Staff
Dr Alex Brown
Dr. Alex Brown is an Indigenous doctor, completing his BMed in 1995. He undertook his MPH in Israel in 1998, and is a Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. He has recently completed his PhD thesis on chronic disease and depression in Aboriginal men in Central Australia. Dr Brown has 10 yrs of involvement in Aboriginal Health, education, policy, communicable disease control, service delivery and public health, epidemiology, research and research ethics.
Dr Brown has spent the last 6 years developing a program of research with a particular focus on Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes and Rheumatic Heart Disease. Between 1999-2003 he ran the Centre for Disease Control in Alice Springs, then was employed as the Senior Research Fellow for Menzies School of Health Research. In 2007 he commenced as Head, Baker IDI Central Australia: Indigenous Health Research.
Dr. Brown has a national profile in Indigenous cardiovascular and metabolic disease research and policy development, through specific projects, and national advisory groups. He has presented extensively across the country, and overseas. His publications include invited editorials discussing CVD in Aboriginal Australians and key Evidence Based Guidelines for CVD in Aboriginal people.
Dr Brown has been heavily involved in engaging government and lead agencies in setting the agenda in Aboriginal CVD control [particularly notable in relation to Indigenous Health, Acute Rheumatic Fever/Rheumatic Heart Disease, Quality Use of Medicines, and advisory roles within the NHF].
Dr Brown represents Aboriginal issues on national committees and at national forums. His work on psychosocial determinants of CVD in Indigenous men, depression in Indigenous men, quality of care and outcomes following ACS, KVC Programme, the polypill trial in Aboriginal people, and landmark survey of heart failure in Aboriginal communities place him at the forefront of a key research group for chronic disease in Aboriginal people.
Catherine Geraghty
Catherine Geraghty is the Office Manager/Executive Administrator of the Baker IDI Central Australia: Indigenous Health Research Centre. She holds a B.A. (Hons) and M.A. from Flinders University. Her first remote area appointment was located on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands in the far north of South Australia. Since 1999 she has been employed in an administrative capacity in education/health organisations in the Northern Territory. Catherine has been with Baker IDI since September 2008.
Ricky Mentha
Ricky Mentha is an Indigenous research Fellow with an Aboriginal Health Worker background. His has an interest in the Indigenous chronic disease burden experienced by Aboriginal people living in a contemporary first world Australian context.
Ricky has worked at the Alice Springs Renal Unit in 1997 delivering clinical care and outreach education including medication management to renal patients living with end stage renal failure.
He has a community development background which has given him a framework to conceptualise the degree of poverty, social, and financial exclusion faced by Aboriginal populations in this geographical context of Central Australia.
Indigenous Vascular health awareness and the advocacy role Ricky plays at the Baker IDI and within the Central Australian community has given him the opportunity to unwrap and engage the social determinants of health, and the relevance of healthy living behaviours to the social and cultural contexts.
Ricky has been involved in the Men's Hearts & Minds, and Heart of the Heart studies, and the Kanyini Vascular Collaboration - Qualitative study & Poly pill Clinical Trial.
Barbara Molanus
Barbara started work at Baker IDI Central Australia in April 2009. She is a Registered Nurse, currently completing a Masters in Public Health through the Menzies School of Health Research. She has spent most of her professional life working in the Northern Territory in a number of roles focussing on Indigenous health. Having spent 5 years working as a Remote Area Nurse in Central Australia and a number of years as an emergency nurse in both the Top End and Alice Springs she has now focussed her attention on research. Barbara currently coordinates a Randomised Controlled Trial (Kanyini GAP Polypill) as well as working as the research nurse on the same project. This is the second multi-centre RCT she has coordinated.
Bernadette Rickards
Bernadette is a Research Nurse working within the Baker IDI Central Australia: Indigenous Health Research Centre in Alice Springs. A Registered Nurse by trade, she completed a Master of Public Health at the University of Queensland in 2006 and has been working within the research field in Alice Springs since then.
Bernadette's chief research interest is qualitative research methods. She is involved in the conduct of the Kanyini Qualitative Study, which aims to explore the barriers and enablers of chronic disease care for Indigenous Australians. This study is a national, multi-site project that resides within the Kanyini Vascular Collaboration, a 5-year NH&MRC funded program of research reflecting the partnership between the Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute and the George Institute for International Health.
Stacey Svenson
Stacey is a Registered Nurse and Midwife working at the Baker IDI Central Australia: Indigenous Health Research Centre in Alice Springs. Her current role is Research Nurse on the Heart of the Heart study which has investigated the prevalence of heart failure and vascular risk in Indigenous people in Central Australia.
Having been a resident of Central Australia for a little over a decade Stacey has enjoyed many roles in her nursing career including Remote Area Nurse, community and hospital midwife and university clinical facilitator. Stacey has post graduate qualifications in Paediatrics, Midwifery and Remote Health Practice and has an interest in maternal and child health, facilitating timely primary health care.
Emma Tilley
Emma commenced at the Baker IDI Central Australia in September 2009. Having being involved in several research projects within Central Australia, the move into Indigenous vascular and diabetes research was quite smooth.
She has a Graduate Diploma in Public Health and has worked in Central Australia on and off for the last 8 years, where she has been working on Indigenous focused research steadily for the last 3 years.
Her prior research includes, working on a Multicentre Bronchiectasis Study, and project coordinating a Chlamydia Screening Pilot Project. But more recent, working on the Heart of the Heart Study based at Baker IDI.
Samantha Togni
Samantha commenced with Baker IDI Central Australia in September 2009. She has a BA (Hons) and MA from the University of Melbourne and since the early 1990s has worked with Indigenous communities and organisations in northern and central Australia in the areas of social health research, community development, project management, organisational development and capacity building. Samantha has experience in the evaluation of programs and community-based initiatives to improve health and wellbeing within Indigenous communities. Her role at Baker IDI includes participating in qualitative research projects, supporting the development of effective research outputs and contributing to capacity building and support within the research team.
Steve Warren
Steve Warren works in two worlds and has what he thinks is the best balance in his work, clinical nurse specialist in the Emergency Department at Alice Springs Hospital and site investigator of a nationwide acute coronary syndrome registry here at Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute.
With 20 years nursing experience in the hospital and community settings here in Australia, NZ and the UK Steve has completed postgraduate qualifications in emergency nursing and tropical nursing. The ability to now enter the public health arena has given him the opportunity to broaden his knowledge and skills to go further on the path to gain a better understanding of the complex health issues facing Central Australia, where he has been resident for the past nearly ten years.
Helen Liddle
Bio to come..
Sarah Wren
Sarah commenced with Baker IDI Central Australia in January 2011. She has a Masters of Health Science (Nursing) and a Graduate Certificate in Diabetes Education. Her nursing experience extends across the tertiary and primary health care settings. For the past decade, education of both nurses and clients has been the primary focus of Sarah’s work, particularly diabetes education for clients within the acute sector. Sarah’s role at Baker IDI involves support for both patients and the health centre team to achieve improved outcomes for people living with diabetes in and around Alice Springs, including nine remote centres in Central Australia.
