YIAG members

George Patton is VicHealth Professor/Director of Adolescent Health Research at the Centre for Adolescent Health. The Centre is prominently involved in adolescent health research, service delivery to young people, youth development and education of professionals working with young people. Professor Patton is a psychiatrist with extensive experience of the common health, emotional and behavioural problems of young people. He and the team at the Centre have been extensively involved in studying the factors underlying these problems in adolescence as well as developing and testing the effectiveness of prevention strategies. Much of this work has taken place in the settings in which young people live and work (school, local neighbourhoods and families). As well as chairing this committee he also sits on the National Expert Advisory Committee on Illicit Drugs.

Peter Boal is from the Youth and Strategic Policy Section of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. The Section oversees youth policy development in the Department and liaises on Youth Policy issues to other Departments and outside Government. Peter has a background in survey design and analysis as well as Labour Market issues and policy. He has worked on the Australian Youth Survey in the former DEET and belongs to expert groups for the HILDA and LSAY surveys. He has an Honours degree in Mathematical Statistics and has had High School teaching experience.

Michael Booth is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and has been involved in physical activity and overweight research for almost 20 years. He has undergraduate degrees in biomedical science and psychology, a Master of Public Health and a PhD in psychology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. Michael has an academic post with the School of Public Health, University of Sydney, is Managing Director of the Centre for Research into Adolescents' Health (CRASH), is a co-director of the NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity (COO), is a founder and co-director of the Australian Child and Adolescent Obesity Research Network (ACAORN) and founded the Chronic Illness Peer Support (ChIPS) program in NSW. Michael has produced or participated in over 90 publications and is currently involved in approximately 10 -12 research or research-related projects related to the health of young people.

Glenn Bowes is Stevenson Professor and Head of the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne. His previous appointments include Executive Director of the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne and Foundation Professor of Adolescent Health and Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children's Hospital and the University of Melbourne. He has had a long career in clinical academic medicine in the areas of respiratory medicine and adolescent health. Glenn's community involvement has centred around children and young people. He was the inaugural Chair of the Victorian Child Death Review Committee and served as President of Very Special Kids. He currently is Chair of the Board of the Youth Substance Abuse Service and is on the Boards of VicHealth, the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. He is a Life Member of Lord Somers Camp and Power House. He has five children and enjoys cycling and bushwalking.

Professor Kerry Carrington developed a research career in academia and government before taking up the Chair in Sociology at University of New England in 2005. From 2003 to 2004 she headed the Children, Youth and Families Unit in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Before that she worked as a senior research specialist in social policy for the Australian Parliament providing analysis and advice to Members of Parliament. During that time she also published a number of briefs of relevance to national policy issues. From 1995 to 2002 she was an Associate Professor at the University of Western Sydney, where she headed the Critical Social Sciences teaching and research academic unit. She has published extensively on the topics of child welfare, victims of sexual and family violence, juvenile justice and criminal justice more generally, in international journals, as well as in a number of sole and co-authored books.

Dr Judy Cashmore is a developmental psychologist with a particular interest in research concerning children's involvement in and perceptions of legal and welfare matters, and their implications for social policy. She has a part-time research appointment as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney, is adjunct Professor at Southern Cross University, and an Honorary Research Associate at the Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales. She currently chairs or is a member of several government and non-government committees concerning child protection, child death reviews, children's rights and the implementation of reforms in child protection and out-of-home care policy and practice in NSW.

Dr Joy Eshpeter is the director of Population Health Information Development in the Strategic Planning Branch of Population Health Division in the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

Dr Sharon Goldfeld is Child Health Policy Advisor in Public Health in the Victorian Department of Human Services and is representing the Child and Youth Health Intergovernmental Partnership (of the National Public Health Partnership). She is also a consultant community paediatrician, specialising in developmental and behavioural paediatrics, and is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Community Child Health in Melbourne. Sharon has a particular interest in children's health services research and policy and has been the recipient of the prestigious international Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy and completed a PhD focusing on psychosocial factors contributing to health care utilisation in the first 12 months of life. Sharon is a member of several national and state committees that focus on children's issues and is currently Chair of the Chapter of Community Child Health in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. In both her policy and academic roles she has spoken about the various facets of early childhood to many varied audiences in an effort to advocate for the importance of early childhood.

Professor Brian Head was appointed as Chief Executive Officer for the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) in July 2005, based in Canberra. He is Professor of Governance at Griffith University, Brisbane. After an early career working as a researcher in public policy studies at several Australian universities, Professor Head spent 13 years in the Queensland public service where he held senior positions in a range of Government agencies. His expertise and research interests are in policy improvement and program evaluation, collaborative governance issues, evidence-based policy, and the use of new network models for social and regional planning. Professor Head has extensive experience in leading interdisciplinary teams to address major policy issues, especially those involving government/community, cross-agency and intergovernmental considerations.

