Research Advisory Committee
The Stroke Foundation Research Advisory Committee is a board sub-committee that advises on the strategy underpinning the Research Program and advises on activities arising from the implementation of the program, reviews submissions for grants for the Stroke Foundation Research Program, and advises on requests for Stroke Foundation participation or endorsement of external research programs and projects including partnership grants.
The Research Advisory Committee is comprised of experienced researchers with an established track record in research on stroke and/or related fields, along with one consumer and one carer representative.
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Professor Coralie English
Non-executive Director representing interests of Research and Chair of Research Advisory Committee
Professor Coralie English provides independent advice and expertise in stroke-related research to the Committee. Coralie English is a physiotherapist and an experienced stroke clinical trialist. She leads a team of researchers within the Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, Hunter Medical Research Institute…Professor Coralie English provides independent advice and expertise in stroke-related research to the Committee. Coralie English is a physiotherapist and an experienced stroke clinical trialist. She leads a team of researchers within the Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury, Hunter Medical Research Institute and teaches into the Physiotherapy Program at the University of Newcastle.
Coralie's research career began in 2000, when she undertook a PhD at the University of South Australia. Prof English’s professional network extends to national and international collaborations and professional committees.
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Dr Eleanor Horton
Dr Eleanor Horton is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast and a Nursing Fellow at the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service. Eleanor is passionate about making a difference in nursing and healthcare and this correlates with her patient engagement and…Dr Eleanor Horton is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast and a Nursing Fellow at the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service. Eleanor is passionate about making a difference in nursing and healthcare and this correlates with her patient engagement and advocacy interest. Eleanor is chairperson of the Consumer Advisory group for the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service District and the Health Service Rehabilitation Group. Eleanor sits on the Queensland Stroke Clinical Network Steering Committee, the Australian Stroke Coalition and has served on the Stroke Foundation Consumer Council. In 2016, Eleanor was an Advance Queensland Community Digital Champion. She is a member of the Smart Assistive Technology Collaborative, which is a Queensland Government Department of Communities, Child Safety, and Disability Services funded project focused on the use of Smart Assistive Technology for disabled and older people in the community. The project has been the development of a free online space to collaborate, learn and access resources and expertise in the area of Smart Assistive Technology. This platform contains local, state, national and international linkages and in 2016 and 2017 this project won awards at the Information Technology in Aged Care Conference. Her partner is a stroke survivor and is 18 years post stroke and her father is 3 years post stroke.
Eleanor: Since the stroke my partner has been differently abled (my terms) and has many of the hidden affects of stroke as well as the obvious hemiplegia and aphasia. Our home is a living lab for a CSIRO Smarter Safer Home project and we are always considering any opportunity to improve the lives of disabled stroke survivors in the community. Research at present is with members of the Statewide Clinical Stroke Network and the aim of the project is to systematically map current processes and pathways of assessment, referral and provision of rehabilitation through to patient reported outcomes. To establish service gaps in rehabilitation; and configuring rehabilitation services to meet needs and maximise flow from acute hospitals through rehabilitation to the community.
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Professor Ian Kneebone
Professor Ian Kneebone completed undergraduate degrees at the University of Adelaide, a masters degree in clinical psychology at the University of Western Australia and a doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Surrey. He has specialised in rehabilitation and worked with older and younger…Professor Ian Kneebone completed undergraduate degrees at the University of Adelaide, a masters degree in clinical psychology at the University of Western Australia and a doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Surrey. He has specialised in rehabilitation and worked with older and younger people who have encountered stroke for over thirty years. He has published widely on stroke, including on the assessment and management of mood disorders, the coping of informal carers of people who develop speech and language problems and on breaking bad news. He currently leads the Optimising Mental Health and Well-being stream of NHMRC funded Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia. Ian is a co-author of Psychological Management of Stroke, (Wiley, 2012) and was a member of the Core Steering Group that developed the National Stroke Strategy for England. Ian has a Chair in Clinical Psychology at the University of Technology, Sydney and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey, UK.
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Dr Katharine Brown
Katharine Brown is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Indigenous Cardiovascular Research program at the Telethon Kids Institute. She is a non-Indigenous woman living and working on Kaurna country. Katharine’s research draws on her experiences in advocacy, policy and translational research to respond to the…Katharine Brown is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Indigenous Cardiovascular Research program at the Telethon Kids Institute. She is a non-Indigenous woman living and working on Kaurna country.
