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My research interests focus on the epidemiology of diseases that may be transmitted by contaminated food, water or environments. I have estimated the burden of disease in Australia and globally. I have examined risk factors for a range of foodborne diseases, such as salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, listeriosis and Shiga Toxin producing E. coli. I have investigated a wide range of disease outbreaks, including those caused by infectious agents, such as Legionnaires' disease, cholera, trematode infections, salmonellosis, shigellosis, and Campylobacter infections, and intoxications due to environmental contaminants, such as bromine, copper and cyanobacterial compounds. My PhD research was on the incidence of gastroenteritis and foodborne diseases in elderly people. I am interested in research that improves surveillance of infectious diseases and the response of government agencies to outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Biography
I am currently the Headof the Field Epidemiology Training Program Australia - the Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology (MAE) degree offered by the Australian National University. I have worked for the last twenty years in State and Territory, and federal health departments in the areas of food, water and infectious diseases. In 2000, I was appointed as the Coordinating Epidemiologist of OzFoodNet to establish a national network for the investigation of foodborne diseases. I am an alumni of the Australian Field Epidemiology Training Program, which I completed in 1997. I have consulted for the World Health Organization on gastrointestinal diseases and am a member of the WHO advisory body - the Foodborne Disease Epidemiology Reference Group. I am a member of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia and an adjunct lecturer at the Monash University Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine.

Experience

  • 2011–2014
    Associate Professor, The Australian National University

Education

  • 2011 
    The Australian National University, PhD
  • 1997 
    The Australian National University, MAppEpid
  • 1989 
    Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education, BAppSci