genREACH Team

Established in 2003 and based within the Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology, our core team brings together individuals from diverse backgrounds (from biomedicine to public health to social science) with the aim of bridging science and the wider community.

We have extensive collaborations with genREACH Associates, who are based in Western Australian universities, hospitals and research institutions, in addition to extensive collaborations with academics both here and overseas.

Core genREACH Team

Dr Anne Pratt

Project Coordinator

Anne has a range of qualifications in psychology, nursing, management, and training and development. She has a strong interest in the optimization of family health and wellbeing, and studied the prevention causation and treatment of Postnatal Depression in both her PhD and Masters programs. She recently joined the Joondalup Family Health Study as Coordinator, after two years in Darwin, where she was the Director of Community Services for a local Council. Prior to that she worked for Edith Cowan University as a lecturer, as well as in staff professional development. She has had extensive experience of working in and with the community of Joondalup in a range of mental health, rehabilitation, and public health areas, and has been a long time resident of the City.

Ingrid Nilsson

Project & Community Outreach Officer

Ingrid graduated from Murdoch University in 2000 as one of the first students to complete a double major in Biomedicine and Molecular Biology, and was awarded the Australian Society for Parasitology Undergraduate Prize for that year. She completed her Honours in Veterinary Virology in 2001 with her project focusing on genetic variation in a virus affecting racehorses. Her first graduate jobs included Research Assistant at a biotechnology company and Sleep Technologist at the St John of God Sleep Centre. She joined WAIMR in 2003 as assistant to the Manager, became the Human Resources Officer in 2005, and was delighted to join the Joondalup Study Team in April 2006. Ingrid has a strong interest in the community and has worked with Parkinson’s WA and the Australian Red Cross in addition to two years as a volunteer with St John Ambulance.

Jessica Lee

Project & Community Outreach Officer

Jessica graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Health Science, majoring in Public Health and Pathology (Oncobiology), and a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Management and Human Resource Management. Jessica has been involved in several population health projects – she has previously worked at the School of Population Health at UWA as an Administrative Assistant and been an Environmental Auditor on the RESIDE (RESIDential Environments) Study, which evaluates how the design of communities affect people's health and sense of community. She has worked at the Cancer Council WA on the Rural Specialist Breast Nurse Project, looking at lymphoedema services available to breast cancer patients in regional Western Australia. She was also involved in Mentally Healthy WA – a project aimed at improving mental health in six rural sites in WA. Working in the genREACH team at the Centre for Genetic Epidemiology, Jessica is the co-ordinator of the WA Twin Register, and is also involved in the WA Sleep Health Study.

Janet Gitsham

Liaison Officer

Janet graduated in 2003 from Edith Cowan University after completing a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Human Nutrition with supporting units in Human Biology and Health Promotion. During her degree she was involved in the development of maternal and child health workshops for the Indigenous people of the Oempelli Aboriginal Community NT. Janet's first graduate job included the management of several weight loss clinics over a period of 2 years within the SureSlim franchise. She joined the Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology in 2006 as Personal Assistant to Professor Lyle Palmer and Liaison Officer to the genREACH team.

genREACH Associates

Professor Robin Bunton

School of Social Sciences and Law - University of Teesside

Robin Bunton is Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences and Law at the University of Teesside, UK and Raine Medical Research Foundation, Visiting Professor. Professor Bunton has worked in public health and health promotion, and published widely in the field of sociology of health and illness. His recent books include: Youth, Risk and Leisure: constructing identities in everyday life (2004) (MacMillan/Palgrave) and Genetic Governance (2005) (Rout ledge). He is the Editor of the international journal Critical Public Health (Taylor & Francis). He currently leads a number of contract research projects and is the Director of the Community Evaluation and Research Group (CERG) in the Social Futures Institute School of Social Sciences and Law.

