Professor Julie Leask

Julie Leask’s professional life has been all about supporting parents. Her undergraduate education was in nursing (UTS, 1990) then midwifery. She then completed a Master of Public Health at the University of Sydney in 1998 followed by a PhD in 2002. She now works as a behavioural scientist specialising in vaccination. She is Professor in the Sydney Nursing School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney. She is also a Professorial Fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS). Currently, Julie leads a program of research on vaccination acceptance with a focus on primary care and community settings. She has held advisory roles with the WHO European Regional Office, the US President’s Cancer Panel, US Institute of Medicine, US National Vaccine Program Office, the Australian Academy of Science, and the National Health and Medical Research Council. In 2015, Julie won the PHAA NSW branch Public Health Impact Award and the Sax Institute Research Action Award.

Dr Nina Chad

Nina Chad is a child health and nutrition social scientist with a particular interest in finding ways to support parents to protect their children’s health. Her research aims at improving children's health and nutritional status by improving health communication and supporting parents to raise healthy children. Nina’s PhD applied a social marketing framework informed by applied philosophy (ethics) to investigate the influence of the marketing of toddler milks on parents’ attitudes and beliefs about infant feeding in Australia. In addition to working on the SKAI Project, Nina works with the South Asian Infant Feeding Research Network to identify and test effective strategies for improving mothers’ and children’s health and nutrition in the Asia Pacific Region. She is a qualified breastfeeding counsellor and volunteers to take calls weekly on the National Breastfeeding Helpline. She is also a qualified trainer and assessor.

Professor Lyndal Trevena

Lyndal Trevena is Professor of Primary Health Care and Head of the Discipline of General Practice at the University of Sydney. In 2001, after 15 years working exclusively in clinical practice, Lyndal commenced her academic career. In 2006, she completed her PhD, which focused on the application and implementation of research evidence in general practice. Currently, she teaches within the Sydney Medical Program and the Master of International Public Health at the University of Sydney. Clinically active throughout her career, Lyndal currently provides pro-bono clinical care to asylum seekers in Sydney.

Dr Margie Danchin

Margie Danchin currently works as a General Paediatrician at Melbourne’s Royal Children's Hospital in the Department of Paediatrics and as a Senior Research Fellow at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI). She obtained her PhD in 2006 after completing a fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Margie has extensive expertise in vaccine research focused on clinical trials, vaccine safety and vaccine social science, and is a member of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group (VIRGo) and the Rotavirus Vaccine Research Group, MCRI.

Dr Holly Witteman

Holly Witteman is Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Emergency Medicine, Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada. She directs the research unit within the Faculty of Medicine’s Office of Education and Professional Development and is also a scientist at the Research Centre of the CHU (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire) de Québec-Université, at the new Institute of Primary Care Research affiliated with Laval University, and an Affiliate Investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada. With an interdisciplinary background in human-factors engineering, human-computer interaction, and decision sciences, her research is concerned with the design and evaluation of digital and other media in health decision-making. Holly specialises in human-computer interaction in health education, risk communication and decision-making, including design methods to support broad, inclusive user-centredness and patient-centeredness.

Professor Paul Kinnersley

Paul Kinnersley is Director of Clinical Skills in the Medical School at Cardiff University in Wales. Although retired from clinical work, he is continuing in his academic role. Paul’s particular area of interest is in clinician-patient communication and he has authored or co-authored more than 90 research papers, primarily on this subject. He also has extensive teaching experience with both medical students and healthcare professionals, focusing on how to communicate well with patients. In addition to teaching, Paul has also conducted ‘train the trainer’ workshops within the EU and Australia. He also teaches clinical skills more widely and contributes to the development of resources to support patients and clinicians in difficult conversations. 

Dr Penelope Robinson

Penelope Robinson works in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney and was Project Officer for SKAI, handling the day-to-day management of the project. She has a PhD in sociology and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons). She has worked in the university sector for over ten years on a broad range of interesting social research projects in sociology, education, public health and social policy. Her research interests include vaccination communication, feminism, motherhood and parenting, and popular culture studies. She is the social science representative on the ethics committee of the Red Cross Blood Service.

Other contributors

Many people have contributed to the development of the SKAI project along the way:

Kristine Macartney, Frank Beard, Penny Haora, Tom Snelling, Jessica Kaufman, Sue Randall, Harold Willaby, Kerrie Wiley, Melinda Hassall, Alex Henry, Cath Jackson, Helen Bedford, Francine Cheater, Nick Sevdalis, Annette Alafaci, Jo Lander, Marguerite Tracy, Marianne Trent and Ciara McDonald.

An advisory group advised the development of the SKAI package: 

• Terry Nolan, University of Melbourne
• Greg Rowles, GP, Melbourne
• Liz Marles, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
• Karen Booth, Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association
• Catherine Hughes, Immunisation Foundation of Australia