a final-year Scientia PhD scholar (similar to a University President’s scholarship). His research focuses on the development and implementation of user-centred digital health tools including artificial intelligence to improve outcomes in patients with chronic diseases including chronic breathlessness, asthma, COPD, heart failure, anxiety, diabetes and those with multiples of them (multimorbidity). Dr. Sunjaya’s research expertise includes mixed-methods studies, clinical trials, meta-research, and health economics and outcomes research.

He is Co-Founder of BantingMed, a diabetes care startup, which aims to reduce the burden of diabetes globally supported by UNSW Sydney and The George Institute. He is a keen advocate for greater research translation and partnerships between research, industry, community groups, and government to solve society’s complex challenges.

He is currently Visiting Researcher at Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals (UK), Honorary Research Fellow at Imperial College London, President of the UNSW Postgraduate Council, Board member of Arc@UNSW, and was formerly President of the UNSW ASEAN Society.

Ashish Manwar

Program Manager, George Institute Services

Ashish Manwar is part of the Innovations team at the George Institute Services. His background is in Aeronautical Engineering, Strategy and Living Systems, and he is a Strategic Foresight Fellow with the Association of Professional Futurists. Ashish has over 20 years of corporate and development experience covering innovation, applied research, impact investment and governance effectiveness.

One of Ashish’s interest themes is the cross-impact patterns of mental health related behaviours, mirrored across individual, organizational and systems layers. He is using anticipatory and systems lenses to explore sustainable function and productivity vectors, that may further support agile research, practice and policy investments.

Ashish Manwar

Bincy Mathew

Bincy Mathew

Research Officer, The George Institute for Global Health

Bincy switched to research some years ago – finding it to be creative, intellectual and fulfilling, and a large part of her (her identity). Troubled by questions of the impact (in the short, medium, and long term) of her research on the lives of urban homeless people she works with, she is keen to translate her vision of research by working on/implementing ideas of co-production.

Bindu Patel

Senior Research Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health

Bindu Patel is a Senior Research Fellow with the Health Systems Science division at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia, and Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine at University of New South Wales.

Bindu is interested in contributing to equitable, effective and efficient health service delivery and health promotion strategies which address the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCD) globally. Bindu’s research is focused on use of implementation science theories and frameworks to effective adoption and scale-up of NCD innovations, and collaborative and coordinated multisectoral health policy and action. Bindu’s current research includes a Health in All Policies approach to the NCD problem and evaluation of implementation and scale-up of the WHO Package of Essential NCD interventions in Fiji.

Bindu Patel

Briar McKenzie

Briar McKenzie

Research Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health

Briar is a research fellow and accredited practising dietitian within the food policy division. Briar aims to conduct research that improves diets and reduces the burden of diet related diseases equitably. Briar’s research focuses on two main areas, firstly, supporting the scale-up of food policy interventions in Pacific Island countries and secondly, in exploring the relationship between diet and poor brain health. Across her focus areas, she has a key interest in exploring gender equity considerations.

Chen Chen

PhD Candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Chen Chen's research is focus on stroke management, especially BP management mainly in low-middle-resource settings. She has participated as research fellow and/or clinical research associate in several large scale randomized controlled trials, such as the Intensive Ambulance-delivered Blood Pressure Reduction in Hyper-Acute Stroke Trial(INTERACT4), and the Third, Intensive Care Bundle With Blood Pressure Reduction in Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage Trial (INTERACT3), to improve management strategy of acute stroke in China. Chen Chen is striving to improve people’s perception of clinical trials, to enable more people to think of them as a carefully managed alternative option and get more people involved. Get to know clinical trials with emerging thought leader Chen Chen.

Chen Chen

Carinna Hockham

Carinna Hockham

Research Associate, The George Institute for Global Health

Carinna Hockham is a non-communicable disease epidemiologist with a keen interest in women’s health. Her research primarily involves the use of large population databases and routinely-collected health data to examine sex- and gender-based differences in chronic kidney disease risk factors, health outcomes and clinical management. She also works part-time as the Program Manager for the UK arm of the Global Women’s Health Program at The George Institute.

