Spotlight on Emerging Leaders Fellowship (ELF) Program 2025.
Alison Marshall
Alison’s research incorporates quantitative methodology (clinical epidemiology) and qualitative research design (social science) with attention to barriers/facilitators to the scale-up of hepatitis C therapies among persons with a history of injection drug use.
A senior lecturer (Level C), EMCR, and NHMRC Investigator Grant fellow (EL1, 2024-28) co-appointed at the Kirby Institute and the Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. My training is in Psychology (BA, 2006), Global Development (MA, 2008), and Clinical Epidemiology (PhD, 2018) with expertise in public health, health policy, and health service delivery.
Prior to my PhD, my work involved multidisciplinary collaborations with international (WHO, PAHO) and national public health agencies (PHAC, CDC) to facilitate the uptake of evidence-based research in the development of hepatitis C policy, programs, and practices in global health settings.
A/Prof Amy Brown
A/Prof Brown’s current research program is in health preferences in radiation therapy treatment, developing and testing decision-aid tools by incorporating individual preferences through the novel application of health preferences methods to enable shared decision making.
Amy Brown (PhD), is an early career clinician researcher based at Townsville University Hospital, Queensland. In her role as research fellow at Townsville Cancer Centre, she undertakes her own research program and supports clinician-researchers in investigator-led projects. These projects are predominately in health services research, across Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Haematology and Palliative Care. She is a radiation therapist by clinical background, and maintains a strong interest and involvement in researching the clinical and technical aspects of radiation oncology, with an expanded research interest to other areas of oncology through her role. Amy holds an adjunct Associate Professor position in the School of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology; and a research fellow position in the College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University.
Amy's current research interests are in the broad areas of health preferences, shared decision making and value based healthcare. She is passionate about consumer engagement and involvement within oncology research and quality improvement.
Dr Amy Jarvis
Dr Jarvis’ current projects include improving the cultural safety of cervical screening, improving symptom monitoring of cancer patients, and community-based initiatives to address loneliness in midlife women.
Dr Amy Jarvis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre, University of South Australia. With a PhD in psychology and expertise in preventative health and consumer engagement research, her work focuses on improving community wellbeing, healthy ageing, and health equity through evidence-based and co-designed approaches.
Amy has a strong track record in mixed-methods research, policy-relevant evaluation, and collaboration with health services, government, and community organisations. Amy is passionate about translating research into practice and policy. She is committed to building inclusive cultures and mentoring emerging researchers in collaborative, impact-driven work.
Dr Billie Bradford
Billie's research interests are in fetal movements, stillbirth prevention, bereavement care and women's experience of maternity care. Billie is the Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellent Clinician Researcher Fellow for 2025 and a mother of 5.
Billie Bradford is a midwife and Senior Research Fellow in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at Monash University. Originally from New Zealand, Billie has extensive midwifery practice experience across a range of practice areas including clinical practice, teaching, and quality roles, coming to Australia in 2022 to lead a team of midwives co-ordinating maternity clinical trials at Monash Health Victoria’s largest provider of maternity care services.
Dr Christa Lam-Cassettari
Dr Lam-Cassettari’s current projects include the implementation of digital developmental screening and surveillance programs in collaboration with primary care providers; multi-cultural community based hubs; and state-based health and development checks; identification of clinical risk factors and early intervention pathways for children at-risk of developmental delays; and initiatives for supporting mental health and wellbeing in caregivers and young people.
Christa Lam-Cassettari is a Senior Research Associate in the School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, and the Academic Unit of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Services. She holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology. Christa’s research focuses on the evaluation of factors that support optimal development and wellbeing in infants, children and their families, particularly in the first 2000 days.
Dr Sandhya Maranna
Dr Maranna is she is currently contributing as a project team member in the Healthy Newborn Project to enhance basic ultrasound access in remote and rural Aboriginal women.
Sandhya (Sandy) Maranna is a senior lecturer at the University of South Australia (UniSA), and a PhD candidate with a focus on learning transfer in online learning. Her academic background is in medicine and radiology and she has over 20 years’ experience in sonography related to women’s health.
