Meet the team

Professor Susan Morton officially joined UTS as the Director of INSIGHT in early February 2023. She brings internationally recognised expertise in transdisciplinary life course research and over a decade of experience establishing and successfully leading a cross-faculty health research Centre at the University of Auckland in NZ to this Director role.

At the UoA she designed and led the multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional team of researchers who established the contemporary longitudinal study of child and family wellbeing (Growing Up in New Zealand - GUiNZ) from its inception.

Professor Morton is a Public Health Physician and life course Epidemiologist who has been working across traditional research boundaries for almost two decades to undertake health and wellbeing research. These efforts are driven by an explicit aim of providing robust scientific evidence to inform strategies and policies at national and international levels to improve population health and to reduce inequities in health outcomes within and across populations.

She has a successful track record of establishing meaningful partnerships with cross-sectoral policy agencies and technical experts, as well as with diverse communities to ensure research she leads is context relevant, translatable and impactful.

Professor Morton has established collaborative research partnerships nationally and internationally across her career to date. These include ongoing research partnerships with New Zealand researchers at The University of Auckland, University of Waikato, Victoria University of Wellington, Massey and Otago Universities. In Australia she has ongoing research collaborations with the University of Melbourne (including the Melbourne Children’s Research Institute, La Trobe University, and ANU). She also regularly works alongside researchers at the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFs, Melbourne) who run the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. In the Asia Pacific region, she currently collaborates with researchers at Central University Hong Kong (CUHK) and at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She is undertaking comparative cohort research in the Pacific region (Samoa and Cook Islands) with researchers from Yale University and has worked with life course researchers at Harvard in Women’s life course health over the past decade. She has strong ongoing linkages with research partners at University College London (Institute of Child Health and CLOSER), as well as at the ESRC and LSHTM in London. Cross-cohort collaborations have been ongoing with teams involved in existing and developing cohort studies (Millennium Cohort, Growing Up in Ireland and Growing Up in Scotland).

She is currently the Chair of the International Advisory Board for the development Phase of the new Early Life Birth Cohort in the UK and an international scientific advisor for several ongoing UK longitudinal studies. She is connected to life course researchers throughout Europe, including at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol and the MRC Unit at the University of Southampton. She has established linkages with life course researchers at the Centre for Health Equity at the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University.

Prof Morton is engaged in longitudinal and life course research internationally as current President of the international Society for Life course and Longitudinal Studies and in her continuing Foundation Director role for GUiNZ. Strong partnerships have been developed with cohort studies and life course researchers across Australia, North America, the United Kingdom and Europe.

Romana Pylypchuk is an epidemiologist and a biostatistician with significant experience in prognostic research and longitudinal studies of chronic health conditions using routinely collected patient data.

Before joining INSIGHT, Romana has worked at the University of Auckland, in a large, multidisciplinary programme established to provide guideline-based clinical decision support for assessment and management of cardiovascular risk in general practice. Romana’s doctoral project focused on building New Zealand-specific models which can be used to estimate a patient’s five-year risk of developing a CVD. These CVD risk prediction models were subsequently endorsed by the New Zealand Ministry of Health, implemented in primary care, and are currently used to risk assess New Zealand patients.

Romana holds a Master of Public Health (Maastricht University), a Master of Science in Epidemiology (Maastricht University), and a PhD in Population Health (University of Auckland).
 

Shanelle Sorbello is a health researcher with a range of experience in healthcare improvement for multimorbidity in an Australian context, care pathway development and health services evaluation. 

She holds a Bachelor of Medical Science from the University of Sydney, a Doctor of Philosophy, and Masters of Orthoptics from UTS, where she was awarded the 2017 Lance-Jolly Prize for the highest average GPA in her cohort. 

Shanelle’s doctorate focused on post-stroke vision care and the development of a framework for improved, standardised, vision assessment and management of stroke patients in NSW. She was previously Research Project Manager for the Australian Eye and Ear Health Survey and has taught into the Masters of Orthoptics course at UTS as well as worked as a clinical Orthoptist for several years.

Mikaela Tracy is a researcher and clinical psychologist with a broad range of experience in health research across a number of universities and in public and private healthcare settings.

Prior to joining INSIGHT, Mikaela coordinated the translational research program at Uspace, St Vincent’s Private Hospital, with a focus on developing and researching innovative, digital mental health interventions and models of service delivery for young adults receiving inpatient psychiatric care.

Mikaela holds a Bachelor of Psychological Science with Honours from the University of Wollongong, a Master of Clinical Psychology from the University of Technology Sydney, and a Doctor of Philosophy from The University of Sydney.

