Research Staff
Associate Professor Rebecca Ivers - Director, Injury Division
Associate Professor Rebecca Ivers is the Director of the Injury Division at the George Institute for International Health. She is an injury epidemiologist who holds a Masters degree in Public Health and PhD in injury epidemiology from the University of Sydney. She has an appointment as Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, and has published widely in the peer reviewed literature in the fields of road traffic injury and falls prevention.
Rebecca has research interests that span a broad range of topics, including novice drivers, motorcycle helmets in Asia, heavy vehicle research and injury prevention in Indigenous communities. She is passionate about the need to decrease road injury in vulnerable road users in the low and middle income countries of the region and is actively engaged in research with this aim. She has written several book chapters on road injury for international audiences, including manuals for the World Health Organisation. She leads a strong team of researchers working on road injury studies in Australia, India, China and Vietnam.
[list of journal articles on PubMed]
Associate Professor Ivers can be contacted via email: rivers@george.org.au
Professor Robyn Norton - Principal Director
Areas of special interest:
- International road safety and injury issues
- Australia's position versus the international situation
- Road safety issues in low income countries
Professor Robyn Norton is Principal Director of The George Institute for International Health, Professor of Public Health within the School of Public Health and Associate Dean (International) within the Faculties of Health at the University of Sydney. In addition, she holds the positions of Honorary Professor at Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing, China and Honorary Consultant Epidemiologist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. Robyn was previously responsible for the management of The George Institute’s Injury Prevention and Trauma Care Division and was the foundation Director of the Injury Prevention Research Centre at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Professor Norton is Chair of the Road Traffic Injuries Research Network, a global partnership for the promotion, conduct and utilization of research for the prevention and control of road traffic injuries in low and middle-income countries, and Acting Chair of the Australian Coalition for Global Health Research. In addition, she regularly consults with the World Health Organization’s Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and is a Board member of the journal Injury Prevention.
Professor Norton is widely published in the area of road safety, and has a national and international profile in this area. Robyn was a member of the WHO Pre-hospital Care Steering Committee, overseeing a series of Cochrane reviews of the effectiveness of pre-hospital trauma care. She was also co-author of the WHO’s 5-year strategy for road traffic injury prevention and the lead author of a chapter on the epidemiology of road traffic injuries, for the WHO’s World Report on Road Traffic Injuries. Additionally, Professor Norton co-authored a chapter on unintentional injuries in the developing world for a World Bank, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the US National Institutes of Health sponsored project - the Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries. She was also the lead author for a chapter on injuries and violence for the 2nd edition of a major text entitled, International Public Health.
[list of journal articles on PubMed]
Professor Norton can be contacted via email: rnorton@george.org.au
Professor Mark Stevenson - Senior Director
Areas of special interest:
- National and International road safety issues
- Young drivers and the role of the graduated licensing system
- Driver distraction and the risk of car crash
- Pre-hospital trauma care
Professor Mark Stevenson is a Senior Director at The George Institute for International Health, aProfessor in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney and a National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) Fellow. Prior to these appointments, Professor Stevenson was an Associate Professor in the School of Population Health at the University of Western Australia. Professor Stevenson also worked as an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, USA, as well as spending time at the Harvard University School of Public Health.
Professor Stevenson is a strong advocate for road and child injury prevention and has worked on numerous national and international projects related to these areas. Professor Stevenson has extensive research experience including investigations of mobile phone use and motor vehicle crash, young drivers and motor vehicle crash, childhood pedestrian injuries and alcohol-related road traffic injury, as well as studies involving paediatric fire and burn-related injuries. Professor Stevenson is a member of the Australasian Trauma Society, the Australasian College of Road Safety, on the editorial boards for a number of international journals, and is a member of the Technical Advisory Group for the international not-for-profit, The Alliance for Safe Children.
[list of journal articles on PubMed]
Professor Stevenson can be contacted via email: mstevenson@george.org.au
Associate Professor Rakhi Dandona - Senior Research Fellow
Areas of special interest:
- Road traffic injuries in developing countries
- Road safety of vulnerable road users
- Public health and policy interventions for road safety
Associate Professor Dandona is a Senior Research Fellow with the Injury Division. She received her PhD from the University of Melbourne. The main thrust of her research has been to contribute to the scientific evidence base for improving population health and health systems & policies in less developed settings. Her research experience includes population-based research in road traffic injuries, non-communicable and communicable diseases, operations research, and evaluation of health systems. She has published widely in the peer-reviewed literature including the Lancet, WHO Bulletin and BMC Medicine.
Recently, Rakhi has held a grant from the Wellcome Trust, UK for a comprehensive assessment study of road traffic injuries in an urban setting in India, which is likely to make a significant contribution towards addressing the knowledge gaps in road traffic injuries in less developed settings for developing effective interventions. Prior to this study, she has conducted behavioral and social research on road traffic injuries in vulnerable groups such as pedestrians and two-wheeler users, and commercial vehicle drivers. She has also undertaken road safety policy and road safety intervention research. She is currently involved with a population-based assessment of injuries in rural India, and is developing injury research programs, road traffic injuries in particular, with a focus on the South Asia region.