Sandy’s expertise in sonography and education has established her as a leader in the field. She is an invited member of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (ISUOG) global taskforce, shaping curriculum and assessment for ultrasound certification worldwide. Additionally, she serves on the Australasian Sonographers Association National Policy Committee, drafting national policy statements. Her impact extends globally as an Adviser for the World Health Organisation’s ACTION trials. She leads online training for many sonologists across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Nigeria, with a strong commitment to improving maternal-fetal outcomes in low-resource settings.
She received the Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (2018), the AAUT teaching citation (2021) and the Online Learning Consortium’s Excellence and Innovation in Online learning, USA, towards supporting student learning in the online mode.
Dr Shanti Gurung
Dr Gurung works on multidisciplinary projects related to endometriosis and eMSC, collaborating with gynaecologists, haematologists, and experts in stem cells, proteomics and bioinformatics.
Dr Shanti Gurung was awarded a PhD in OBGYN from Monash University and Hudson Institute (2017). She specialises in female reproductive biofluids and extracellular vesicles (EV). During her PhD, she discovered a small molecule targeting TGFβR that prevents culture-induced spontaneous differentiation of endometrial mesenchymal stem cells (eMSC), which now forms part of pre-clinical and clinical studies for treating pelvic organ prolapse. Dr Gurung has also recently demonstrated the potential role of menstrual fluid-EV in the pathogenesis of endometriosis and its feasibility for early non-invasive diagnosis. This work has a broader reach and has been featured in newspapers, radio and TV shows.
Dr Gurung has secured competitive funding of $1M, ~$230K as a CIA. Additionally, she received funding to purchase a ROTEM delta machine for measuring coagulopathies. CIA Gurung reviews national/international grants, research manuscripts, and serves as the centre representative for the EMCR Committee at Hudson Institute. She has supervised 6 Honours, 3 undergraduates, 1 MSc and 2 MD Scholarly Intensive Placement students to completion. Currently, she supervises 2 PhD (one as a main supervisor) and an honours student.
A/Prof Sophie Lewis
A/Prof Lewis’ research examine intersections between chronicity, incurability and social connectedness across diverse illness and care contexts (e.g. metastatic cancers, obesity, informal carers). This includes research on loneliness, stigma and social suffering; end-of-life care, death and dying; and the complexity of healthcare decision-making.
A/Prof Sophie Lewis is Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. A qualitative researcher and health sociologist, her research takes a person-centred approach, focusing on long-term conditions, and the social forces that shape these experiences. She is associate editor of Health Sociology Review, and co-author of two books. Experiences of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: In their own words. (2022) Routledge (with M Bismark, K Willis and N Smallwood), and unravelling the layers of chronic illness and loneliness: A social perspective (2025), Palgrave.
Dr Tong Li
Dr Tong Li has transitioned into population health research, focusing on real-world breast cancer screening outcomes. My work bridges imaging science and public health, with a commitment to equity and impact, particularly for diverse and under-studied populations.
I am a Research Fellow at The Daffodil Centre, University of Sydney, supported by a Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellowship. My research journey began in breast imaging during my PhD and was recognised through winning the 2017 University of Sydney Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition.
To date, I have authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, secured $2.9 million in research funding, and delivered over 35 national and international presentations. I actively contribute to the research community through invited talks, mentoring, and leadership roles across networks and advisory groups. I bring a multidisciplinary perspective, combining technical, translational, and strategic skills to drive innovation in cancer screening and early detection.
Dr Zoe Szewczyk
Dr Zoe Szewczyk is a health economist with a background in nutrition and dietetics. She is currently working as a Research Fellow in the Prevention Research Collaboration, Sydney School of Public Health and her area of research is health economic evaluation of population health and health services interventions, their implementation, and scale-up.
Prior to joining The University of Sydney, Dr Szewczyk worked as a manager in the Health Economics and Social Policy team at Deloitte, and as a Health Research Economist at the Hunter Medical Research Institute.
Since joining The University of Sydney in April 2023, Dr Szewczyk has partnered with government, industry, health service, and academic partners on a range of projects. Including, an evaluation of the Get Healthy Service, a scaled-up chronic disease prevention telehealth program in partnership with the NSW Ministry of Health, Centre for Population Health; a scaled falls and loneliness prevention intervention with the Active Aging Research Team, University of British Columbia; and a range of oral health screening and promotion interventions for infants to older adults, in partnership with the Sydney Dental School.
