Damian Maganja is a Research Fellow in the Food Policy Division. His work looks at policies and processes to improve the healthiness of food environments, with a focus on better regulation and governance of harmful products and industries.

Damian joined the academic sector after working in health policy and programs with various government and non-government organisations. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Medicine) from the University of New South Wales and a Master of International Public Health and a Bachelor of Economics and Social Sciences (Political Economy), both from the University of Sydney.

Purnima is a Research Officer at The George Institute for Global Health, currently working on the TReAT Trial project for devising effective exercise regimen and education materials for patients after knee replacement—a project to develop the m-health intervention for monitoring the rehabilitation phase of patients who underwent total knee replacement surgery.

She holds a master’s degree in Physiotherapy (MPT) with a speciality in Musculoskeletal Sciences from the Apex Rehabilitation Institute, All India Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mumbai, and has over seven years of clinical experience in rehabilitation. She has worked at District Hospital Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

She is keen to learn, develop and implement evidence-based clinical practise in rehabilitation.

Ty Madden is a proud Gadigal man from the Eora Nation of the Sydney metropolitan area. Ty works on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at The George Institute for Global Health. With over a decade working on Aboriginal research projects across NSW, Ty brings valuable community engagement experience to his research.

Over the last 15 years he has gained extensive knowledge and experience working within several Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in NSW including Education, Health, Children, Family and Community Services and the Public Service sector at both State and Commonwealth levels. Ty has also been involved in research projects with the University of NSW and has worked on projects such as the Buckle Up Safely - Safe travel for Aboriginal children project. He applies Indigenous Research Methods to improve health outcomes by working in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.

Ty sees community engagement as essential and rewarding and as a key to build strong relationships for the research undertaken at The George Institute. His role focuses on bridging the gaps between community awareness and healthcare to inform on policy and care models for better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Camila is a General Practitioner from Colombia with experience in primary health and community care. Camila’s research focus has been on cultural safety and cultural safety training for medical students. More recently, she has developed a special interest in the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Her research focuses on addressing health inequalities and the impact of colonisation and intergenerational trauma on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She completed a master’s degree in Public Health and joined the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at the George Institute for Global Health in 2021. Currently, Camila is involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of diverse research projects that work at the knowledge interface to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes from diverse settings including medical education, healthcare, and community settings. 

Bianca Barnier identifies as a Gumbaynggir woman and is a Project Manager within the Guunu-maana (Heal) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program. Bianca has extensive experience in project management, reporting and finance, as well as community engagement.

Bianca coordinates and monitors projects from start to completion and is committed to ensuring that all projects developed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are underpinned by equity, transparency and self-determination. Bianca is a proud mother of two and an active member of her community.

Inayat Singh Kakar is a qualitative researcher and public health practitioner with an inter-disciplinary background. She holds a bachelor's degree in Law and a Master of Social Degree in Public Health. She has worked previously on research projects involving communities and advocacy with the government on maternal health, rights of childbearing women, patients’ rights, regulation of the private healthcare sector, non-communicable diseases and access to healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research interests include maternal health, health systems governance, and social and political determinants of health. She is a member of rights-based people's groups and alliances in India such as the People's Health Movement India and the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood India.

Lindsay Complin is Global Director for Communications and Marketing at The George Institute for Global Health where she leads a programme to protect and promote the organisation’s global reputation encompassing media relations, social media, website content, marketing and internal communications.

Lindsay has spent her career working in journalism and in PR and communications.  Prior to joining The George Institute in August 2022, she worked for seven years for the British Heart Foundation as Director of Corporate Affairs.

Lindsay is an accredited EMCC coach and has an OCM Diploma in Coaching Supervision.

Dr Eden Barrett is a public health nutrition researcher, academic and dietitian with expertise in nutrition, dietetics and food policy. She is a Senior Research Fellow in the Food Policy division at The George Institute for Global Health, a Conjoint Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, and holds a co-appointment at the Food is Medicine Institute and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Boston.