Mikaela’s doctoral research focused on improving the way that mental disorders, particularly Personality Disorders, are diagnosed in the DSM and ICD.

Jane Hutchens is a postdoctoral research associate with a broad clinical, education, research and management background. 

Her work has focused on women's health, gender in healthcare, patient experiences, and public health. 

Her PhD was on the experiences and needs of women with cardiac disease in pregnancy and the first year postpartum.

Leona Tan is a postdoctoral researcher with over a decade of research and strategic consulting experience within multidisciplinary teams, across academia and industry. Prior to joining INSIGHT in 2024, she was a workplace mental health researcher based at the Black Dog Institute, with a focus on workplace prevention initiatives to support the mental health of first responders and healthcare workers. As part of her PhD, she led the world's first workplace tactical resilience training program to prevent the development of post-traumatic stress disorder in active duty first responders across multiple first responder organisations in Colorado, USA. She has also led the design and development of a multi-site, organisation-wide, job control intervention as part of the Thriving in Health (WorkSafe Victoria) project to improve the autonomy and wellbeing of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her research excellence has been recognised by numerous competitive awards including the 2021 John Raftery Early Career Award for Research in Traumatic Stress, the 2021 Ray Ball Prize for Most Outstanding Paper, and the 2020 Society for Mental Health Research Team Awards for Impactful Mental Health Research. Her research has influenced organisational policies within local and international first responders organisations as well as the World Health Organization in their development of guidelines for high-risk industry groups.

Professor Rosalie Viney is a Professor of Health Economics and Director of the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation. Her research interests include consumer and provider preferences, economic evaluation, discrete choice experiments, health technology assessment and cancer. 

Find out more about the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation.
 

Professor Meera Agar is a palliative medicine physician and Director of the Centre for Improving Palliative, Aged and Chronic Care through Clinical Research and Translation. She has particular interests in delirium, supportive care needs of people with brain tumours and geriatric oncology. 

Find out more about Improving Palliative, Aged and Chronic Care through Clinical Research and Translation. 
 

Professor David Brown is a Professor of Management Accounting and Co-Director of the UTS Ageing Research Collaborative. His research, teaching and external engagement is primarily focused on how to design and use management and accounting systems to address behavioural, decision making and coordination problems in organisations, and determinants of performance.  

Find out more about the Ageing Research Collaborative. 

Professor Deborah Parker is a Professor of Aged Care (Dementia) and Co-Director of the UTS Ageing Research Collaborative. Her primary areas of research are palliative care for older people, dementia and health services evaluation in aged care. 

Find out more about the Ageing Research Collaborative. 

Professor Jason Prior is a Professor of Planning, Health and Environment at the Institute for Sustainable Futures and Co-Convenor of the Climate Change & Health Research Collaborative. Jason's research program focuses on the environment, planning, and human and planetary health. 

Find out more about the Climate Change & Health Research Collaborative. 

Dr Tracy Levett-Jones is a Distinguished Professor and Professor of Nursing Education in the School of Nursing & Midwifery, and Co-Convenor of the Climate Change & Health Research Collaborative.  

Tracy's research program focuses on planetary health, empathy and patient safety.

Find out more about the Climate Change & Health Research Collaborative. 

Professor Sally Inglis is a research leader and Co-Convenor of the Digital, Virtual and AI in Health Collaborative. She is an expert in nurse-led and remotely delivered models of cardiovascular care, telehealth, telemonitoring, and digital patient education. 

Find out more about the Digital, Virtual and AI in Health Collaborative. 
 

Professor Daniel Catchpoole is an expert with over 20 years of lab-based research experience in the area of childhood cancer research, tissue pathology, genomics and cell biology, and Co-Convenor of the Digital, Virtual and AI in Health Collaborative.

Find out more about the Digital, Virtual and AI in Health Collaborative. 

Associate Professor Jane Frawley is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Co-Convenor of the Women & Children’s Health Research Collaborative.

Find out more about the Women & Children’s Health Research Collaborative. 

Professor Debra Anderson has an extensive record of providing leadership in major administrative, research and managerial roles in global women’s health. She is Dean of the Faculty of Health.

Find out more about the Women & Children’s Health Research Collaborative. 

Professor Angela Dawson is a public health social scientist with expertise in maternal and reproductive health service delivery to priority populations in Australia and low and lower-middle-income countries. She is Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Health.

Find out more about the Women & Children’s Health Research Collaborative. 

Professor Kathleen Baird researches in the area of family and domestic violence, including the effect of other social factors of vulnerability, and research with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities. She is Head of School, Nursing and Midwifery.