Dilara Bahceci

Research Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health

Dr Dilara Bahceci, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the George Institute and facilitates the development of innovative clinical trials for mental disorders that investigate low-cost ‘breakthrough therapies’, like ketamine, MDMA and psychedelics. Dilara has a PhD in neuropharmacology and has academic and private-sector experience in the research and clinical development of psychoactive drugs. Dilara is also an innovative and creative science communicator who is passionate about making science accessible to everybody. Dilara believes that psychedelic treatments like ketamine, MDMA and psilocybin are the most exciting breakthrough for the treatment of mental disorders in decades and have the potential to be available at low-cost and is working to support the rigorous scientific evaluation of these promising interventions and help make them affordable and accessible to everyone.

Dilara Bahceci

Faraidoon Haghdoost

Faraidoon Haghdoost

PhD Candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Faraidoon is a medical doctor from Kurdistan, Iran, and a researcher at The George Institute for Global Health. Faraidoon is interested in studying headache disorders, especially migraine disease, contributing to growing awareness of the need for headache-specific research and starting a headache-specific research group based on headache patients’ needs.

Faraidoon is interested in social media and engagement with scientists, healthcare providers and people with headache disorders.

Gloria Benny

Research Assistant, The George Institute for Global Health

Gloria Benny holds a master’s degree in Development and a bachelor’s degree in Medical Sociology. She is developing her expertise in qualitative research. She has over five years of experience working with tribal communities in southern and central India, and with various rural communities in the southern India. Gloria has a strong interest in research topics within the ecosystem of Health systems and Social Participation in Health. Currently her work is focussed on Universal Health Coverage and health equity.

Gloria Benny

Hueiming Liu

Hueiming Liu

Senior Research Fellow, The George Institute for Global

Hueiming is a Senior Research Fellow, leading the process evaluation stream within the Centre for Health Systems Science. Her research focuses on the need for co-design of interventions with end-users, for innovative and efficient methods in theory-driven evaluations, and for an integrated population and health systems approach, to reduce health inequities. She is a conjoint Senior Lecturer, UNSW Sydney, and an Advanced Trainee in Public Health Medicine.

Kenneth Yakubu

Research Assistant and PhD candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Yakubu trained as a family physician in Nigeria. His past research/advocacy efforts have focused on the expression of family medicine within an African context and understanding learning needs of trainees in family medicine. He is a PhD Student at The George Institute and UNSW Sydney. His Thesis will focus on human rights-based approaches for a sustainable global health workforce.

Kenneth Yakubu

Manushi Sharma

Manushi sharma

Research Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health

Manushi Sharma is a public health professional with experience in health economics, health systems and policy research. She has a rich experience of working with developing country governments, think-tanks, and research organisations in the public and private sector. Presently, she is a Research Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health where she manages the Primary Health Care Research Consortium, a global LMIC-led network primary healthcare research network.

Mercian Daniel

Program Manager, The George Institute for Global Health

Mercian Daniel has a M.Phil. in psychiatric social work and a Ph.D. in public health. He has over 15 years of clinical, research, program implementation, and teaching experience working at different global, national, and regional hospitals, institutes, universities, and NGOs. Currently he provides operational leadership on the SMART mental health trial and leads a study (ANUMATI) to enhance resilience among older adolescents living in urban slums.

Mercian Daniel

Pengpeng Ye

Pengpeng Ye

PhD candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Pengpeng Ye graduated from the University of Adelaide, Australia with the degree of Master of Public Health in 2012. He is a third-year PhD candidate at The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW Sydney. His PhD thesis is focusing on the integration of falls prevention service into National Essential Public Health Service Package through epidemiology analysis, policy review, barriers and facilitators’ identification and participatory co-design.

