Dr Schierhout has a lead role in developing a program of work at the institute focused on evaluating interventions of public health significance and large-scale programs in health. Her research work is underpinned by qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods expertise and decades of experience conducting evaluations closely with and for health system stakeholders globally and in many different countries in Africa and Asia-Pacific. She has published widely and is lead or chief investigator on a number of grants and commissioned research projects focused on evaluating innovative policy reforms and programs to improve the access and quality of primary care, particularly for disadvantaged groups.

Dr Tania Thodis is a research fellow and accredited practising dietitian leading the FareShare Medically Tailored Meals Pilot Program, a joint partnership with Australia’s largest not-for-profit food relief organisation providing millions of meals for vulnerable Australians. A ‘Food Is Medicine’ advocate, Tania is passionate about improving access to nutritious foods and diet quality underpinned by a culturally responsive approach to improve health outcomes of vulnerable and ethnically diverse communities. Clinical and mixed method research experience includes acute and outpatient healthcare settings, facilitating dietary intervention trials testing Mediterranean-style diet and lifestyle interventions as a model for preventing and managing chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, NAFLD, dementia and cardiovascular disease and a national trial to co-create and test the clinical and cost-effectiveness of culturally responsive, multilingual digital health resources in 10 languages. 

Tania has a PhD in nutrition epidemiology (MEDIS-Australia study), which examined associations between lifestyle and sociocultural characteristics of first-generation Greek Australian long-term migrants, their adherence to a Mediterranean diet pattern and successful ageing compared to counterparts living in Greece.