Anthony Sunjaya is a medical doctor from Indonesia and Honorary Fellow at the Respiratory and Health Systems Division, The George Institute for Global Health, UNSW Sydney, Australia. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London and a Visiting Researcher at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals.

His research focuses on cardiorespiratory diseases, complex chronic diseases, primary care, and digital health especially the development, validation and translation of decision support systems, AI, and virtual care. He has a special interest in supporting universal health coverage, improving care, especially in low-resource settings and primary care through the use of innovative evidence-based solutions.

He is Chief Investigator of the Breathlessness Rapid Evaluation and THErapy (BREATHE) trial funded by the Australian Government Medical Research Future Fund to optimise the assessment and management of chronic breathlessness in primary care through implementation of a clinical decision support system for breathlessness across 40 GP practices in Australia building upon work during his PhD which was supported by the UNSW Scientia PhD program.

He is currently Chair, Primary Care SIG, Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ); Chair, Membership Committee, Society of Medical Decision Making (SMDM); Vice-Chair of the Digital Transformation Leadership working group in the International Society for Telemedicine and e-Health (ISfTeH), and Editorial Advisory Board member of the Annals of Family Medicine. He is also an active social entrepreneur and co-founder of BantingMed, a diabetes digital health startup.

He was previously President of Postgraduate Council UNSW and ASEAN Society UNSW, a delegate to the 2023 Group of 7 Youth Summit in Japan and has contributed to reports for the World Health Organization and Asthma Australia.

Sandhya received her doctoral degree in Social Medicine and Community Health from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her work with The George Institute's mental health programme involves assessing the effectiveness of technology-enabled delivery of mental health care by primary healthcare workers for depression, suicide and stress among adolescents in urban slum communities in Delhi and Vijayawada.

Her research interest includes developing a gendered understanding and analysis of mental health issues in India. Prior to joining The George Institute, Sandhya was at SAHAYOG as the Assistant Coordinator. 

Srilatha is a trained Public Health professional with specialization in Social Epidemiology from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She has experience working at various levels of health system programs for more than 6 years.

At George, she is working with the Mental Health team for project Adolescents’ Resilience and Treatment for Mental health in Indian Slums (ARTEMIS). Prior to this she was working in Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi as a Senior Research Assistant.

Her interest areas are implementing public health projects at the grass root level, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building trainings. She has good experience working in thematic areas like Non-communicable Diseases, Reproductive and Child Health.

Tina leads The George Institute Australia’s media efforts but also oversees and coordinates The Institute’s Sydney events, internal communications, and digital outreach - all critical to achieving the organisation’s Strategy 2025 goals.  

She has over twenty years’ experience in diverse marketing communications roles across pharmaceutical, FMCG and not-for-profit sectors both in Australia and overseas.

Prior to joining The Institute in 2019, Tina held a variety of Sydney-based senior communications and media roles, including as Media and Communications Manager at the National Heart Foundation and as Senior Global Marketing Communications Manager at Cochlear, Ltd.

She holds a BSC (Hons) in Physiology and Biochemistry with Nutrition and a Masters degree in Human Nutrition.

Chhavi Bhandari is Co-Director, Impact & Engagement at The George Institute for Global Health, where she leads a global programme of advocacy and stakeholder engagement to maximise the impact of our health and medical research. Her work focuses on multilateral partnerships and advancing community engagement and involvement.  She also serves as Community Engagement and Involvement Lead for the NIHR Global Health Research Centre on NCDs and Environmental Change, co-chairs the WHO NCD Lab on Women and Girls, and contributes to global health policy through WHO civil society groups. With an MBA and international healthcare experience across India, the UK, Australia, and beyond, Chhavi brings a globally informed yet locally grounded approach to advancing equitable health systems.

Jaison Joseph is a Research Fellow at the George Institute, working in Health Systems and Equity unit, in a project "Assessing Equity of Universal Health Coverage in India: From Data to Decision-Making Using Mixed Methods". Jaison received his master’s degree in social work at the Mahatma Gandhi University Kerala. His work involves health systems strengthening to improve access to health care.

His research interest includes understanding the coverage and access to public health systems through a gender lens and generating practice-based evidence and knowledge for action. He has extensive experience working with national and state Ministry of Health in India in different capacities. Prior to joining The George Institute, Jaison was at the PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt Ltd providing technical support to National Health Authority as product manager of Central Grievance Redressal Management System of Pradhan Mantri- Jan Arogya Yojana

Madhuri is the Head of Strategic Partnerships and Commissioned Research at The George Institute for Global Health India and leads research management and capacity building initiatives. She is an India Research Management Initiative (IRMI) Fellow, supported by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance. Madhuri is part of the global CORE unit and works with colleagues from other regional offices of the institute.

She has a PhD in life science and a decade of research management experience from her previous positions at the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, Public Health Foundation of India and Indian Institute of Health Management Research. She has contributed to several courses, workshops and training programmes in research skills, for early career researchers. Madhuri is interested in creating institutional processes that facilitate quality research and an enabling research environment.

