INVITED SPEAKERS

International 

Dr. Charissa Patricelli is a Family Physician with a Fellowship in Addiction Medicine, and over 30 years of experience in healthcare.  She is the Director of Perinatal Addictions at BC Women’s Hospital and Medical Director of the FIR (Families in Recovery) program, the inpatient perinatal stabilization unit at BC Women’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada.  FIR is an international leader in providing obstetrical, medical, harm reduction, stabilization and recovery oriented care for pregnant and newly delivered women who are cared for with a mother-baby dyad togetherness model, along with Eat Sleep Console (ESC). Dr. Patricelli has been a leader in the development and integration of an enhanced model of care for mothers and newborns impacted by substance use disorder. 

Dr Deborah Harris is Aotearoa/ New Zealand’s first Nurse Practitioner. Deborah’s research interests include the management of babies at risk of neonatal hypoglycaemia and their later development.  The impact of her teams research has changed the treatment for millions of babies and families across the developed world.  More recently, Deborah has been investigating the prevention and management of neonatal hypoglycaemia within the Pacific Islands.   Current projects: ◾The Glucose in Well Babies (GLOW) Study. ACTRN number: ACTRN12615000986572 ◾The Glucose in Well Babies and their later Neurodevelopment (GLOWiNg) Study ◾The Pepi Splint Project

Nicole Carter, RN, BSN, BSc, has worked as a RN at the Families in Recover (FIR) unit, a perinatal substance use stabilization unit supporting mother-baby dyads in Vancouver, Canada, for over 12 years. She has held a number of nurse leader roles including Perinatal Clinical Educator, and is now the FIR Patient Care Coordinator, providing nurses with education, knowledge translation and advanced skill validation. Nicole supported the development and implementation of the Eat Sleep Console model of care at FIR, and is a Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) Investigator, co-leading a number of perinatal substance use research projects and initiatives.

National 

A/Professor Amy Keir is a Consultant Neonatologist at Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, and an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship with the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and the University of Adelaide. Her PhD was in neonatal transfusion practice, and she maintains a strong interest in effectively using data to understand clinical practice. Recently, she has commenced as the Head of Unit of SAAS MedSTAR kids, the neonatal and paediatric retrieval service in South Australia. Amy is the SA/NT Representative on the Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network (ANZNN) and is an active member of the ANZNN Clinical Practice Improvement Committee. She enjoys working alongside her colleagues in neonatal nutrition, human milk and quality improvement.

Arwen Nikolof is Narrunga and Australian/English descent. Arwen works and lives on Kaurna land in Adelaide with her family. She worked on the Aboriginal Families Study fieldwork team from 2016 to 2020 and has a background working within Aboriginal health and research in community services and government. Arwen started her PhD in 2021 with the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children's Research Institute. The topic of research is ‘Moving House; how do we better support Aboriginal children and families with high mobility?’ Her aspirations is to work together to build strong evidence that makes a difference in children and families lives.

Dr Ashley Whitehorn is a research fellow in the Transfer Science team at JBI, within the University of Adelaide. She leads the JBI Women’s and Children’s Health field and works closely with invited experts to create clinically relevant evidence summaries for clinicians on a wide range of topics. Ashley is passionate about evidence-based practice and supports evidence implementation in healthcare with experience in the conduct of implementation and quality improvement projects, as well as systematic and scoping reviews.

Casey Cameron is of Ngarrindjeri descent, born and raised on Kaurna Land in South Australia. Casey’s background includes working in state government, namely Department for Communities and Social Inclusion where her role included providing high level administrative support for training delivered by the department’s Registered Training Organisation and Department of the Premier and Cabinet assisting with the coordination of departmental wellbeing program initiatives. Seeing mentors at work impacting government decisions and driving change for community saw her passion for improving equity within and between communities leading to pursuit of a career in Nursing. Casey completed her Bachelor of Nursing while she concurrently undertook a cadetship with SAHMRI Women and Kid’s and the Aboriginal Communities and Families Health Research Alliance (ACRA) in 2020. Casey has worked across, and lead a number of ACRA projects including the Aboriginal Families Baby Bundles (ABFABB) Study to improve nutrition and health outcomes for pregnant women and their children, and now is the driving force behind numerous projects to improve understanding of Aboriginal community nutrition, and hopes that her work will underpin intergenerational changes to improve health equity.

Dr Cathy Cord-Udy is an Australian trained General Paediatric Surgeon who worked as a Consultant in London for over 12 years. On returning to Adelaide in 2008, Cathy began consulting at FMC and  then from 2010 at The Women’s and Children’s  Hospital as a senior Visiting Medical Officer in Paediatric Surgery. Cathy’s interests include all general paediatric surgery but especially neonatal surgery . 

Professor Christo­pher Bar­nett holds dual fellowships in neonatal/perinatal medicine and clinical genetics and is the Head of the Paediatric and Reproductive Genetics Unit at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. He is the Statewide Genomics Lead at the Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health. He undertook his dual training at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide. Prof Barnett has research interests in prenatal genetics, fetal pathology and rare childhood diseases, and is the clinical lead of the NHMRC and MRFF funded Genomic Autopsy Study, a national and international collaborative investigating genetic causes of perinatal death.  He has over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals including in the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Nature Genetics and Nature Medicine.

