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 Anushka Patel is CEO and Director of The George Institute for Global Health and Scientia Professor at UNSW, Sydney.  She is a cardiologist with research interests in the prevention and management of common chronic conditions through large-scale clinical trials and implementation science. 

Anushka undertook her medical training at the University of Queensland, with subsequent postgraduate research degrees from Harvard University and University of Sydney. Anushka is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and is a Director and Trustee of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute.

Preety R Rajbangshi works at the George Institute for Global Health India as a Senior Research Fellow, leading India’s Global Women’s Health Programme. Preety received her master’s degree in Public Health at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Her work involves health systems strengthening to improve primary health care and research-spanning women’s health and well-being over the life course. Her research interest includes understanding social determinants of health for reducing health inequity and generating practice-based evidence and knowledge for action. She has extensive experience working with national and state Ministry of Health in India in different capacities.

Prior to joining The George Institute, Preety was at the Public Health Foundation of India as a Senior Research Associate.

Bronwyn Graham is the Director of the Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine at the George Institute for Global Health, and a Professor in the School of Psychology at UNSW Sydney.

Bronwyn is a behavioural neuroscientist, a clinical psychologist, and a globally recognised expert in women’s mental health. Bronwyn leads an interdisciplinary research team that examines how female-unique factors, like fluctuating sex hormones over the menstrual cycle and pregnancy, impact the development of anxiety and other affective disorders. She employs a bench-to-bedside translational methodology, in which she investigates endocrine regulation of the brain and behaviour in preclinical studies, and then tests the application of these findings in clinical populations. Her work has led to new practice guidelines for treating anxiety disorders in women, and RACGP accredited training programs for mental health care professionals.

Bronwyn has held numerous fellowships, including an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award, a UK-based MQ Fellowship, and an American Australian Association Neurological Fellowship. She is Chief Investigator on multiple Australian Research Council Discovery Projects, and an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence, has published over 75 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and has supervised over 40 honours and postgraduate students. 

Bronwyn serves on the MQ Foundation and Lancet Psychiatry Standing Commission on the COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health, as well as the Editorial Board of multiple journals spanning different disciplines, including Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, and Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. Bronwyn’s awards include a Psychological Science ‘rising star’, a NSW Young Tall Poppy, and the Biological Psychiatry Aubrey Lewis Award. Bronwyn regularly appears in the media (ABC Lateline, Catalyst, and radio), and she disseminates her findings to health professionals and people with mental health conditions through collaborations with organisations including AnxietyUK.

Maree is responsible for designing, leading, and delivering a distinctive and vibrant postgraduate, postdoctoral and future leader research experience at The George. Maree and her team provide management and oversight of ‘higher degree by research’ candidates, their supervisors, visiting fellows and work with the training team to co-ordinate postgraduate research training.

Maree also leads a program of research focusing on developing simple, cost-effective strategies to prevent depression and significantly improve the outcome for people with chronic disease.

Maree works one day per week as a Professor of Epidemiology in the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing at The University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom.

Dr Katie Harris is a Senior Research Fellow in the Professorial Unit at the George Institute for Global Health. Her areas of expertise include Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology, awarded a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Leeds, UK. She also holds a conjoint lecturer at University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Katie has extensive experience working with big data, including population-based, linked and non-linked datasets, and clinical trials data. Her current research interests are in sex and gender differences, cardiovascular disease and hypertension, and dementia and cognitive decline.