Find out more about the Women & Children’s Health Research Collaborative. 

Associate Professor Michelle DiGiacomo is a researcher exploring the interface of health and social services and carers, and the unpaid family or friends who are an integral part of care.

Find out more about the Women & Children’s Health Research Collaborative. 

Professor Jennifer Fenwick has built a reputation as a national and international researcher in women’s experiences of mothering in the nursery and women’s expectations for labour and birth. Today Professor Fenwick’s focus is very much about translating the evidence into practice. She is Head of Discipline, Midwifery.

Find out more about the Women & Children’s Health Research Collaborative. 

Professor Andrew Hayen is Professor of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health. He provides expertise in biostatistics to researchers across INSIGHT in clinical and public health research.

Find out more about INSIGHT's approach to Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Data Science.

Dr Kris Rogers is a biostatistician with over 17 years of experience in health and medical research. He provides expertise in biostatistics to researchers across INSIGHT in clinical and public health research.

Find out more about INSIGHT's approach to Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Data Science.

Natalie O'Brien is an experienced for-purpose leader with over a decade of social change experience. Her general management skills allow her to confidently lead personnel and exercise sound judgement across a broad range of functions. 

She was previously Chief of Staff at advocacy organisation GetUp and has held positions with NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Barack Obama presidential campaign. 

Natalie is passionate about excellence and impact in the for-purpose sector, and brings a strong track record of delivering outcomes in organisational strategy, advocacy and campaigns, digital, fundraising, strategic communications, governance and compliance. 

She holds a Bachelor of International Studies with First Class Honours and Graduate Certificate in Social Impact from the University of New South Wales.

Karyn is a leader with extensive experience and relationships within the university sector, funding bodies, research institutes, consulting services and commercial health sector. She also has vast experience of working in start-ups and large enterprises as well as leading and developing multidisciplinary cross-functional teams.

For the past five years Karyn has provided consulting services to clients such as the Snow Foundation, Black Dog Institute, University of South Australia’s Cancer Research Centre, Garvan Medical Research Institute, NSW Health and Landcom. 

Prior to this, Karyn has held the roles of (but not limited to) Chief Operating Officer (COO) of SPHERE Maridulu Budyari Gumal, COO of Northern Sydney Local Health District, and Research & Development Manager at Sydney Children’s Hospital Network after starting her career working in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods sector.

During Karyn’s career she has been able to sharpen her organisational, development, strategy, and collaborative leadership/stakeholder relationship skills, and use this to facilitate new connections across a range of industries and research partners.  She is a co-founder of a Biotech for which she secured inkind professional services at the early stages and she is skilled at reframing academic grant applications into patient centred research programs and secure other types of funding.  Karyn is looking to use her knowledge, international experience and innovative approaches to help INSIGHT drive long-term systemic impacts across the Health/Education sectors.

Vanessa has extensive experience in finance, systems, and operational design. Her recent roles include managing and leadership within small and large teams for CHERE and the Climate Change Cluster at UTS by creating and maintaining efficiencies in processes, in implementing and developing initiatives, in fiscal budget and resource management, in external engagement to broaden networks, and in contributing to partnerships towards operational strategy and opportunity.

Vanessa has worked in commercial industry including markets and telecommunications; has extensive experience in academic institutions including UNSW and UTS; and has contributed to ongoing health research in supporting research and grants management. Her experience in a key government department included financial advisory and external engagement, as well as a key collaborator on partner activities including process trainer, policy maker, government communications, and management accountant. Vanessa has worked directly with Senior Executives to deliver on budget design, budget outcomes, and budget performance, with forecasting, financial analysis, and future proofing driven by a solutions focused approach encouraging agility, engagement and collaboration.

Lili first joined UTS for a brief time in the 1996, and after gaining experience in a variety of tertiary, government and community-based organisations, returned to UTS in 2014, undertaking various administrative roles, firstly in the Business School, FEIT and CHERE, before taking up her current role at INSIGHT.

Her focus is on providing high quality executive and administrative support, in a collaborative, team focused environment. She brings to INSIGHT, strong interpersonal skills and an ability to adapt to evolving priorities as they arise.

Jess Collins-Bojovic recently completed her PhD in Human Geography at Macquarie University on the political geographies of Serbia’s institutional refugee camps. She has held various research assistant roles at Macquarie, contributing to projects on the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 subnational border closures and the state of health within immigration detention. Additionally, Jess has been involved in casual teaching at UTS, including the course 'Sustainability in Context' . Jess has nearly ten years of experience coordinating refugee education projects in the civil society sector in Serbia.