Australia’s trusted immunisation experts
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Stephen Lambert is a public health physician with an interest in the public health surveillance and management of communicable diseases. Stephen's research interests include using publicly available data to assess vaccine program impact and quantify the effectiveness of new and existing vaccines.
Sanjay Jayasinghe is a medical graduate with postgraduate qualifications in community medicine and public health. He holds a conjoint academic appointment as Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney. His PhD from The University of Sydney was on effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccinations in Australian children and the role of underlying at-risk conditions in increasing susceptibility of children to invasive pneumococcal disease. Sanjay has worked at NCIRS for over 10 years, primarily in the area of evidence-based technical support for the development of immunisation policy and practice. In addition to infectious disease epidemiology, he also has extensive experience as a health services researcher in the areas of quality and safety of healthcare for the elderly, evaluation of complex system interventions, and assessment of provider and consumer perspectives of healthcare. He has a particular interest in appraisal of large administrative and clinical databases for research and use of linked data to inform clinical practice and policy. Sanjay has also worked as a clinical practitioner in Sri Lanka and Australia.
Jean Li-Kim-Moy is a Senior Medical Officer in immunisation at NCIRS. He also works as a community general paediatrician. He joined NCIRS in 2011 and has assisted in numerous vaccine clinical trials. He completed a PhD in 2018 on influenza vaccination in Australian children. He is an honorary research fellow at the University of Sydney and has a research interest in influenza vaccine safety and immunogenicity in children. Jean currently works on evidence review and synthesis to provide technical support to the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI).
Shireen Durrani is a public health physician with a background in health protection and public health policy. She has worked at Health Protection NSW, where she was Acting Director of Communicable Diseases Branch and medical epidemiologist for vaccine-preventable diseases, managing statewide immunisation campaigns. She has policy experience as a medical advisor in the Office of the Chief Health Officer and in the not-for-profit sector with maternal and child health charities. She has also worked in immunisations and communicable disease control in a local health district in NSW.
Ketaki Sharma is a Senior Medical Officer in the Policy and Global Health teams at NCIRS. Her role involves providing scientific technical support to ATAGI and to our global partner organisations via the Global Health team. She is also part of the New South Wales Immunisation Specialist Service (NSWISS), providing clinical support and education for New South Wales immunisation providers. She is conducting research on the impact of biologic immunosuppressants during pregnancy on infant and maternal vaccine immune responses. Ketaki trained as a general paediatrician at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, and holds a conjoint appointment as Clinical Lecturer in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney. She is a member of the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance.
Phoebe Williams is a staff specialist paediatrician, infectious diseases physician and NHMRC Fellow within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. Phoebe completed her MSc and PhD with the Oxford Tropical Medicine Network and has a research interest focussed on reducing infant and child mortality due to infectious diseases, particularly in low- and middle-income country settings.
Anny Huang joined NCIRS in January 2022. She is a GP with additional public health training. She is currently the clinical lead for AusVaxSafety. Before joining NCIRS, she was an MPhil of Applied Epidemiology Scholar at Health Protection NSW.
Catherine Tran is a Program Manager and Clinical Pharmacist in the Policy and Global Health teams at NCIRS. She has over a decade of experience working in community and hospital healthcare settings in antimicrobial stewardship, infectious disease clinical trials, emergency medicine and cold chain management. Catherine also has experience working in public health emergency operations and mass vaccination centres. Since joining NCIRS in 2018, Catherine has conducted research that has informed clinical guidelines and policy relating to immunisation and provided technical support to ATAGI. In her current role as Program Manager, she leads the operational management of the Policy Support and Guideline Development program area at NCIRS, which performs technical secretariat functions for ATAGI.
Jeff Wang is a research fellow at NCIRS and an adjunct Lecturer in The University of Sydney School of Pharmacy. He has qualifications and experience in clinical pharmacy, systematic reviews and guideline development. His PhD research was on "Improving the adaptation and implementation of public health guidelines". Before joining NCIRS in 2020, he has worked as a community pharmacist and a university tutor, teaching public health units at The University of Sydney School of Pharmacy. In his role at NCIRS, Jeff undertakes research and systematic reviews that inform clinical guidelines related to immunisation. He leads the implementation of GRADE methods in the development of recommendations in the Australian Immunisation Handbook.
Chrissy Imai joined NCIRS in September 2022. She has a background in infectious disease epidemiology. Chrissy has extensive research experience in longitudinal data analysis and working with large-scale population and clinical databases. Before joining NCIRS, her research was primarily interdisciplinary, combining infectious disease studies with other fields such as environmental epidemiology and health service research. Her main interests are prevention and control of infectious diseases and knowledge translation.
Rae-Anne Hardie joined NCIRS in December 2023. She has a background in medical microbiology, genomics and population health systems research. Most recently, she worked as a research fellow studying evidence-based practice across Australian general practice and hospitals, with a focus on pathology testing, medication use and the impact of health IT systems (paediatric electronic medication management and electronic ICU systems) on patient safety. Rae-Anne also brings experience in vaccine and public health research from her work before she moved to Australia to complete her PhD in cancer genomics. Previously, she completed a master’s degree and work placements at the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Lab, where she studied the immunogenetics of HIV resistance; she also worked as an STI harm reduction counsellor at a community health centre. Rae-Anne’s main research goals are to translate research knowledge into evidence-based policy and practice to improve patient health outcomes.
