Dr Anna Palagyi is a health systems scientist with expertise in co-design methodology and implementation studies with mixed-methods evaluation. She holds positions as Program Lead - Ageing & Health Systems in the Centre for Health Systems Science at The George Institute for Global Health and Conjoint Associate Professor at UNSW Sydney.

Anna's research centres on the co-design of effective implementation strategies to strengthen primary health care services in resource-constrained settings of the Asia-Pacific region. She has a particular interest in the development of appropriate health system responses to population ageing: Anna previously implemented a national longitudinal study on aspects of healthy ageing in older Australians with cataract, and currently collaborates with governments, civil society organisations and academic institutions across several Pacific Island countries to identify national healthy ageing policy, program and service priorities.

Anna is committed to evidence-informed health policy and practice. She has a strong track record of partnering with government stakeholders in the design and implementation of policy-relevant research, has co-authored commissioned reports for government bodies and advocacy groups, and has produced policy briefs for government departments.

Sarah is Chief People Officer at The George Institute. She is an established executive People & Culture leader who has broad international experience and a successful track record of over 20 years spent in the corporate, professional and financial services sectors.

Sarah is skilled in articulating purpose and vision and in designing and executing strategies to improve organisational effectiveness. She is passionate about working at the leadership level to transform and realise the potential of an organisation through its people, purpose and vision. 

Recognised as a change agent, Sarah is able to transform team and business performance within HR and across businesses. Her customer-centred approach is combined with a strong commitment to teamwork, integrity and respect.

Sarah holds a BA (Psychology & Social Policy) and Masters of Industrial Relations & HR Management. She is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. 

Dennis Mazingi is a medical doctor and general surgeon with a special interest in paediatric injury prevention, global surgery, and surgically correctable NCDs. He has worked in clinical medicine and surgery in southern Africa for almost a decade and is currently pursuing a DPhil in the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences in the global surgery group.

His work focuses on trauma surveillance and quality improvement in paediatric trauma care in Zimbabwe. He is ably supervised by Professor Kokila Lakhoo and Professor Ashok Handa at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and Professor Godfrey Muguti at the University of Zimbabwe.

Prior to joining The George Institute Dennis obtained his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Malawi, College of Medicine and an MMed (Master’s in Medicine) in General Surgery at the University of Zimbabwe, College of Health Sciences. He holds a first-class degree in International Health and Tropical Medicine (IHTM) from the University of Oxford and is a fellow of the College of Surgeons of South Africa as well as a Beit Trust Scholar.

He has worked in various research collaboratives in the field of global surgery, paediatric surgery, and general surgery. Dennis’s other interests lie in clinical surgery, surgical education, disruptive health technologies, frugal innovations, health systems and implementation research.

Dennis wants to see a healthier, more prosperous, more equitable world through surgical care and research. His mission is to help accelerate progress towards SDG target 3.6: to halve the number of deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2030 in Zimbabwe and globally; and to scale up quality surgical and anaesthesia care to the 5 billion people who need it through 2030 and beyond.

Professor Simone Pettigrew is the Head of Food Policy. She has qualifications in Economics, Marketing, and Consumer Psychology. Her broad areas of expertise include behavioural psychology, health promotion, health policy, communications, social marketing, and intervention research.

Along with nutrition, her substantive areas of research include obesity, physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking, active transport, and healthy ageing. Simone sits on numerous advisory committees and regularly performs research consultancies for NGO and government entities. To date, she has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and produced more than 160 technical reports for NGOs and government departments.

See Professor Pettigrew's full CV here.