Dr Barrett leads a global research program that uses large-scale food composition data to evaluate the nutritional quality and sustainability of the global food supply. Her work advances the development and evaluation of evidence-based tools and policies, including nutrient profiling systems and front-of-pack labelling strategies, aimed at supporting healthier diets and reducing diet-related disease risk across diverse populations.

She has presented her research at major international conferences and received significant funding and awards, including support from the National Heart Foundation of Australia. In addition to her research, Dr Barrett contributes to academic leadership through active involvement in several national and international committees. Within her institutions, she founded the CRE Human and Planetary Health Early- and Mid-Career Researcher Group at The George Institute and serves on the UNSW School of Health Sciences Research Committee.

Yakubu is a Research Fellow with the Guunu-maana (Heal) Aboriginal & Torres Strait Research Program and the Health Systems’ Program on Implementation for Health Equity. He also co-leads The George Institute’s Ubuntu Initiative for Partnerships in Africa.

The Guunu-maana (Heal) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at The George Institute drives meaningful and ethical research and advocacy to transform the health and wellbeing of First Nations peoples and communities. The George Institute’s Health System’s Program on Implementation for Health Equity aims to enhance health and social outcomes in underserved communities by improving knowledge of research methodologies that address health equity through implementation research and embedding process evaluations within applied research. Through the Ubuntu Initiative, The George Institute seeks to expand the scope of its research engagement with researchers and institutions on the Africa continent in a culturally safe, people-centred and sustainable way.

Yakubu’s research interests includes understanding and improving governance at the intersection of health and social systems, improving the health of multi-cultural communities, conducting and evaluating complex interventions aimed at promoting health equity. 

Yakubu is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians as well as the Nigerian Postgraduate Medical College in Family Medicine. In addition to his clinical training, he earned an MPhil (Family Medicine) from Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa, and an MBA (Health Units Management) from the Cyprus Institute of Marketing. While in Nigeria, his research and professional efforts were focused on understanding and improving the learning experiences of undergraduate and graduate trainees in family medicine, as well as identifying family-centred approaches to improving health service delivery. 

He completed his PhD at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine and Health in Sydney and his PhD Thesis investigated global and domestic governance systems for skilled health worker migration, the extent to which they feature human rights norms, and the opportunities for achieving equitable global health workforce distribution. 

Faraidoon is a medical doctor from Kurdistan, Iran, a research fellow in headache disorders at The George Institute for Global Health, and a conjoint lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He 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. He received his medical degree from the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in Iran and his PhD from the University of New South Wales. Faraidoon is passionate about engaging with scientists, healthcare providers, and people with headache disorders through social media and other communication platforms.

Visit Faraidoon's website.

Professor Ruth Peters completed her PhD and NIHR Post-doctoral Fellowship at Imperial College London before relocating to Australia in 2018. Dr Peters' research combines clinical trials, evidence synthesis, and epidemiology to understand and treat risk factors for dementia and frailty. Her work has influenced WHO and national and international clinical practice guidelines, is used by health advocacy bodies and is regularly featured in the media, for example, Study finds evidence lowering blood pressure later in life can cut dementia risk

Prof Peters has been awarded >$10 million in research funding, is widely cited and is regularly invited to talk at conferences and scientific meetings. She has a particular passion for the two areas that show the most potential for helping healthy brain ageing, multidomain risk reduction and the treatment of Hypertension.

In multidomain risk reduction, Prof Peters is leading the first large multisite trial to test intergenerational practice, a novel multidomain intervention bringing older adults and preschool children together, combining physical activity, cognitive and social engagement to reduce cognitive decline and frailty and co-designed with community members.

In Hypertension, Dr Peters is currently leading an exciting new research stream at The George Institute for Global Health, including innovative clinical trial and evidence synthesis projects in blood pressure lowering, dementia and frailty and has an established international reputation since her early PhD work as cognitive function lead for the award-winning multinational Hypertension in the Very Elderly Trial (HYVET, HYVET -COG).