Di Hetzel is Senior Researcher in the Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU) at the University of Adelaide. She has a clinical medical background in child health; and over twenty years' experience in the health and welfare sectors, including public health research, program planning and evaluation, and policy development. Her current research interests are in the areas of health inequalities; the socioeconomic determinants of population health; impact of disadvantage and violence on the health of infants, children and young people; ethics of research with children and young people; improving the link between research, policy and practice; the uses of data linkage to support population health research and health system improvement. Di is co-author of the 2003 publication, A Social Health Atlas of Young South Australians, and a number of other publications on health inequalities. She is a member of the Australian Health Information Council (AHIC), a Board Director of the Children, Youth and Women's Health Service (SA), and a member of the SA Children's Interests Bureau and the SA Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee.

Wilawan Kanjanapan is currently Senior Adviser in Data and Research, Youth Bureau, Australian Government Department of Family and Community Services (FACS). She received her PhD in demography from Brown University in the United States. Prior to joining FaCS, Wilawan worked in the areas of Population Health Information at the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and health and welfare statistics at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. She was the author of a report titled "Youth Profile: Thailand", published by UNESCO.

Cynthia Kim joined the AIHW in late April 2005 as the Head of the Children, Youth and Families Unit. Prior to joining the AIHW, Cynthia was the ABS outposted officer to the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Cynthia is a Bachelor of Economics majoring in Econometrics and a Master of Public Policy. After joining the ABS in her honours year at university through the ABS cadetship scheme, Cynthia has worked in a number of different areas at the ABS, with particular strength in Economics Statistics research.

Paul Magnus has been at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) for eight years as its Medical Adviser. His main interest is in public health and epidemiology, especially as applied to cardiovascular health. Paul graduated in medicine from the University of W.A. in 1976, worked as a hospital doctor and later on an epidemiological project until 1980, then spent another two years at Stanford University in the USA as a postdoctoral fellow. In 1982 he joined the National Heart Foundation of Australia as Medical Associate to the Director and was later the Foundation's Medical Director and deputy national CEO from 1990 to 1997.Paul has variously been involved as an executive, a scientific administrator, a public spokesman and as a medical writer for both general and professional readers.

Bruce Martin is a young Wik man from Aurukun in western Cape York peninsula. He has lived in Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra, where he completed his schooling. He has since worked as a Youth Justice Worker for the Aurukun Council, and with the Queensland Department of Community Services and Child Safety as a youth worker with at-risk young Indigenous people from various Cape York Indigenous communities. He now works for WuChopperen Health Service in Cairns in the social health department as a volatile substance misuse worker with young Indigenous people in the region. For the past two years his core work has been around issues such as petrol sniffing in communities and ways to work with the community in addressing substance misuse problems.

Lesley Martin is head of the National Children and Youth Statistics Unit at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Unit was established in 2003 in response to the need for a statistical evidence base to support community and government policy related to children and youth. The role of the Unit includes: providing a statistical leadership role through the development of statistics on children and youth; promulgation of related concepts and definitions; engaging with key stakeholders regarding emerging issues, data gaps and needs in order to develop a National Information Development Plan for Children and Youth Statistics; and actively facilitating statistical responses to these requirements.

Yin Paradies is an Aboriginal-Anglo-Asian Australian from the Northern Territory. He has worked in Indigenous health research since 1995 and is currently completing a PhD in social epidemiology through the University of Melbourne while based at the Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin. His research interests include the health effects of racism and stress, race and culture in public health research and anti-racism policy and practice. He also has teaching experience at the postgraduate level in epidemiology, biostatistics, demography and multicultural competence for public health practitioners.

Indrani Pieris-Caldwell is currently a Project Manager at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. She has been at the Institute for 8 years working in a range of areas including Population Health, Cancer Screening, Veterans Health and Child and Youth health. Before joining the Institute Indrani worked in Sri Lanka as a Field Researcher at University of Colombo, and in Bangladesh as a Project Manager and a Consultant Demographer. Indrani has a PhD in Demography from ANU.

Helen Rogers is a project officer working in the Child, Youth and Families unit at the AIHW. Prior to this she worked as a Research Fellow at the Victorian Parenting Centre where she was involved in research in child and adolescent behaviour and parenting. She has a PhD in Psychology and a Masters in Educational Psychology.

Diana Smart is a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Project Manager for the Australian Temperament Project. She has been associated with the Australian Temperament Project since 1988 and prior to that conducted research for the Victorian Education Department's Curriculum and Research Branch and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's Education Unit, and was a Lecturer in Psychology at Rusden Teacher's College. Diana's research interests are adolescent and youth development, transitions to young adulthood, developmental pathways and transition points, and the fostering of social competence and social responsibility.