Dr Lesley Jones

Hull York Medical School - Universities of Hull and York

Lesley's research experience is in the field of disability and teaching in the health sciences. She has worked mainly on research with deaf people, both spoken and sign language users, but her wider interests include ethnicity, disability and gender as well as health inequalities. Lesley has a special interest in qualitative research. In recent years, she has published on ethnicity and deafness (with Waqar Ahmad). Other publications are in the field of Deaf and Disability studies, the latest being with Dafyydd Stephens two edited books on genetics and deafness based on the European Genetics Research Group.

Professor Jonathan Emery

School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care - The University of Western Australia

Professor Jon Emery is Chair of General Practice and Deputy Head of the UWA School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care. He has developed and led research teams at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and specialises in translating medical advances into clinical primary care. Professor Emery also has experience in cancer research and has established strong collaborations with multidisciplinary teams and clinicians.

Associate Professor Anne Passmore

School of Occupational Therapy - Curtin University

Associate Professor Passmore is Deputy Head of the Curtin School of Occupational Therapy and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Disability and Society. She was the first Australian researcher to study and promote citizenship capacity in people with disabilities, and in people who are vulnerable, including those with a mental health disorder. This is now a priority goal in 2006 within the WA Disability Sector.

Research supervised by Anne Passmore has influenced rehabilitation processes internationally, provided evidence for best practice locally, and has promoted improved psychosocial outcomes amongst vulnerable groups. An example of best practice includes promotion of mental health outcomes in children who have siblings with cancer.

Professor Donna Cross

School of Exercise, Biomedical and Health Sciences - Edith Cowan University

Donna Cross is Professor of Child and Adult Health at ECU and Adjunct Professor at Curtin University. She is Director of the ECU Child Health Promotion Research Centre and Founding Co-Director of the Vario Health Institute in Joondalup. Professor Cross' expertise is primarily child and family health promotion intervention research and she has formed significant school and family based networks in the City of Joondalup.

Professor Cross' research has influenced health promotion policy, whole-of-school practice and the health of children and adolescents throughout Australia and particularly in WA. These public health outcomes have been in the areas of youth smoking, sun safety, pedestrian safety, bullying prevention and management, and mental health promotion. In 2005, Donna Cross was Highly Commended in the Edith Cowan University Vice Chancellor's Award for Professional Competence.

Gabrielle Reid

School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care - The University of Western Australia

Gabrielle has a degree in genetics and biochemistry from UWA, and graduate qualifications in biostatistics / epidemiology (Curtin University) and genetic counselling (The University of Newcastle). She began work at General Practice, UWA as a Graduate Research Officer in 2005, and has since been involved with a number of projects surrounding genetics education in primary care. Gabrielle has recently enrolled in a PhD at UWA that involves the development and validation of a family history screening instrument to support the prevention of chronic disease in primary care.

Associate Professor Janette Hartz-Karp

Institute of Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP) - Murdoch University

Dr Janette Hartz-Karp completed her PhD in Sociology at UCLA, lectured in sociology in Australia and overseas, worked extensively in policy and management roles in the Western Australian public sector, and formed her own company, JHK Quality Consultants (focusing on organisational development) and later 21st Century Dialogue (focusing on community engagement / deliberative democracy). For over four years, Janette worked as the community engagement consultant to the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure. Her task was to find innovative ways to achieve joint decision making with the community - pioneering deliberative democracy - designing and implementing deliberative techniques including Citizens' Juries, Consensus Forums, 21st Century Town Meetings, Multi Criteria Analysis Conferences, World Cafes, Enquiry-by-Design Dialogues, and Deliberative Polls. These initiatives have resulted in significant changes to policy, planning and infrastructure in Western Australia.

Since then, Janette has continued to work with a wide range of organisations including WAIMR to ensure the community is actively engaged in policy development.

In 2006, Janette was appointed as the inaugural WA Government Associate Professor Community Planning at the Institute of Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP) Murdoch University, Western Australia. Her role involves research and teaching in deliberative democracy, and collaborating with the WA Government on innovative community engagement initiatives. Janette represents Australia at a number of deliberative democracy / collaborative governance forums in the USA and Canada.