Professor Judi Walker
Professor and Head, School of Rural Health

Professor Judi Walker took up the position of Professor and Head, School of Rural Health at Monash University in November 2010. She comes to Monash from the University of Tasmania (UTAS) where she held the inaugural Chair of Rural Health which acknowledged the significant contribution she has made to the development of academic rural health in Australia. Her background and achievements exemplify the multidisciplinary and interprofessional nature of rural health.

Associate Professor Darryl Maybery
Deputy Director/Research Leader

Darryl's University teaching has been in the areas of research methodology, statistics, therapeutic interventions and program evaluation. He researches in the areas of stress, mental health and wellbeing, positive psychology and rurality. His major research focus is in the area of families with parental mental illness and he maintains editorial roles with the Journal Rural Society and The Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health.

Mollie Burley
Lecturer

Mollie has broad experience in rural health management, education and research at both an undergraduate and postgraduate level. She is a registered nurse with specific interests in advanced practice nursing and the development and support of Interprofessional learning across health professions.

Helen Chambers
Data Manager/Research Officer

Helen graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science (majoring in Microbiology) and then Diploma of Education (Melbourne College of Education). Helen is now employed as data manager/research officer for MUDRIH where she uses her skills/knowledge to develop databases and run analysis for projects as required by researchers.

Hilton Gruis
Indigenous Health Unit Coordinator

Hilton has extensive experience working within a number of key senior positions within the Gippsland regional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and social and emotional wellbeing fields. Hilton has degrees in Social Welfare, Psychology, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Anton Isaacs
Lecturer

Dr. Anton Isaacs is a public health physician with over five years experience in India. He has worked in the fields of, HIV and AIDS, reproductive health, occupational health and mental health as well as routinely taught medical and nursing students as well as community health workers. Anton’s interests include treatment and outcomes of people in rural areas with common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. He set up a rural mental health service outside Bangalore, India which has been successfully integrated into general medical services. Currently Anton’s research is focussed on improving the mental health of Indigenous men.

Heather E. Kelly
Lecturer

Heather works in the Indigenous Health Unit supporting prospective health science students, tutoring, and researching. She is also involved in cultural awareness activities.

Hanan Khalil
Senior Lecturer/Pharmacist Academic

Hanan’s position as the Pharmacist Academic at the School of Rural and Indigenous Health involves providing advisory, mentoring and developmental support to students, interns and pharmacists practicing in University Department of Rural Health (UDRH) areas. Hanan has also been extensively involved in teaching and mentoring students from various disciplines such as pharmacy, nursing and medicine. Hanan is also a practicing pharmacist involved in providing medication reviews to aged care facilities.

Fiona McCook
Lecturer

Fiona is a member of the MUDRIH team working on interprofessional education and collaboration initiatives. She also teaches a postgraduate unit, in collaboration with health professionals, on interprofessional rural health practice. Fiona’s expertise is in education and training with extensive experience in Australia, Vietnam and New Zealand. Her main research interest is transformative teacher/facilitator education.

Dr Eli Ristevski
Lecturer

Eli has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) which she completed at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Latrobe University in 2001. Her PhD investigated the role of voluntary organisations in the care of people with a chronic illness. Her current research work investigates the care, treatment, psychosocial and supportive care needs of people diagnosed with cancer and pathways for health professionals to incorporate evidence based practice into routine cancer care.

Dr Anske Robinson
Research Fellow

Anske is a Research Fellow with the Department of Rural and Indigenous Health, Monash University. She assists with the co-ordination of the postgraduate research degrees program and is a lecturer in research methods, and rural health units for the Master of Health Sciences, Monash University. Her primary research interests are the health and wellbeing of older adults in the community, integrative medicine, and the use of the range of therapies within complementary and alternative medicines.

Margaret Stebbing
Senior Lecturer, Population Health Academic

Margaret is involved at MUDRIH in collaborative research projects and teaching postgraduate coursework and short courses in the area of population health. Margaret has enjoyed a broad career as a public health practitioner and researcher in Victoria, in the Northern Territory and in Asia. Her current research interests include health risk perception, health risks associated with emerging technologies, health impacts of climate change, and rural health workforce retention.

Keith Sutton

Keith has extensive experience as a clinician, manager and bureaucrat in the mental health field. A registered psychiatric nurse, he has worked in the UK, Queensland, Melbourne and Gippsland. Keith assists and supports the mental health program with a range of training, service development, and evaluation/research projects; he also co-ordinates the Gippsland Mental Health Vacation School.

Jane Taylor
Lecturer

Jane is an allied health professional who has been dividing her time over the last four years between her private speech pathology practice in Gippsland, and part time teaching and research at Monash. She is currently seconded for twelve months to Latrobe Community Health Service where she is coordinating a pilot student supervised clinic.

Marillyn Harkness
Executive Officer

Marillyn is responsible for providing administration support to MUDRIH’s Executive Committee, assists the Director and Academic staff in the production of MUDRIH’s report to the Commonwealth Government Department of Health & Ageing, provides research project support to Academic staff.

Leanne Turnbull
Administrative Officer—Indigenous Health

Leanne is the Administrative Assistant in the Indigenous Health Unit. Leanne holds an administration role for the Footprints Forward project.

Cathy Beamish
Administrative Officer—Education

Cathy is a part-time Education & Administration Officer for the Department of Rural & Indigenous Health. Her working days are generally Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Julie Irvine
Administrative Officer

Julie has been an Administrative Assistant with MUDRIH since October, 2007. She is administrator for the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation & Development (PHCRED) program, and is also responsible for general reception and administrative requirements of the MUDRIH staff.

Julie previously worked in an  Admin/Finance role within the private sector.

Janelle McGrail
Research Assistant/Administrative Officer

Janelle is a part-time Research Assistant/Administrative Officer based at the Department of Rural and Indigenous Health at the Moe office.

Clare van den Dolder
Executive Support

Clare is Personal Assistant to Professor Judi Walker (Head, School of Rural Health) and also provides executive support within the MUDRIH office.