Contact the PSANZ ECR Committee Executive Members

2021 Committee

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  Dr Tanya Nippita

  Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Royal North Shore Hospital

  Dr Tanya Nippita is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Royal North Shore Hospital and is currently completing her PhD part-time at the University of Sydney, investigating variations in obstetric interventions in New South Wales. She received the RANZCOG Clinical Fellow’s Scholarship in 2017. Tanya represents the Obstetric ECR members of PSANZ.

   

   
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  Dr Calum Roberts

  Consultant Neonatologist, Monash Children’s Hospital, and Kathleen Tinsley Research Fellow, The Department of Paediatrics, Monash University

  Calum is a neonatologist and researcher at Monash Children’s Hospital and Monash University. He completed his PhD at The University of Melbourne in 2017, leading the international, multi-centre HIPSTER Trial, assessing the use of nasal High Flow therapy in preterm infants. His ongoing research focuses on neonatal resuscitation and respiratory care. Calum has been an active member of PSANZ since 2013, and he has been the recipient of a PSANZ Early Research Career Travel Award, an SPR PhD Student Research Award, and a commendation at the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research. Calum represents the Neonatal ECR members of PSANZ.
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  Dr Christine Andrews

  Christine joined the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth in early 2018 and now works as a postdoctoral research fellow. The Stillbirth CRE led by Prof Vicky Flenady investigates strategies to reduce stillbirth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes. Christine’s research interests are in better understanding and evaluating the approaches used to promote translation of research into evidence-based clinical practice. Christine’s current work is undertaken within the context of a recently funded partnership with health departments across Australia, to implement and evaluate a bundle of care to address the priority evidence practice gaps in stillbirth prevention.  In 2017, she graduated with a PhD from the University of Queensland and won the Queensland Health and Medical Research Postgraduate Student researcher award for her research investigating paediatric burn injury pathophysiology and prevention. Christine represents the epidemiology and Public Health ECR members of PSANZ.
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  Dr Ashley Meakin

  Ashley is a postdoctoral researcher in Prof Janna Morrison’s Early Origins of Adult Health Research Group, UniSA, Adelaide. His current research broadly focuses on understanding how fetal growth restriction and feto-placental sex impacts the function of the maternal-placental-fetal interface. His work has expanded to also look at how dysfunction of this interface may contribute to the risks of developing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases later in life. Ashley completed his PhD at Mater Research Institute, University of Queensland under the supervision of Prof Vicki Clifton. Ashley represents the Discovery Science ECR members of PSANZ.
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  Roshan Selvaratnam

  Roshan Selvaratnam is a BMedSc/MD-PhD BMedSc(Hons) candidate at Monash University. His PhD explores the balance between benefit versus harm in the detection of fetal growth restriction using whole-of-population data. His ongoing research involves epidemiological trends in stillbirth over time and the longer-term effects of interventions during the perinatal period. He is supported by the Centre for Research Excellence in Stillbirth and is a past recipient of the PSANZ David Henderson-Smart scholarship. Next year he starts his clinical career as a junior doctor in Melbourne. Roshan represents the Epidemiology and Public Health ECR members of PSANZ.
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  Dr. Ishmael (Mikee) Inocencio

  Mikee is a post-dotoral researcher at The Ritchie Center, Hudson Institute of Medical Research. He completed his PhD at Monash University under the supervision of Prof Graeme Polglase and Dr Beth Allison in 2020, investigating pre- and post-natal therapies in fetal growth restricted lambs. Expanding on the skills acquired during this PhD training, Mikee has now joined the group of A/Prof Flora Wong to determine the neurological and cardiac impacts of different perinatal diseases and investigate the efficacy and safety of novel perinatal therapies. Mikee represents the Discovery Science ECR members of PSANZ.
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  Dr Nasrin Javid

   

  Nasrin is a Clinical Midwifery Consultant and researcher at Sydney Local Health District, RPA Hospital. Her research interests are in reproductive genomics and the implementation of innovative, woman-centred approaches to optimise the provision of non-invasive perinatal testing (NIPT) and carrier screening during the first trimester of pregnancy. She is currently recruiting to the MRFF -funded national research project ‘Mackenzie’s Mission’ and managing this project at RPA hospital. Her previous research focused on improving maternity care and perinatal outcomes for women with vasa praevia, which led to completion of her PhD under the supervision of Professor Caroline Homer and Professor Jon Hyett in 2019. She has won several awards including the PSANZ David Henderson-Smart scholarship, conducting research in the development of the core outcome set for vasa praevia, working closely with a consumer group and the University of Toronto in Canada. Nasrin represents the Midwifery ECR of PSANZ.
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  Dr Siobhan Loughnan

  Siobhan has a background in eMental Health, perinatal psychology and cancer care. Siobhan completed her PhD in 2019 through the University of New South Wales in the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD) with her research focused on the development and evaluation of a brief, self-guided internet-delivered psychological intervention to improve anxiety and depression during pregnancy and postpartum. Siobhan joined the Stillbirth CRE in September 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher to pursue her interest in the development of a tailored online psychosocial programs for parents who have experienced perinatal loss and is team leader of the Stillbirth CRE’s Priority Area Three working across projects to help optimise and implement best practice bereavement care around the time of stillbirth and neonatal death, and in subsequent pregnancies.
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  Dr Teena Gamage

  Dr Teena Gamage graduated from the University of Auckland with a PhD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology under the supervision of Professor Larry Chamley and Associate Professor Jo James. Her PhD research focused on determining the role of human placental stem cells (side-population trophoblasts) in healthy and fetal growth-restricted pregnancies. She is currently undertaking postdoctoral research in the Perinatal Molecular Neuroscience Research Group under the mentorship of Associate Professor Mhoyra Fraser in the Department of Physiology at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on investigating 1) whether fetal neural stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles have therapeutic utility in the treatment of preterm brain injury using a preclinical fetal sheep model, and 2) whether the small RNA/protein cargo of human fetal/neonatal central nervous system-derived extracellular vesicles isolated from maternal peripheral blood or from umbilical cord blood could be a useful diagnostic biomarkers of preterm brain injury. Teena represents Discovery Science ECR members of PSANZ.