Elizabeth Bourke identifies as a Gamilaraay Women and is a Research Associate in the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Program at The George Institute for Global Health. Elizabeth’s experiences include working in Children’s Services and as a Case Worker at Family & Community Services and working with young Aboriginal people and families in the Central Coast community. She is dedicated to improving the health inequalities of First Nations People and communities.

Elizabeth conducts her research using Indigenous methodologies (ways of knowing, being and doing) and understands the importance of being in community and working with community. Elizabeth contribution to research includes working on the Liaison Grant, The Ironbark project, The Safe Pathways project and the NOTACS Sub-study project. Elizabeth is on several committees at The George including the Health Wellbeing Committee.

Dr Jessica Gong is an honorary Senior Fellow in the Women’s Health Program at The George Institute for Global Health, UK, in partnership with Imperial College London. She is also a Research Fellow in data science and epidemiology at University College London.

Jessica completed her PhD at The George Institute for Global Health, focusing on understanding the sex differences in dementia and cognitive decline. After the completion of her PhD, Jessica continues her research in characterising the molecular signatures of the exposome, including environmental, social, and biomedical factors, to better understand the mechanisms involved in dementia and brain-related outcomes, using high-dimensional and large-scale datasets. Jessica’s broad research interests include brain health, equity in health data, omics, and causal inference.

Jessica has previously worked as a data consultant for the World Health Organization during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Western Pacific region. Jessica also worked on research projects in brain health, neuroscience, and health equity at various research institutes around the world, including the Karolinska Institutet, Columbia University, World Health Organization Europe, and the University of Melbourne. Jessica has an MSc in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a BSc in neuroscience from the University of Melbourne

Dr Sultana Shajahan is a Research Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney. After completing her medical degree in Bangladesh, she earned a Master of Public Health (Research) degree with High Distinction at Macquarie University, Sydney. She then pursued a PhD at The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW, which was awarded in 2026. Her doctoral research focused on high-level evidence synthesis and advanced analyses of large international datasets (including  ADVANCE, PROGRESS, and SCAPIS) to investigate the associations of a wide range of clinically important blood pressure measures with cognitive decline and dementia. For her PhD research, she was awarded the Young Investigator Award at the European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC) in 2023. She has also worked several years at The George Institute, leading projects in stroke, women’s health and sex differences. Her research interests lie in systematic reviews, meta-analyses, clinical trials, stroke, vascular dementia and cognition, and women’s health.

Beyond her PhD, Dr Shajahan undertook a  three-month international research exchange program at Linköping University, Sweden, funded by The Swedish National School for Research in General Practice. She was also a Site Physician in the recently completed RECALL-Pilot trial, which tested an online intervention to reduce dementia risk through blood pressure management. 

Justin joined The George Institute in 2020 as Chief Financial Officer, bringing with him over 25 years of international pharmaceutical experience in both a commercial and financial capacity.  His areas of expertise span investor relations, finance, strategic planning, M&A, corporate governance and marketing. 

Prior to The George Institute, Justin was the CEO of First Pharma, a boutique privately backed pharmaceutical company.  Before this, he held several senior executive positions at AstraZeneca both in Singapore and Australia.  This included the role of Area Finance Director – Asia, Sales & Marketing Director – Australia, and Chief Financial Officer of Australia.

Justin is a member of ASCPA and holds a Commerce degree from Macquarie University.  He has also undertaken various post graduate leadership programmes at the London Business School, INSEAD and most recently MIT.

A/Prof Laura Downey leads The George Institute’s global program for Universal Health Coverage (UHC). She is a conjoint Associate Professor in health economics and policy in the School of Population Health at UNSW, and an Advanced Research Fellow in the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, UK.

Dr Downey's research is focused broadly on evaluating health system performance in relation to UHC goals, and developing innovative solutions to support equitable access to high quality, affordable care for the world's most at-risk populations. She is a passionate advocate for health equity, and in particular gender equity, where she uses data to champion greater visibility of women's health issues and more inclusive and participatory evidence to policy processes. She is a Senior Investigator and the Capacity Strengthening co-lead of a £10million NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Non-Communicable Diseases and Environmental Change, where her research focuses on community-driven multisectoral intervention design, delivery, and evaluation to strengthen health systems to protect populations in India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh from environmental issues such as extreme heat and air pollution. She is an active invited advisor to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and currently a member of the WHO advisory group for the use of Glucagon-like Peptide Receptor Agonists (GLP1-RAs) for the management of obesity. She was an invited expert member of the Health Economics advisory group to the UK Infected Blood Inquiry (2020-2024), whose work directly informed recommendations made by the Inquiry Chair to the UK Government on behalf of the tens of thousands of individuals who were infected with HIV and Hepatitis A, B, and C by the National Health Service. She was an advisor to the Indian federal government between 2015 -2019 to support the establishment of a core Health Technology Assessment (HTA) function within the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and remains an active advisor to the Indian Institute of Public Health, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and numerous State governments across India.

Dr Downey has active research collaborators across Asia, Africa, and Europe and has worked in partnership with global institutions such as the World Health Organisation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank. She has held previous positions with the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) UK, the Centre for Global Development Europe, and University College London.