Associate Professor Dandona can be contacted via email: rdandona@george.org.au
Dr Teresa Senserrick - Senior Research Fellow
Areas of special interest:
- Novice drivers, particularly young drivers and their peer passengers
- National and international road safety research and policy development
- Developmental issues pertaining to road safety
- Understanding motivation and risk taking
Dr Teresa Senserrick is a Senior Research Fellow in the Injury Division at The George Institute and Head of the Novice Driver Research Unit. Her training is in developmental psychology and she has worked in health and injury research fields for almost two decades based in Australia, The United States and Sweden.
Teresa has recently returned from the United States where she headed the intervention development team of the Young Driver Research Initiative; a multi-year, multi-million dollar, interdisciplinary research program to reduce young driver and passenger road trauma via comprehensive interventions targeting young people, parents, and key community players. She has been sought out as a guest speaker and reviewer, including for the National Institutes of Health and several high-impact, peer-reviewed journals. Current projects include the DRIVE study and a review of novice driver education, training and licensing in China.
[list of journal articles on PubMed]
Dr Senserrick can be contacted via email: tsenserrick@george.org.au.
Dr Soufiane Boufous - Senior Research Fellow
Areas of special interest:
- Record linkage of injury-related data
- Falls prevention in older people
- Road safety Research
- Sports-related injury
- Work-related injury
Dr Soufiane Boufous is a Senior Research Fellow in the Injury Division at The George Institute and a conjoint Senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney. He is an injury epidemiologist with a Masters degree in Public Health, University of Sydney and a PhD in epidemiology, University of NSW Wales. Soufiane’s previous research experience focused on investigating data quality and methodological issues related to the coding, analysis and reporting injury data as well as record linkage of various injury related databases including the linkage of police crash data to the hospital data to improve understanding of the circumstances and outcomes of traffic crashes. Soufiane has also been involved in investigating the burden of falls- related injury in older people as well as the impact of work-related and sports-related injury. He is currently working on the Young Driver Cohort Study - DRIVE study.
Dr Boufous can be contacted via email: sboufous@george.org.au
Dr Alexandra Martiniuk - Senior Research Fellow
Areas of special interest:
- Cluster randomized trial and cohort design
- Evaluation
- Chronic disease, injury and mental health research in the Asia Pacific region
Dr Alexandra Martiniuk is a Senior Research Fellow in the Injury Division at The George Institute. She is an epidemiologist and Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney. Her primary research interests are in cluster randomized trial methodology, chronic disease, injury and mental health research in the Asia Pacific region. Dr Martiniuk is currently the manager of the Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration. Her past research includes: HIV/AIDS in Belize, epilepsy in Canada, risk factors for cancer and cardiovascular disease in Canada and the Asia Pacific region and other health projects within Canada, Honduras, the Middle East and the Solomon Islands. Dr Martiniuk currently facilitates problem-based learning sessions in the medical sciences program and is also a moderator for the online Injury Epidemiology, Prevention and Control course (see Education).
Dr Martiniuk can be contacted via email: amartiniuk@george.org.au
Dr James Yu - Senior Research Fellow (China)
Areas of special interest:
- Road traffic injury prevention in China
- China Seatbelt Intervention project
- Motorcycle Helmet Intervention project
Dr James Yu is a Senior Research Fellow in the Injury Division of The George Institute, based in the China Office. He has previously been a public health doctor of Nanchang Centre for Disease Control, China. He is currently an investigator on the China Seatbelt Intervention, the first large-scale road traffic injury prevention program developed in China, under the collaboration of Chinese government sectors, health research institution and industry. Other research recently undertaken includes a multi-center study "Facilitating Reductions in Non-Standard Motorcycle Helmet Use" and the Shantou Motorcycle Helmet Study.
Dr Yu can be contacted via email: jyu@george.org.au
Dr Jane Elkington - Senior Project Manager
Dr Jane Elkington is a Senior Project Manager in the Injury Division, The George Institute, managing the Heavy Vehicle Study. Jane has extensive experience in injury surveillance and prevention including over 10 years as Director, Jane Elkington & Associates and six years as Statewide Manager, Injury Prevention, NSW Health.
Jane has been appointed to three national and state ministerial advisory councils, including the Australian Advisory Committee for Road Trauma (1995-1998) and the NSW Road SafetyTask Force (2001-08) and currently sits on the Board of Directors of YouthSafe, an NGO devoted to the prevention of serious injuries to young people.
Jane has authored and co-authored many reports and guidelines currently in use by a range of government departments including:
- ‘The Community Services Safety Pack: A guide to occupational health & safety’ for the community services sector (WorkCover NSW)
- ‘Managing Loss and Grief in the Aged Care Industry’ (WorkCover NSW)
- Management Policy to Reduce Fall Injury Among Older People (NSW Health)
Jane authored the chapter on Injury Prevention in the widely used book "Hands on Health Promotion" (Eds R Moodie, A. Hulme, 2006).
