Australia’s trusted immunisation experts
26 September 2024 | NewsFunding success to enable continued regional immunisation support and engagementRead the full article
Kristine Macartney is a paediatrician, infectious disease specialist and vaccinologist. She worked in the USA at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and was a founding member of the US Vaccine Education Center. Kristine's particular interests include translation of evidence into policy and practice, vaccine safety and vaccine preventable diseases research, particularly in viral diseases, including COVID-19, rotavirus, varicella zoster virus, HPV and influenza. She is the senior editor of the Australian Immunisation Handbook, has authored >200 peer-reviewed publications and is a member of key peak advisory committees in Australia, including the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). She is an expert consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), a member of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), a member of WHO-SAGE subcommittees and is the founding chair of the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance (ARIA). Kristine has a clinical appointment at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead as a Staff Specialist in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology and a conjoint academic appointment as Professor in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney.
Nicholas Wood is a staff specialist general paediatrician and Professor in Clinical Vaccinology at the University of Sydney. Nick holds an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship. He leads the NSW Immunisation Specialist Service and coordinates the Immunisation Adverse Events Clinic at the Children's Hospital at Westmead. He is a senior investigator on the Primary Health Network Immunisation Support Program. Nick is interested in maternal and neonatal immunisation, as well as research into vaccine safety, including genetics and long-term outcomes of adverse events following immunisation.
Clayton Chiu is a public health physician, trained in adult internal medicine and public health. His main interests are in the epidemiology and control of communicable diseases, immunisation for prevention and control of vaccine preventable diseases, and knowledge translation to support development of population vaccination policies. He is also a conjoint lecturer of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School, The University of Sydney.
Frank Beard is a public health physician who heads the surveillance, coverage, evaluation and social science team at NCIRS and has a conjoint academic appointment as Associate Professor in the University of Sydney School of Public Health. He graduated in medicine from the University of Auckland and then worked as a GP in Sydney for 15 years before undertaking his specialty training. After becoming a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine in 2004, he moved to Queensland and worked for 8 years in the Communicable Diseases Unit. He joined NCIRS in 2013, and his main current interests are in the epidemiology of vaccine preventable disease, vaccine coverage analysis and immunisation program evaluation.
Bette Liu is a medically trained epidemiologist with extensive national and international experience in the design, conduct and analysis of large-scale epidemiological studies using record linkage of administrative heath data, and e-medical records. She trained in medicine and public health at the University of Sydney and obtained her doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Oxford. Bette is a Professor in the School of Population Health at UNSW. Her research is focused on the control of communicable diseases and vaccine preventable diseases in adult populations.
Aditi Dey is Manager, Surveillance at NCIRS and holds a conjoint academic appointment as Senior Lecturer at the Sydney Medical School, the University of Sydney. Aditi has completed her PhD, Master of Public Health and Graduate Diploma in Applied Science (Health Information Management) at the University of Sydney after her medical degree (MBBS, University of Delhi) and training in tropical medicine. Aditi worked at the University of Sydney and also in Thailand and India before joining NCIRS. At NCIRS, she is involved in program evaluation, coverage of vaccines, and surveillance of vaccine preventable diseases and adverse events following immunisation. Aditi has experience in supervision of research students and teaching and coordination of undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Helen Quinn is Acting Associate Director, Policy Support and Guideline Development at NCIRS and has a conjoint academic appointment as Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney Children’s Hospital Westmead Clinical School. She has 19 years of experience working in immunisation and vaccine preventable diseases across the areas of disease surveillance, vaccine safety and vaccine policy. Helen is the senior technical editor of the Australian Immunisation Handbook and has been an author on 96 publications.
Karyn Phillips provides business support for NCIRS. She is a graduate from the Australian College of Health Services Executives Management Training Program, with qualifications in Health Information Management. Karyn has experience in business management, including organisational and financial management for hospital services, as well as experience in patient services and quality management.
Stoy Drinic manages the research grants and contracts at NCIRS. Stoy has over 10 years’ experience in research administration and management gained at funding agencies and in the university sector. Stoy has expertise in pre- and post- award grants management, project management and operational planning. Stoy holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Newcastle.
Salema Barrett is the Communication Manager for NCIRS. She has a degree in biomedical science, majoring in microbiology and parasitology, and a graduate certificate in marketing management. Salema has over 20 years experience in sales, marketing and communications within the life science industry. Salema joined NCIRS in 2016 and her role is to lead strategy development and implementation of marketing and communications across NCIRS program areas.