Ms Deanna Stuart-Butler is a descendant of the Arabana people of the ‘Pantu Parnda’ (Lake Eyre) Region of South Australia. Deanna is the Senior Advisor and lead of Indigenous Research at the Stillbirth Centre for Research Excellence (CRE). She is leading and co-leading several MRFF and CRE-funded research projects investigating voices of Indigenous families relating to stillbirth, stillbirth research priorities for Indigenous women and extensive adaptation of Stillbirth CRE masterclasses for Indigenous healthcare personnel. She is a founding member of the Aboriginal Community and Families Research Alliance, a group instigated by SAHMRI Women and Kids to translate community priorities into research and to integrate research and policy. She was the first graduate of the SA Aboriginal Maternal Infant Care qualification in 2010, going on to become the manager of the Aboriginal Family Birthing Program at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.

Mrs Karen Glover is a Mein:tnk woman from SE SA and also from the Wotjobaluk nation in NW Victoria. She is working predominantly on the Aboriginal Communities and Families Health Research Alliance (ACRA), a strategic initiative of the Women and Kids Theme and Aboriginal Health Equity Theme at SAHMRI, and the MCRI. Karen brings her community engagement, management, governance and knowledge translation skills and experience to her role as Aboriginal Communities and Families Health Research Alliance (ACRA) pillar lead at SAHMRI Women and Kids theme. ACRA maintains a focus on the shared vision: ‘a healthy and just future for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families’. Karen has also contributed to research through a work program which includes the Aboriginal Families Study and other research projects as a study investigator, and her research relates to improving Aboriginal birthing outcomes, building on to strengthening parenting and safe families and communities. She has also chaired the Aboriginal Advisory Group for the Aboriginal Families Study.​

Dr Kylie Porritt is the Director of the Transfer Science Division at JBI and the Editor-in-Chief of the JBI EBP Database. She has been an active contributor to the field of evidence-based healthcare for nearly two decades. She leads a team of dedicated, passionate researchers, and together, collaborating with local and international stakeholders, develops rigorous, trustworthy evidence-based resources to inform and guide clinical decision-making and practice.

Dr Kylie Porritt currently supervises Masters and Ph.D. students. She is an active, contributing member to several methodologies and evidence-based practice committees, a core staff member of JBI Adelaide GRADE. She is an editor for the International Journal of Nursing Practice and peer reviews for several nursing and evidence synthesis, and implementation journals.

Associate Professor Luke Grzeskowiak is a clinical pharmacist and Channel 7 Children's Research Foundation Fellow in Medicines Use and Safety at Flinders University and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. Luke leads the Reproductive and Perinatal Pharmacoepidemiology Research Group and his clinical and research ambitions are to enhance maternal and newborn health outcomes through supporting quality use of medicines and the development and promotion of more efficacious, safer, and personalised pharmacotherapy approaches.

Adjunct Associate Professor Margaret Broom was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy undertaken at Australian Catholic University in April 2017. She has over 30 years of experience in all aspects of neonatology with 20 years of clinical experience. Over the past 10 years, in the role of the Neonatal Research Coordinator at the Centenary Hospital Women, Youth and Children, she has translated her clinical experience into researching many topics to improve outcomes for neonates, families, and staff. Currently, Margaret is the Chair of the Research SIG. She has led many research and quality improvement projects considering topics such as impact of NICU redesign, reducing pressure injuries, pain management, parents attending clinical rounds and the impact of COVID on families.

Meg Bater, PhD Candidate, is in her final year of candidature at the University of Adelaide. Meg is a NICU nurse and educator whose career has taken her to London, Melbourne and Adelaide. Her current role is as a consultant nurse attached to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital neonatal unit, where she leads the Neonatal Growth & Development Program. Her interest in optimal preterm infant neuro-development and the provision of family centred developmental care led to her research project, PEDaL: parent education for developmental literacy. Meg was awarded the MS McLeod Paediatric Health Nursing Scholarship to undertake her PhD. 

Associate Professor Michael Stark is a Senior Staff Specialist in Neonatal Medicine at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Adelaide with a national and international profile in perinatal research. He is the Director of Translational Research and Co-Research Theme Leader (Early Origins of Health) within the Robinson Research Institute, The University of Adelaide and a Principal Research Fellow of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. He is a Principle and Chief Investigator on NHMRC and MRFF funded perinatal pre-clinical, clinical, and epidemiological trials focusing on interventions to improve outcomes following preterm birth”

Paula Medway is a registered nurse, midwife, and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant with 30 years experience. She is Chair of the South Australian Board of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, has expertise in maternity care policy, and is involved in many state-wide, national, and international policy and regulatory projects.  She is a PhD candidate at Deakin University, exploring the impact of Australia’s national maternity Strategy and works clinically at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.