Dr Elkington can be contacted via email: jelkington@george.org.au
Marilyn Lyford - Research Fellow
Areas of special interest:
- Child and youth injury prevention among urban Aboriginal populations
- Promoting safety in Indigenous communities through community based interventions
- Indigenous Workforce Development
Marilyn is a Research Fellow in the Injury Division at The George Institute. She has a Bachelor of Health Science (Health Promotion) and has been working in the area of injury prevention for the past ten years. Her focus is working with Indigenous communities in urban, rural and remote areas to increase capacity and promote safety through community based and workforce development strategies. She is currently working on an NHMRC funded study, Safe Koori Kids: Community Based Approaches, entailing the development, implementation and evaluation of community based interventions to promote child and youth safety. Marilyn is currently the chair of the Australian Injury Prevention Network. Marilyn has also been working on a newly funded project Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Program for Rural and Remote Aboriginal Health and Community Workers from November 2006.
Marilyn Lyford can be contacted via email: mlyford@george.org.au
Dr Yousif Al-Hosani - Research Scholar
Areas of special interest:
- Health economics and comparative health care systems
- Motor vehicle injuries in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- Health promotion
Dr Al-Hosani is a Research Scholar in the Injury Division at The George Institute. Dr Al-Hosani is a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and holds a Master of Public Health from University College, Dublin. He has previously worked as the Head of Preventive Medicine, Infectious Disease and Immunisation Department for the UAE Armed Forces-Medical Services. Dr Al-Hosani is currently completing a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) on motor vehicle injury in the United Arab Emirates, focusing on seatbelt interventions in Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE.
Dr Al-Hosani can be contacted via email: dmsdoctor@hotmail.com
Dang Viet Hung - Research Scholar
Areas of special interest:
- Motorcycle injury and helmet use in Vietnam
- Burden of road injuries
- Policy application to reducing road injuries in low and middle income countries
Dr Hung is a Research Scholar in the Injury Division at The George Institute and an employee of the Department of Therapy of the Ministry of Health of Vietnam. He is currently spending four years with The George Institute as an AUSAID scholar studying for a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Sydney. His research currently being undertaken in Hai Duong Province, Vietnam, will have significant policy implications related to motorcycle helmet use in Vietnam.
Dr Hung can be contacted via email: hdangviet@george.org.au or vdan8956@mail.usyd.edu.au.
Reece Hinchcliff - Research Scholar
Areas of special interest:
- Australian road safety policy development
- Qualitative road safety research
- Road safety issues affecting young drivers
Reece is a Research Scholar in the Injury Division at The George Institute, who is currently researching the factors involved in the development of road safety policy throughout Australia. Having completed his honors year in social anthropology at The University of Sydney in 2005, in early 2006 he was awarded a PhD scholarship by the NRMA-ACT Trust to contribute to the minimization of Australian road traffic injury.
Reece Hinchcliff can be contacted via email: rhinchcliff@george.org.au
Tom Chen — Research Scholar
Area of special interest:
- Analysis of data from cohort studies in injury
- Risk factors for road traffic injury
- Cost of treatment of road traffic injuries
Tom is a Research Scholar in the Injury Division at The George Institute, who is researching differences in motor vehicle injuries between rural and urban areas. By investigating the 2001 National Health Survey in Taiwan, the New Zealand Blood Donors' Health Study - NZBDHS in New Zealand, and the DRIVE study in Australia, comparisons of risk factors as well as medical utilization for motor vehicle injuries will be examined. Through this research, he expects to further contribute to knowledge relating to analysis of cohort study data in injuries.
Tom Chen can be contacted via email: tchen@george.org.au
Liz de Rome - Research Scholar
Areas of special interest:
- Motorcycle safety
- Strategic planning for road safety
- Young driver and rider education
Liz de Rome is a Research Scholar in the Injury Division at The George Institute, conducting research on the injury reduction benefits of motorcycle protective clothing. Liz is a psychologist who has worked as an independent road safety consultant for over 15 years. She has specialised in identifying specific road safety issues and then facilitating consultations between community representatives, government agencies and road safety experts to identify and agree on strategies for change. Liz is funded by a PhD scholarship from the NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust.
Liz de Rome can be contacted via email: lderome@george.org.au
Jagnoor Jagnoor - Research Scholar
Areas of special interest:
- Epidemiology of injuries in India
- Verbal autopsy as a tool for measuring injury related deaths in LMIC
- Validation research
Jagnoor is a Research Scholar in the Injury Division at The George Institute. She is currently researching the epidemiology of injuries in India. She also aims to establish the validity of verbal autopsy method in determining deaths due to injury.
Jagnoor can be contacted via email: jjagnoor@george.org.au
Katrina Lane - Support Staff
Katrina is the Personal Assistant to Associate Professor Rebecca Ivers and provides administrative and research support to the Injury Division.
Katrina can be contacted via email on klane@george.org.au.