Senior Research Specialist, Phoenix Australia

Ellie Lawrence-Wood, PhD, BBSc (psyc hons) is a senior research fellow at Phoenix Australia Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health, and an adjunct fellow in the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Adelaide. She specialises in the area of military and high-risk occupation mental health and wellbeing, with a current focus on performance optimisation, risk mitigation and early intervention for Veterans and first responders exposed to stress and potentially traumatic events through their occupations.

She has extensive experience in assessment and monitoring of the health impacts of service among military and first responder populations, and has specific expertise in the prospective longitudinal assessment and monitoring of mental, physical and neurobiological impacts of stress exposure. She has been an investigator on several project grants and consultancies, including the Transition and Wellbeing Research Programme, and was the lead Investigator on the Impact of Combat Study specifically.

Other military projects she has led include the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO) Prospective Study (the precursor to the Impact of Combat Study), a large-scale project focusing on the psychological, physical and neurobiological impacts of deployment to the MEAO among ADF personnel; and the Mothers in the MEAO study, a follow-up to the Military Health Outcomes Program (MilHOP) Health Studies, aimed at understanding the specific health and psychosocial wellbeing impacts of deployment, for Australian mothers deployed to the MEAO.

In addition to her research, she is the current Chair of the Clinical Advisory Committee, and a Director on the Board of Management, for the Operation Flinders Foundation, a South Australian based charitable organisation that runs a world leading wilderness adventure program for young people at risk.

Associate Director, Australian Centre of Excellence for PTS, The Road Home

Karen is the Associate Director, Australian Centre of Excellence for Post-Traumatic Stress, for The Road Home and also currently working on her PhD at Adelaide University focussing on a therapeutic model for children of a parent with service related post-traumatic stress. Karen’s background is psychotherapy, participatory action research and community development.

The Road Home researchers also work closely with a service delivery arm engaging veterans, first responders and their families, addressing their support needs. Karen has worked with many communities who have experienced trauma in Australia and also in developing countries. Karen enjoys her current role in research to impact and improve the health and wellbeing of veteran and emergency service families. Karen and her veteran partner have four kids – Maddy, Ben, Evalyn and Huon –ranging 16 to 8 years old.

Director of Research, Invictus Pathway Program, University South Australia.

Associate Professor Steve Milanese is the Director of research of the Invictus Pathways Program at University of South Australia. Steve is also Program Director of the Masters of Advanced Clinical Physiotherapy and a researcher in the International Centre for Allied Health Evidence, a self-funded research group at  UniSA.

He is a physiotherapist with postgraduate qualifications in sports physiotherapy, manual therapy and ergonomics and holds adjunct positions in universities in India, Philippines, Malaysia and Japan. He has over 90 peer reviewed publications and has supervised a number of DSTG funded PhD projects. Steve has broad research experience, having undertaken funded research and supervised PhD students using a range of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods methodologies.

Director NSW/ACT, Open Arms

Julie Pert is the NSW/ACT State Director of Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counseling. Julie is also a reservist with over 20 years in the Army and a clinically trained psychologist. She has also worked with embassy staff overseas and emergency services more recently as the Occupational Psychologist for FRNSW.  As a result of working with staff on the frontline, her areas of interest and specialty include: trauma management, training, counselling, assessment and selection.

Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling (formerly VVCS) is Australia’s leading provider of high-quality mental health assessment and clinical counselling services for Australian veterans and their families. Open Arms is focused on meeting client needs through a combination of proven clinical practices and new and emerging evidence-based approaches.

Senior Research Fellow, Prevention Research Collaboration, USYD

Dr Lindsey Reece has extensive experience in applied research and evaluation, specialising in Physical Activity, Sport and Public Health.  Her primary interest is in reducing physical inactivity – a global problem leading to long term chronic disease, and support more people to become physically active to achieve positive health, wellbeing and economic outcomes.

Within her current role as Research Fellow at the University of Sydney’s Prevention Research Collaboration, she is the Academic lead of the SPRINTER (Sport and Active Recreation Intervention & Epidemiology Research) group – an innovative research partnership with the Office of Sport, NSW government. Previously, Lindsey managed a broad range of research and evaluation initiatives with Public Health England and Sport England to implement their national physical activity and sport strategies.

Her portfolio included evaluation work for: city-wide physical activity pathway for people affected by cancer; Child and Adolescent Obesity regional public health program; whole systems approach to obesity control; physical activity programme aimed at integrating physical activity within clinical care pathways. Lindsey also sits on the global research board for parkrun and is the Academic lead for parkrun Au.

Senior Research Fellow, School of Psychiatry and Director, Exercise Sports Science Australia, UNSW

Associate Professor Dr Simon Rosenbaum is a Scientia Fellow in the School of Psychiatry, UNSW Sydney and the Black Dog Institute. Simon has published over 170 peer-reviewed publications, including a textbook on the role of exercise in the treatment of mental illness. Simon serves as an elected national director of Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA), is the Vice-President of the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress (ASTSS) and has worked with a variety of groups including emergency service workers, contemporary veterans and refugees.

Director of Research, Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies, Adelaide University

Miranda Van Hooff is the Director of Research at The University of Adelaide’s Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies. Over the course of her career, Dr Van Hooff has conducted several large-scale longitudinal studies of childhood survivors of the 1983 Ash Wednesday Bushfires, children hospitalised for a significant burn injury, children exposed to the neurotoxic effects of lead in childhood and adults exposed to the 2006 Black Tuesday Bushfires.

Since 2009, her research has focused on the mental health of current and ex-serving Australian military and emergency service personnel, as the lead researcher on the 2015 Transition and Wellbeing Research Programme, the 2010 Military Health Outcomes Programme and the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service Health and Wellbeing Study. These studies were the first in Australia to ascertain the prevalence of ICD-10 Mental Disorder in current and ex-serving ADF members and South Australian Firefighters and have been strong drivers of change in relation to policy and service provision.

Hooff’s excellent history of NHMRC, Cat 2 and contract research funding has involved widespread and long-standing collaboration with numerous external stakeholders including DVA, the Department of Defence, the SA Metropolitan Fire Service, The Road Home, the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, The Royal Society for the Blind and Assistance Dogs Australia. Hooff has authored 43 peer-reviewed journal articles, 1 book chapter and 31 commissioned reports for the Departments of Defence and Veterans Affairs. Dr Van Hooff has received research grant funding of over $9.1M since 2013.