Madeline Valeri is a Senior Research Officer in the Research to Inform Policy team. She has worked as a research officer on a number of projects to support ATAGI clinical recommendations and updates to the Australian Immunisation Handbook. Madeline has a Master of Public Health, specialising in epidemiology and biostatistics. She has previously worked in the private sector engaging with key communicable disease and immunisation stakeholders as well as writing reimbursement submissions.
Amanda van Eldik joined NCIRS in 2021. She started as a research officer in the policy team and has worked on a number of projects to support ATAGI clinical recommendations and updates to the Australian Immunisation Handbook. Prior to working at NCIRS, Amanda worked in operations and strategic partnerships for an aged care and disability service provider, developing company processes and efficiencies and cultivating and maintaining strategic partnerships with government and non-government bodies. Amanda's interests include data and biostatistics, epidemiology and immunology.
Jocelynne McRae first joined NCIRS in 2012 with the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance (PAEDS) network, bringing intensive care nursing and clinical research experience. Jocelynne held the role of PAEDS national manager for several years and was responsible for coordinating surveillance activities across multiple paediatric hospitals and jurisdictions as well as data management and epidemiological reports. Jocelynne has also worked at the NSW Ministry of Health assisting on the COVID-19 pandemic response. In 2023, Jocelynne was awarded a PhD investigating severe influenza disease burden in young infants and prevention through maternal vaccination. She has broad interests in infectious disease surveillance and vaccine safety and joined the policy team at NCIRS in August 2022.
Katrina Nicolopoulos joined NCIRS in 2021. Previously, Katrina worked in the Performance Team of SESLHD Mental Health Services to analyse, assess and improve clinical data. As part of her Master of Public Health (Professional Practice), the University of Sydney, placement, Katrina was involved in the qualitative evaluation of the Early Psychosis Youth Service Program to determine its impact and effectiveness, and inform future policy direction of the program.
Xia Wang joined NCIRS in September 2022. She has a background in clinical epidemiology and pharmacology. She has extensive research experience in clinical and translational research projects, including clinical trials, evidence-based policy/guideline development and health service evaluation and implementation. Xia has previously worked as a research fellow on musculoskeletal disorders at the Kolling Institute, and as a tutor at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. She has a broad interest in the translation of research evidence and using real-world data to inform clinical practice and health policy decision-making.
Anna Ali Bachlani joined NCIRS in October 2022. She is a dental surgeon and a qualified epidemiologist biostatistician, with more than 5 years of clinical research experience. She did her PhD with the University of Adelaide. Previously, Anna has worked with various research groups, as an epidemiologist with SA Health and as a biostatistician with the Ministry of Health and Prevention, Dubai. She has a track record of research output with 40 publications on a diverse range of topics.
Saskia van der Kooi joined NCIRS in April 2023. She has a background in allied health, having worked in clinical practice as an osteopath since 2009. Saskia has previously worked as a research assistant for the University of Western Sydney Medical School. After developing an interest in public health, Saskia completed a Master of Public Health (Research) at Macquarie University in 2022. Her thesis, conducted in collaboration with NCIRS, looked at notifications of pertussis, invasive pneumococcal, and meningococcal disease following COVID-19. Saskia has a broad interest in infectious diseases epidemiology, vaccine preventable diseases, and vaccination uptake.
Diana Mubaiwa joined NCIRS in April 2019. Before joining NCIRS, Diana worked in vaccine research and most of her work focused on identifying and characterising vaccine targets for Neisseria meningitides and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. In addition, Diana worked as a teaching associate for undergraduate Microbiology and Infectious Disease Control courses in Griffith University's School of Medical Science. Diana holds a conjoint academic appointment as a lecturer in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, The Children's Hospital at Westmead Clinical School.
Catherine King is an information specialist and social scientist with extensive experience in conducting high-level literature searching, systematic reviews and qualitative research. Catherine has postgraduate qualifications in public health, information management and evidence-based practice (Med). She has a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney, examining parental perspectives and practices in regards to seasonal and pandemic influenza, influenza vaccination and vaccine safety scares to inform vaccination policy and programs. Joining NCIRS in 2001, Catherine provides professional information specialist services to support the evidence-based policy, teaching and research activities of the centre, including ongoing literature searching for the Australian Immunisation Handbook and ATAGI support and contributing to the social science activities of the centre. Catherine is interested in systematic review methods, social science research, qualitative methods, infectious diseases, vaccine hesitancy and examining ways to address immunisation information needs.
Edward Jacyna has a background in clinical trials working on various trials for the Langton Centre/Sydney Hospital. He has completed a Bachelor of Applied Science, a Graduate Certificate in Drug Development from the University of NSW and a Graduate Diploma in Information and Library Studies from Curtin University. Edward joined NCIRS in 2008 as the Assistant Librarian and is involved in maintaining NCIRS’s knowledge-based resource collection and sourcing relevant literature to support the policy, teaching and research activities of the centre.
Karen Girling has a strong background in libraries, having worked as a library technician on a senior school campus for 12 years. She has a wide range of qualifications, not only in the library space but also in the fields of aircraft maintenance engineering, facilities management and travel. Karen joined the Information Management/Library team in January 2023 and is involved in supporting NCIRS’ staff by maintaining the Centre’s knowledge-based resource collection and publications.
