Dr Zien Zhou is an NSW Cardiovascular Elite Postdoctoral Researcher. He obtained his MD degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (China) in 2011 and his PhD degree from UNSW Sydney in 2022 (UNSW Scientia Scholarship awardee). Before joining The George Institute, Dr Zhou worked as a radiologist in China for eight years. 

His research focuses on brain imaging analysis in stroke, brain-heart interaction, cerebral small vessel disease, and optimal antithrombotic treatment for cardioembolic stroke prevention. He is now leading a pilot trial funded by NSW Health to explore the value of brain images in atrial fibrillation management.

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 Emily R Atkins is a Senior Research Fellow in Health Systems Science at the George Institute for Global Health and a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney. She has expertise in economic evaluation, cardiovascular trials, and linked data analysis. Dr Atkins' recent focus has been on the health economics of blood pressure lowering medicines. She is interested in affordable and equitable improvements in cardiovascular medicines use globally. Dr Atkins is the health economist leading the economic evaluation of the NEXTGEN-BP randomised trial.

Dr Atkins is an Executive Committee member and Scientific Advisory Committee member of the Australian and New Zealand Alliance for Cardiovascular Trials (2018-present). She was a National Heart Foundation Australia Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2018) and World Heart Federation Emerging Leader (2017) working on blood pressure lowering clinical trials and access and affordability of cardiovascular medicines, including a feasibility study of adherence clubs for hypertension.

Emily completed her PhD (2015) at the University of Western Australia using linked administrative hospital morbidity, deaths, and pharmacy data to investigate the cost-effectiveness of cardiovascular medicines for secondary prevention of atherothrombotic disease.
 

Frances Bass works part-time at The George Institute for Global Health as a Senior Project Manager in the Critical Care Program. She also works at Royal North Shore Hospital as an Intensive Care Clinical Research Manager.

Frances is a Registered Nurse having completed a Bachelor of Nursing, Graduate Certificate in Critical Care, and Masters of Science (Research). She has extensive experience in the management of critical care clinical trials operations including, investigator-initiated, collaborative group and commercially sponsored trials.

Frances sits on a number of scientific management committees. She is Secretary for the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (ACCCN) NSW/ACT Branch Management Committee and a member on the ACCCN Research Advisory Committee. She is also a reviewer and committee member of the Northern Sydney Local Health District, Human Research Ethics Committee.

Gloria Benny is a Research Assistant at The George Institute for Global Health. She holds a Master’s in Development from Azim Premji University, Bangalore and a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Sociology from Christian Medical College, Vellore. Gloria has research interest in various areas like, Tribal health, Health equity, Social Determinants of Health and Health systems research.

Hayley Williams is an Aboriginal researcher with family ties in Tingha and Inverell in north-eastern NSW and connections to Gubbi Gubbi land on the Sunshine Coast of QLD. Over the past 7 years, Hayley has been working in various areas of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research including cancer epidemiology, bronchiectasis, health service continuous quality improvement, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder prevention.

Hayley is currently completing her PhD with the Children’s Burns and Trauma Research team at the University of Queensland and holds post-graduate scholarships from NHMRC and the Children’s Hospital Foundation. Hayley’s PhD project forms part of the Coolamon study at The George Institute and primarily focuses on the use of Indigenous research methodologies to explore the psychological and social implications of burn injuries on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, their caregivers, and their treating clinicians. Hayley is passionate about improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and has a particular interest in emotional traumas and resilient behaviours among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and adolescents.

Helen is Head of Clinical Trial Partnerships for The George Institute Australia and holds an Adjunct Senior Lecturer position at UNSW.

She has more than 25 years of experience working on academic investigator-initiated clinical trials at the Yorkshire Clinical Trials Unit, Clinical Trial Service Unit at the University of Oxford and Imperial College, all in the UK.

Helen joined The George Institute in September 2000 as Senior Project Manager on the landmark ADVANCE trial and post-trial observational ADVANCE-ON study.

Helen has worked on many multicentre clinical trials, and in this role works to strengthen The George Institute’s clinical trial partnerships across Australia.

Helen joined The George Institute’s Injury Division as a research assistant in 2017. With a background in medical science and experience in vision science research, she is currently working on the falls prevention PLatFORM study and the Older Driver’s 4-year Follow-Up Study.

