Our Research Fellows

Kirsten completed her veterinary degree at the University of Queensland in 2000 and worked in mixed veterinary practices in Victoria and the United Kingdom before completing an equine internship at the University of Melbourne. Following her internship, Kirsten worked in equine practice in Victoria and became a member of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in equine medicine. After 10 years in practice, Kirsten undertook a PhD at the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Science at the University of Melbourne, investigating infectious causes of diarrhoea in Australian foals. In 2015, Kirsten worked as a lecturer in production animal health at the University of Melbourne. Now, as a research fellow, Kirsten investigates patterns of veterinary usage of antibiotics and explores strategies to improve antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary practice.

Jaclyn has worked in a number of healthcare sectors, including regional acute health, and in government and education, as a pharmacist. Her previous appointment was as the deputy director of pharmacy (with a focus on quality use of medicines) at Ballarat Health Services. Jaclyn commenced her PhD with NCAS in 2016 and her research focuses on models for antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs in regional, rural and remote hospitals. By identifying key success factors for AMS programs in this setting, it is hoped that recommendations can be developed that will guide smaller hospitals towards AMS models that make the most of available resources. Supervisors: A/Prof. Kirsty Buising, Dr. David Kong, Prof. Karin Thursky &  Dr. Tom Schulz.

Dr. Ruby Biezen is a research fellow at the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD was in the areas of antimicrobial stewardship, respiratory tract infections in young children, and preventive health care in the community. She was involved in the General Practice-National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey in general practice clinics, and the development of a clinical decision-support tool to assist GPs in their prescribing of antibiotics. Ruby was on the National AMR Forum’s GP AMS Workshop working group in 2018, and is currently on the organising committee for the ‘Innovation to Translation’ symposium (Melbourne Therapeutics).

Helen is a veterinarian with 20 years experience working in the food production animal sectors in both New Zealand and Australia. Helen has worked in mixed animal practice; the dairy, pig and poultry industries; and as a district veterinarian in New South Wales and Victoria, and the principal veterinary officer for the Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer in Victoria. Helen has a particular interest in the epidemiology of pathogen transmission between animals and humans, and her PhD work involved understanding the transmission of Salmonella between poultry and humans using epidemiological and bioinformatics tools. Helen focuses on investigating and understanding the drivers of and limitations to antimicrobial stewardship in the intensive livestock sectors, and implementing NCAS' auditing tools within these sectors.

Improving care for older people through antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is the focus of Leslie’s PhD. Her research expertise includes working with clinicians to develop evidence-based resources, health service evaluation, and care of people with cognitive impairments. Leslie and her supervisory team plan to improve the care of older people with respiratory tract infections in Australian residential aged care facilities through AMS. Supervisors: Dr. David Kong, A/Prof. Rhonda Stuart, A/Prof. Caroline Marshall & A/Prof. Deb Friedman.

Through their research, Fiona and her supervisory team aim to learn more about the nurse role in antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), including nurses’ perceptions and understanding about AMS, the support needed to enable and engage them, and potential models of AMS that are more inclusive of nurses. As part of this, there will be a focus on rural hospitals. Fiona is a registered nurse with extensive experience in paediatric nursing, education, quality improvement, and project management. Previously, Fiona worked with the National Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention Program at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) and led work on the National Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Project. This work included, among other aspects, providing advice and developing resources to support hospitals to implement AMS actions for National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard 3, facilitating workshops and master-class events, and coordinating the Commission’s Antibiotic Awareness Week (AAW) campaign and the National 'One Health' AAW working group. Supervisors: A/Prof. Kirsty Buising & Prof. Elizabeth Manias.

Laura completed her veterinary degree at Murdoch University in 2003 and worked in mixed practice for 2 years before undertaking an internship in equine medicine and surgery at Sydney University, and then a residency in large animal internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Laura became a specialist in large animal medicine in 2010, after which she returned to work as a lecturer in equine medicine at the University of Adelaide. An opportunity to run the medicine and intensive care departments at Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital brought her back to private practice. Two years after setting up a new equine hospital for the Tarwin Veterinary Group in Leongatha, Laura commenced a PhD with NCAS and the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences in the animal stream, which she completed in 2018. Laura focused on investigating means of advancing antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary practices. Supervisor: Prof. Glenn Browning.

The focus of Lesley's PhD is to analyse and support antibiotic stewardship in general practice. Lesley is an experienced microbiologist who has managed hospital microbiology laboratories, and is a sessional microbiology tutor and laboratory demonstrator to medical students. Lesley has also worked with general practitioners, as a state-wide coordinator of a general practitioner-led quality and safety program for small rural hospitals, and, more recently, supporting the teaching and learning of medical students on general practice placements at the University of Melbourne. Supervisors: Prof. Danielle Mazza, A/Prof. Kirsty Buising & Dr. Lyle Turner.

