Improve health outcomes for women as well as marginalised sex and gender groups
Invest in health in our region
Position Australia as a global leader in medical research
Dr Brett Abbenbroek
Dr Brett Abbenbroek is the Program Manager of Sepsis Australia and the Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance (APSA) in the Critical Care Division at The George Institute.
Brett is a Registered Nurse with extensive critical care clinical, education and management experience. His qualifications include intensive care, health management, a Bachelor of Science and Masters in Public Health. In May 2018 he completed his doctoral studies into the efficiency and effectiveness of organisational models in critical care and the impact on patient and nurse outcomes. Study findings inform the Australasian Health Facility Guidelines for new and redeveloped ICU’s.
Early in his career, Brett worked on several projects within developing nations including Nepal, Vanuatu and China to establish cardiac surgical and critical care programs. Concurrently, Brett gained experience in a range of health policy, planning, project management, digital health and clinical safety advisory roles. As the State-wide Coordinator for Critical Care Service Planning (NSW) across ICU, ED and medical retrieval services he worked closely with clinicians to enhance the development, integration and delivery of critical care services. This led to a successful Treasury bid for funding to build and implement the electronic Record for Intensive Care (NSW) for which Brett was the Program Manager for Change and Adoption. A health service planning and management consultancy business followed leading to project management roles within the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care on a series of national eHealth clinical safety programs, electronic medication safety and the development of evidence-based national clinical care standards. This experience was integral to the development and launch of the national Sepsis Clinical Care Standard in June 2022 which places Australia at the forefront globally towards achieving a systems-based approach for improving outcomes and reducing the burden of sepsis.
Briar McKenzie
Briar is a National Heart Foundation of Australia Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Accredited Practicing Dietitian within the Food Policy Division and the Professorial Unit at The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney. She is also a conjoint lecturer with UNSW. Her work is currently focused on two main areas: firstly, investigating the relationship between diet and poor brain health in Australia, and secondly, scaling-up of food policy interventions in Pacific Island Countries.
Briar was awarded her PhD in March 2022. Her PhD focused on investigating the relationship of sex and gender with the diet-related burden of cardiometabolic diseases. She used both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate this topic. Throughout her PhD she worked as a research associate for the WHO Collaborating Center on Population Salt Reduction, at The George Institute.
Briar holds an undergraduate degree in Nutritional Science (BSc) and a Master’s of Dietetics (MDiet) from the University of Otago, New Zealand.
Camila Kairuz
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.
Candice Delcourt
Dr Candice Delcourt is a clinician researcher. She holds an NHMRC Investigator Grant, Synergy Grant and MRFF funding. She is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Neurology Program at The George Institute.
She is a Clinical Associate Professor at Macquarie University and a Conjoint Senior Lecture at The University of New South Wales. She is a practicing neurologist in Sydney and in rural outreach locations. Her research interests are stroke, health systems, clinical trials and epidemiology.
Dr Carinna Hockham
Carinna Hockham is a postdoctoral Research Associate in the Global Women’s Health Program at The George Institute for Global Health, Imperial College London.
She has an MSc in Control of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a DPhil in Epidemiology from the University of Oxford. Her current research primarily involves the use of large population databases, together with linked routinely-collected health data, to examine sex- and gender-based differences in risk factors for chronic kidney disease and multimorbidity, as well as associated health outcomes and health service use. In addition, Carinna has worked on multiple randomised controlled trials involving novel adaptive methodology (e.g. BEAT-Calci and CLARITY) and was an inaugural Fellow of the Innovative Trials Development Group at the Institute.
Carlyn Quek
As a Research Strategy & Services Advisor, Carlyn manages the administration of a range of funding, from the initial process of application through to post-award management.
In her role as Quality Assurance Coordinator, she is involved in the implementation of academic risk management processes.
Carlyn joined The George Institute in 2011. She has a PhD in Infectious Diseases & Immunology and additional Commercialisation training through the Graduate Certificate in Innovation & Enterprise program through The University of Sydney.
Catherine Brenner
Catherine Brenner is a Non-Executive Director of Scentre Group (Westfield), Djerriwarrh Investments, Carindale Property Trust and Schools Plus, and Chair of Australian Payments Plus. She is also a Panel Member of Adara Partners.
Catherine was previously Managing Director at ABN AMRO Australia & New Zealand (formerly BZW). She is the former Chair of AMP and served on the boards of Catherine was previously Managing Director at ABN AMRO Australia & New Zealand (formerly BZW). She is the former Chair of AMP and served on the boards of Coca-Cola Amatil, Boral, Sydney Opera House and the Art Gallery of NSW.
Catherine joined the Board in August 2019 and is Chair of the Audit Committee and Member of the Risk Committee.
Catherine Ho
Catherine is a Associate Project Manager working in the Injury Division at The George Institute for Global Health. Catherine has been working within the Injury space since 2014. With a background in Health and Health Promotion, her expertise lies within child safety, particularly, child passenger safety in vehicles.
Her main roles are in project delivery and management. Catherine has extensive experience preparing ethics applications for committee reviews, recruiting participants for projects, developing databases to meet project needs, collecting data from research participants, managing research and participant data to ensure compliance, drafting reports to stakeholders and manuscripts for publication. She recently completed data collection for a randomised controlled trial involving 427 participants. Catherine conducted home visits to assess correctness of car seat installation 6-months after parents/families received an intervention developed by the research team.
Previously, Catherine has conducted qualitative interviews with parents and families from culturally and linguistically diverse communities to identify user needs in child restraint safety information. Similarly, she has been involved in focus group work with motorcyclists to investigate rider needs in protective clothing. Aside from conducting fieldwork, she has also been involved in numerous laboratory-based studies focusing on improving usability of child restraints and improving the comprehension and delivery of child restraint safety information.