Holger is an epidemiologist in the injury division with expertise in injury epidemiology and the analysis of longitudinally linked health data. His research interests lie in injury epidemiology, health inequalities, translational research and use of linked data to inform policy and decision-making.

Holger’s research works span across a number of different projects in the Injury division, such as risk factors for crashes in young drivers, burn injuries in Aboriginal children, epidemiology of work-related spinal injuries, risk factors for crashes in novice motorcycle riders and models to cost the health benefits of active transport.

Hueiming Liu is a clinician-researcher (BA, MBBS, MIPH, PhD, FAFPHM) and worked as a medical officer before completing her Masters in International public health, and embarking on public health research at George Institute for Global Health (TGI) in 2008 as the program manager of Kanyini Vascular Collaboration (between Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector and academics).  She developed the concept on strengthening health systems using process evaluations (PE) for her PhD funded by a NHMRC scholarship. 

As a post-doctoral research fellow in 2019, Hueiming led the new Process Evaluation stream, in the Centre of Health Systems Science at The George Institute for Global Health, building capacity in implementation science, and facilitating knowledge exchange across collaborative interdisciplinary teams.  This includes provision of technical expertise to > 25 projects, across different fields and countries, 9 workshops on implementation research across countries(~550 attendees), being an invited panel member as an implementation scientist, at the World Heart Federation and Lancet Regional Health Roundtable.  She was an invited editor, for a special collection 'Process Evaluations of Clinical Trials' and was invited by Prof Hirschhorn to co-author a chapter, in Practical Implementation Science, Moving Evidence into Action edited by Weiner, Bryan Jeffrey, Cara C. Lewis, and Kenneth H. Sherr, eds. 2023, an award-winning textbook. She is faculty for the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease advanced implementation science course in 2025, and faculty for the World Heart Federation Emerging Leader program in 2022. She has a career total of 90 peer-reviewed publications, 2 book chapters, is a CI on 12 peer-reviewed grants, totalling > $ 14 million. She has completed supervision of 6 PhD students, and 2 UK Masters students, and is currently supervising 1 PhD student at UNSW, 3 PhD students at University of Sydney. 

She re-entered clinical training in 2020 and was awarded her public health physician RACP fellowship in 2023. During the pandemic years of 2020-2022, she worked parttime as a TGI senior research fellow and parttime in the health system, initially at Sydney Local Health District community paediatrics department, and then at NSW Ministry of Health as a medical advisor in Health protection supporting the roll out of the COVID vaccination program. These additional responsibilities reduced her time and capacity for research outputs, but it has been a privilege for her to serve the community during a challenging time.

Currently, she is Program Lead, Implementation research for health equity at The George Institute for Global Health, Associate Professor at UNSW and Conjoint Senior Lecturer at University of Sydney, and a 2024 Emerging Leader with World Heart Federation. She is a honorary public health physician at Sydney Local Health District, partnering with end-users on implementation and evaluation of culturally-safe intersectoral models of care that address social determinants of health. She is a mother of three and was greatly supported in her career journey as a Franklin woman Mentee, and in 2024 as a Franklin woman Mentor. She is passionate about improving health system resilience, and in strengthening the health and medical research ecosystem to improve health equity.

Ian Seppelt is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Critical Care and Trauma Division of The George Institute. He is a Senior Specialist and Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Intensive Care Medicine at Nepean Hospital in western Sydney with a clinical practice which includes general intensive care medicine and neuroanaesthesia.

He also has clinical appointments with the Sydney Medical School - Nepean, University of Sydney and the Department of Clinical Medicine, Macquarie University. He has been an executive member of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society's Clinical Trials Group and convenes the CTG's Point Prevalence Program and the SuDDICU (Selective Decontamination of the Digestive Tract) programs in collaboration with The George Institute. He is an investigator with the NHMRC CRE in Critical Infection, University of Sydney.

Ian is an examiner for the College of Intensive Care Medicine - Australia and New Zealand and is involved with the teaching of intensive care trainees and the development of young researchers in intensive care medicine. His ongoing interests include clinical trial methodology and research governance in critical care research, knowledge translation of research into clinical practice, trauma management and the role selective gut decontamination in critical illness.

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.