I am Director of Policy and Prevention at the School of Public Health and Director of the Sydney Health Literacy Lab at the University of Sydney.

I am a behavioural scientist whose current projects focus on three areas of primary health care: cardiovascular disease prevention, diabetes self-management, and infectious disease control.

I am a public health researcher whose research focuses on evidence-based healthcare communication and decision making, with a particular focus on cancer; the psychosocial impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment; and overdiagnosis.

I carry out research in health literacy, with a particular focus on the co-design and evaluation of health literacy interventions for socially disadvantaged populations. My current projects cut across community (e.g. adult education settings) and clinical contexts (e.g. chronic kidney disease).

I am a biostatistician and experimental psychologist, and provide ad-hoc biostatistical consultation to members of SHLL. My research interests are in naturally-occurring acute infections, and the biopsychosocial factors contributing to severity and time to recovery

Heather's research, teaching and leadership roles are founded on her expertise as a health literacy, shared decision making, and health services focussed researcher and her UK and Australian nursing background in critical care, reproductive and sexual health, and health services management. As a registered nurse Heather brings her recent experience leading teaching within the School of Nursing and Midwifery on quality and safety in healthcare, social determinants of health, health systems and social sciences, and building curricula on health literacy, implementation science and quality improvement.

Jenna is an early career postdoctoral research fellow with a particular passion for improving health communication and decision making for older adults. Jenna is experienced in quantitative, qualitative, and experimental research methods and also works collaboratively across cancer screening, women’s health, and digital health information contexts.

I am a behavioural scientist using qualitative and quantitative research to investigate healthcare communication and decision making. My current projects focus on three areas of cancer care: breast cancer screening, ductal carcinoma in situ management, and genomic testing in cancer.

I am a behavioural scientist with a strong passion for making health information more accessible and easier to understand and use. I work in collaboration with health services and people in our community to deliver practical and innovative research.

I am a health services researcher and use mixed methods to understand communication and behavioural aspects of low value care. My current work includes studies looking at new models of care for prostate cancer screening, opportunities and challenges for reducing the carbon footprint of healthcare, and developing a measure of carbon health literacy.

I am a part of the Sydney Health Literacy Lab, the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, and Wiser Healthcare Research Collaboration. My research focuses on medication-related health communication and decision making, with a particular focus on older adults, deprescribing, and the primary care setting.

I am a behavioural scientist working to improve health communication across cancer care and cancer screening. My current projects are focused on communicating about HPV in head and neck cancer and cervical screening, and the potential implementation of a lung cancer screening program in Australia.

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow and an experienced qualitative researcher, in the Sydney School of Public Health. My PhD research focused on community health literacy and communication in the maternal health setting in Dien Bien Province, Vietnam.

I am an experienced researcher with a focus on improving coverage and quality of maternal and child health and nutrition interventions. In the past 15 years, I have led several randomised controlled trials, implementation research, and program evaluations in developing country settings. I am trained in public health and have expertise in study design, quantitative research methods, and analysis techniques. I have taught Master of Public Health courses in several universities and am a co-chair of the WHO-UNICEF’s Child Health Accountability Tracking Advisory group (CHAT).

I am an early career research fellow with training in qualitative, quantitative and experimental methods. My current research focuses on women’s reproductive health, including assisted reproductive technologies, pre-conception healthcare, fertility testing and polycystic ovary syndrome.

Research Assistant Claire Hudson joined SHeLL in November 2023 and will working on various research projects with both Brooke Nickel and Kirsten McCaffery. Claire has an Honours degree in Psychology from the University of Sydney.

Diana joined SHeLL as a Research Assistant in October 2022 working on two projects: Parenting+ and a project related to the use of social media for health literacy. She graduated from the University of Sydney in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours in Psychology). As part of her thesis, she investigated intentional forgetting and have also worked in consumer psychology exploring inspiration and trust.

Kirsten is currently studying biostatistics at Sydney University and is due to graduate later this year. For the last 20 years she worked as a small animal veterinarian, here in Australia as well as in England and Mauritius. She realised that she wanted to participate in scientific research rather than just consume it, and in doing so, pivot away from the industry that she was in. She is now working with SHeLL to assist in finding solutions to our biostatistical questions.

Lucia is currently studying a Master of Public Health, and have been working with SHeLL and Wiser Healthcare since 2022. I have a clinical background, having previously worked as a paramedic. I am particularly passionate about harm reduction measures, such as pill testing, and mental health research.

Matilda joined the lab in January 2024 to work as a research assistant on the Parenting+ health literacy project led by Danielle Muscat. Matilda will focus on recruitment component of the project. Matilda graduated from the University of Sydney in 2023 with an Honours degree in Psychology (1st Class). Her thesis investigated whether oncology nurses provided emotional support and person-centred communication to caregivers of people with high-grade glioma.

Michael joined SHeLL in July 2022 as a research assistant working with Professor Kirsten McCaffery and Dr Julie Ayre. He completed a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Psychology in 2020 and his honours project was concerned with meaning-making processes and mental health in breast cancer survivors. 

Nada joined SHeLL in December 2024, starting a new career path as a research assistant. She has just completed a Master of Public Health degree (USYD), specialising in chronic disease prevention. She started her career as a Hospital Scientist (mainly cytogenetics) before moving to teaching where she spent the past 19 years as secondary science teacher across various public schools in Sydney. After navigating the public health system with her parents (who both have chronic diseases), she moved into a space where she could be involved in reducing inequities in access to health care for CALD populations and other minority and disadvantaged groups.