Priya Limbu

Research assistant, The George Institute for Global Health

Priya is an aspiring researcher who believes in empowering the community to improve their health and develop solutions that best fit their needs. She has experience in extensive fieldwork, team building, and management. She is keen on developing leadership quality to engage stakeholders to improve health accessibility in remote settings. She holds a Master’s in Public health from the SRM University, Tamil Nadu.

Priya Limbu

Ruth Freed

Ruth Freed

Head of Academic Project Operations, The George Institute for Global Health

Ruth Freed is the Head of Academic Project Operations at The George Institute. She has a long history working in clinical trials and is the global project manager for a large clinical trial (TRIDENT) in secondary prevention in stroke. Ruth is passionate about raising awareness and understanding of clinical trials in the community to overcome barriers and increase participation.

Sandhya Kanaka Yatirajula

Senior Research Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health

Dr. Yatirajula Kanaka Sandhya or Sandhya for short, holds a PhD in social medicine and community from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has extensive experience of working on women's health and rights and sexual reproductive health and rights of women and adolescent girls from marginalised communities. As part of her work on empowering women and girls, she also engaged with men and boys to promote gender justice. Sandhya currently works as a senior research fellow with The George Institute for Global Health and is based in the Delhi office.

Sandhya Kanaka Yatirajula

Sanne Peters

Sanne Peters

Senior Lecturer, The George Institute for Global Health

Sanne Peters is an Associate Professor at The George Institute for Global Health and Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London. She holds a joint appointment at UMC Utrecht. Her research focuses on sex differences in the aetiology, prevention, and treatment of non-communicable diseases, mainly cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Using large databases, she aims to quantify where those differences exist and to identify the underlying factors.

Sarah Iqbal

Research Manager, The George Institute for Global Health

Sarah Iqbal is a Research Manager at the George Institute for Global Health, India. She has a PhD in Biochemistry from Aligarh Muslim University, India and has worked briefly as a postdoctoral fellow before transitioning into research administration. Using her experience Sarah is working on improving the impact pathway to understand how policies affect research and how research creates impact.
 

Sarah Iqbal

Shangzhi Xiong

Shangzhi Xiong

PhD candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Shangzhi Xiong, aka Benson, is a PhD candidate at The George Institute for Global Health and the UNSW Sydney. Enrolled in 2020 fall, his main research interests include primary health care, non-communicable diseases, and digital health. Besides work, Shangzhi is also a marvellous fan of movies, music, and song-writing.

Siddhardha Devarapalli

Research Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health India

Dr Siddhardha Devarapalli believes that research and teaching experience builds the confidence to influence change for good. Siddhardha trained in Population Studies with a Master of Population Studies from International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai; M.Phil/Ph.D in Population Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University and works in Public health, Epidemiology and Health systems at the Institute of Health Systems, Hyderabad and the George Institute for Global Health, India.

Siddharda Devarapalli

Sikhumbuzo Mabunda

Sikhumbuzo Mabunda

Research Assistant and PhD candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Dr Sikhumbuzo Mabunda is a South African Public Health Medicine specialist, a PhD candidate, and a research assistant at UNSW Sydney and The George Institute for Global Health. His PhD is focused on improving understanding of the design and implementation of training policies to provide better care to underserved populations in selected Southern African countries.

Viola Korczak

PhD Candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Dr Viola Korczak is a Registrar in Emergency Medicine and a PhD candidate in the Health Systems team at The George Institute for Global Health. Her research is informed by her clinical practice and focuses on improving equity in accessing care. Her current research is on understanding patient preferences for emergency care to develop models of care which are more equitable and accessible.

 

Viola Korczak

Xuejun Yin

Xuejun Yin

PhD candidate, The George Institute for Global Health

Xuejun Yin's research has a strong focus on interventions that can have the greatest impact on health outcomes at a population level, and involves both qualitative and quantitative methods. She has participated in large scale cluster random control trials, population implementation studies around salt reduction strategies in low and middle-income countries, and exploratory studies to improve the health system and inform health policies in China.