Brian is a veterinarian who started veterinary school at Washington State University after working several years as an engineer and consultant for Microsoft and other technology companies. While attending veterinary school, Brian joined the Association for Veterinary Informatics and began to research the use of natural language processing (NLP) to study veterinary medical records. As a veterinarian, Brian primarily practiced in Seattle and San Francisco. Throughout his career, he has explored various fields of veterinary medicine, and studied with how existing veterinary systems serve as an interface between vets and their clients. He has worked in private and corporate practices, emergency centres and shelters, and volunteered for zoo and wildlife services. In industry, Brian has consulted as an informaticist for companies such as Trupanion Pet Insurance. He also founded VetPronto, an app-driven veterinary service, and served as the chief information officer for the Sydney-based veterinary group, Love That Pet. Brian is currently researching the application of NLP to VetCompass Australia to better understand antimicrobial usage patterns in veterinary medicine to aid in antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Courtney is a rurally raised, trained and based clinical pharmacist who completed her Bachelor of Pharmacy with Grade 1 Honours at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, in 2013, and went on to complete her pharmacy internship with Albury Wodonga Health (AWH) via Monash University in 2014. Courtney then completed her Graduate Certificate in Pharmacy Practice with Monash University in 2015. Courtney continued her experience as a clinical pharmacist at AWH and Young Health Service (YHS) in New South Wales, where she developed a keen interest in the speciality of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS). In 2015, Courtney was appointed as the AMS pharmacist at AWH and helped develop their first AMS program, in addition to being involved with the AMS program at YHS. Courtney’s PhD focuses on the acute tertiary stream of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP), using a mixed methods approach to examining factors that contribute to inappropriate SAP rates. It is anticipated that by gaining further insight as to why SAP is inappropriately prescribed, more specific AMS measures can be developed and implemented to improve SAP. This aligns with Courtney’s goal of advocating for the evolving profession of AMS and improving the quality use of medicines, thus in turn improving patient health outcomes. Supervisors: Prof. Karin Thursky, Dr. Trish Peel & Dr. Darshini Ayton.

Suzanna completed a Bachelor of Veterinary Science in 2007 at the University of Sydney. She worked initially at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as a general veterinarian treating companion animals and welfare cases. After a few years in general practice, Suzanna moved to the United Kingdom to undertake a rotating small animal internship at the University of Glasgow. She then stayed on and worked in a wide variety of practices around the UK. During this time as a locum, she was able to see how different practices approached their usage of antimicrobials and became increasingly interested in the profession's response to antimicrobial resistance as a whole. Suzanna’s research will focus on implementation of antimicrobial stewardship programs within companion animal practices. She also hopes to create a simple audit tool that will help inform veterinarians about their progress towards improved prescribing of antimicrobials. Supervisor: Prof Glenn Browning. 

Sajal is a Commonwealth scholar and a registered pharmacist. He has been engaged in teaching and pharmaceutical research as an assistant professor at the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, since 2011. He completed his public health degree at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom in 2016. His research expertise is in pharmacoepidemiology, drug pharmacokinetics, pharmacotherapy, and drug use policy and practice. His PhD, at the Department of General Practice at Monash University, focuses on enhancing GP and community pharmacist (CP) engagement to better improve GPs’ antibiotic prescribing, and developing a pragmatic GP-CP collaborative model in the Australian primary care setting. The project will involve: 1) a systematic review on the impact of pharmacist-led or pharmacist involved team-based interventions on GPs’ antibiotic prescribing, 2) a qualitative study to identify barriers and facilitators of GP-CP collaboration in antimicrobial stewardship in Australian primary care, 3) developing an effective GP-CP collaborative model, and 4) piloting the model and measuring its effectiveness in Australia. Supervisors: Prof. Danielle Mazza, Prof. Karin Thursky & Dr. David Kong.

Ri completed most of a medical degree before switching to veterinary science. Since graduating as a veterinarian in 2003, has maintained a strong interest in the interface between human and animal health. She has had a varied career, first as a mixed-practice veterinarian in a semi-rural area, then as a small animal practitioner in Melbourne. She subsequently started a boutique e-commerce business, before becoming involved with human public health research. Ri worked in the Monash University School of Public Health for several years, primarily on projects to improve the quality of hospital care for Victorians with complex health needs, before being awarded a postgraduate scholarship at the University of Melbourne. 

Ri's PhD focuses on improving our understanding of the conscious and unconscious motivations behind suboptimal antimicrobial prescribing in Australian veterinary practices, and designing sustainable strategies to support better antimicrobial prescribing in veterinarians. Ri is particularly interested in the use of social norms and nudges to modify behaviour.

Karen is an experienced clinical pharmacist who has worked in a variety of clinical areas in the public hospital sector, including haematology/oncology, intensive care and infectious diseases. Most recently, she has worked as the infectious diseases/antimicrobial stewardship pharmacist at Austin Health in Melbourne, specialising in infections and optimising antimicrobial therapy in immunocompromised patients. Karen’s PhD will focus on the area of antifungal stewardship in immunocompromised patient groups, including solid organ transplant and haematology patients. Her work will involve determining the extent of antifungal stewardship in the Australian context and key metrics for measuring the quality of antifungal use. Karen will also focus on invasive fungal infection and optimising antifungal prescribing within liver transplant units. Supervisors: Prof. Monica Slavin, Prof. Paul Johnson, Prof. Karin Thursky & Dr. David Kong.