Nicole joined the lab in September 2024 as a Senior Project Officer (Research & Evaluation) with the Statewide Health Literacy Hub team. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Metabolism and a Master of Public Health focused on chronic disease prevention. With several years of experience in preventive health research, Nicole has dedicated her career to advancing public health initiatives that promote healthy eating and active living among priority groups. Her research has involved collaborations with government agencies to develop and support impactful public health policies and programs. Currently, she is contributing to the Health Literacy Lab collaboration between SHeLL and NSW Health, where she is advancing health literacy and driving innovative solutions to improve community health outcomes.

Philomena joined SHeLL as a Research Assistant in January 2024 and will be working with Kirsten McCaffery on a project to educate clinicians on low value-based care. Philomena completed a Masters in Public Health at the University of Sydney in 2022, and currently works on other projects within the School of Public Health including a melanoma clinical trial and the Net Zero project with Kristen Pickles and NSW Health. Philomena also tutors the Intro Epidemiology unit in the Master of Public Health course and is the secretariat for the Women in Global Health Australia Committee.

Sarah joined the lab in September 2024, as a Research Project Manager working with the Statewide Health Literacy Hub team. Sarah is a public health researcher interested in preventive health and the implementation, scale-up and equity of health initiatives, bridging the gap between research and practice. She holds a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (Hons), a Master's in Global Health, and a PhD in Public Health. As an accredited practising dietitian, Sarah has previous experience working in community health and local government settings.

Susan joined the SHeLL team in September 2023 as our Program Manager. Susan supports the Lab's management team and applies her extensive experience in operational and research administrative management to ensure the smooth functioning of the Lab's activities. With a background in tertiary education, government and not-for-profit sectors, she has a broad range of skills across operations, strategy, finance and administration.

Krista joined SHeLL in July 2022. Krista obtained her PhD in 2016 and obtained a qualification in Public Health in 2023. Krista has been working with Prof Alexandra Barratt and her team as a research officer in projects related to sustainable healthcare. Krista has also undertaken qualitative research studies with Prof McCaffery’s SHeLL team and is the current program manager for Wiser Healthcare.

Amy joined SHeLL in July 2024 as an Executive Assistant and Project Officer. Primarily, Amy’s role is focused on providing Professor Kirsten McCaffrey with direct administrative support. With a background in both University and Hospital settings she has a wealth of experience in organisation, time management, customer service and project management.

Anders is a visiting researcher to the lab and is a behavioural research scientist at the Dept. of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark and an associate researcher at the Institute for Excellence in Health Equity, New York University. Anders principal area of research centers on structural racism and discrimination and population health. Specifically, he investigates how persistent systemic oppression of people from racial and ethnic minoritized groups cause and maintain population inequities and health disparities. He also studies the structural and social determinants of health inequalities experienced by people with mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities. Additionally, Anders research includes a focus on social connectedness, social identity, and both mental and physical health outcomes. In all of his research he maintains a strong applied and solution-oriented focus.

Farzaneh is a Research Fellow and Biostatistician at Sydney School of Public Health and has worked in medical research since 2014. As a Research Fellow she provides statistical support for Sydney Health Literacy Lab and Centre for Kidney Research. As a Biostatistician, Farzaneh has worked on linked data projects, major national cardiovascular health trials and registries. She has also assisted registrars and medical students with statistical support in their research projects.

Associate Professor Jesse Jansen was a Co-founder of SHeLL and is an Honorary Associate Professor, Sydney School of Public Health. She is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Family Medicine at Maastricht University. The overall aim of her research is to achieve a better standard of healthcare that is sustainable, patient-centred and evidence-based. She strives to achieve this by improving the understanding of the potential benefits and harms of medical tests and treatments from the patient's perspective, by improving the communication of medical information to patients and health professionals, and by developing inclusive strategies to support (shared) decision making.

Marguerite Tracy is a senior lecturer with the Specialty of General Practice with a 20 year background in general practice. Her current clinical work is at the Centre for Addiction Medicine in Western Sydney Local Health District. Her interests are in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health, addiction medicine, medical education and person-centred health care. Working with Professor Lyndal Trevena and Dr Heather Shepherd Marguerite recently completed her PhD investigating question prompt list tools designed to facilitate patient question asking as part of shared decision making. Marguerite is also a member of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Expert Committee - Quality Care.

Dr Rachel Thompson is a behavioural scientist with training in health psychology and shared decision-making and a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Behavioural and Social Sciences in Health, Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health.

Rebekah is a behavioural sciences research fellow and the goal of her research is to improve the medical decision-making, psychosocial wellbeing, and clinical care of people with chronic health conditions, and their family carers. She joined SHeLL to manage a large qualitative study exploring the impact of patient reported experience information on consumers and hospital staff’s healthcare decision-making and behaviours.

PhD student Dipti Zachariah has over 20 years’ experience in multicultural /population health in the public health sector and learning and development in the private sector. In the private sector she developed culturally diverse workforce solutions for a global multinational and managed a successful training consulting career with Fortune 500 clients across Asia Pacific, Europe and North America.

I’m a PhD candidate motivated to deliver trustworthy health information to the public. My current projects are focused on the use of plain language summaries to communicate research findings to a lay audience.

I am a PhD student and research assistant investigating the psychological impacts of lung cancer screening, test results, overdiagnosis and false-positives, and strategies for improving psychological outcomes associated with lung cancer screening

I am a public health researcher, completing my PhD in youth-focussed social media health communication. Other projects I'm involved in focus on adolescent digital health literacy, youth social media use and vaccination delivery systems.

I am a PhD candidate at the School of Public Health. My research uses mixed methods to evaluate the health literacy demands of COVID-19 health information and to explore how people from non-English speaking backgrounds access, use and appraise health information.

My PhD is a qualitative study exploring the effectiveness of virtual care in diabetes management with a focus on patients and health providers’ experience, benefits and behavioural changes.