Katharine’s research draws on her experiences in advocacy, policy and translational research to respond to the disparities in cardiovascular health and disease experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. She uses a broad range of research skills and methods. Katharine is motivated to increase understanding and awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander understanding of health and wellbeing to enhance provision of supports and care in this population.
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Professor Mark Nelson
Deputy Chair
Mark Nelson is Professor and Deputy Chair, Discipline of General Practice, School of Medicine and Senior Member Menzies Institute for Medical Research, both at the University of Tasmania, Hobart Australia. He is also an Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne…Mark Nelson is Professor and Deputy Chair, Discipline of General Practice, School of Medicine and Senior Member Menzies Institute for Medical Research, both at the University of Tasmania, Hobart Australia. He is also an Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne Australia. His research interests are around large-scale clinical trials in in primary care. He has 300 peer reviewed scientific publications, has been awarded more than AU$80 million in competitive grants and is a principal investigator on the NIH sponsored ASPREE / ASPREE-XT study (N = 19,000) investigating if aspirin extends healthy active life, and the NHMRC sponsored STAREE (recruitment to date >7000) similarly investigating if statins extend healthy active life. He also has been an author on multiple guidelines for cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment and remains in clinical general practice in Hobart Australia.
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Associate Professor Monique Kilkenny
PhD, MPH Grad Dip Epidemiol & Biostat B App Sci (MRA)
A/Prof Monique Kilkenny is a National Heart Foundation Future Leader and Senior Research Fellow at Monash University. A/Prof Kilkenny is a health services researcher and experienced epidemiologist with a background in health information management. A/Prof Kilkenny is the Head of the National Stroke Data Linkage…A/Prof Monique Kilkenny is a National Heart Foundation Future Leader and Senior Research Fellow at Monash University. A/Prof Kilkenny is a health services researcher and experienced epidemiologist with a background in health information management. A/Prof Kilkenny is the Head of the National Stroke Data Linkage Program at Monash University, and the projects she leads are essential to investigating quality of care provided to patients with stroke and are the cornerstones of informing the implementation of interventions to improve healthcare and patient outcomes.
Nationally, A/Prof Kilkenny is a leader in the field of stroke in the use of linked data and undertaking research on hospital performance, clinical quality registries and health promotion. A/Prof Kilkenny collaborations include researchers, industry and end users (i.e. Stroke Foundation, Victorian government, Queensland government). She has contributed to the evaluation of several programs (StrokeSafe and Know your numbers) for the Stroke Foundation related to health promotion, self-management and risk factor monitoring.
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Associate Professor Nadine Andrew
Associate Professor Andrew is a Senior Research Fellow with Peninsula Clinical School, Monash University and an NHMRC Early Career fellow. She has a clinical background in Physiotherapy, a Masters in Public Health and a PhD in epidemiology. She is an emerging leader in stroke and…Associate Professor Andrew is a Senior Research Fellow with Peninsula Clinical School, Monash University and an NHMRC Early Career fellow. She has a clinical background in Physiotherapy, a Masters in Public Health and a PhD in epidemiology. She is an emerging leader in stroke and health service research, with a focus on using large datasets to answer questions about what constitutes best-practice care for survivors of stroke to maximise long-term quality of life and reduce unmet needs. She is involved in a number of quality improvement projects and over the last five years has developed a strong track record in the area of data linkage. She has been responsible for coordinating large national cross-jurisdictional data linkage projects. These projects have been the first in Australia in which researcher held clinical registry data have been linked, across jurisdictions, to state and nationally held administrative datasets. Associate Professor Andrew is currently leading a project in which data from the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry will be linked to Medicare and pharmaceutical data to provide insights into some of the services and care types being accessed by survivors of stroke living in the community.
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Associate Professor Ronil V. Chandra
MBBS, MMed, FRANZCR CCINR
Associate Professor Ronil V. Chandra is an academic NeuroInterventional Radiologist at Monash Health and Monash University. Ronil completed his Fellowship in Neuroradiology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Fellowship in Interventional Neuroradiology at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, returning to Monash Health as a…Associate Professor Ronil V. Chandra is an academic NeuroInterventional Radiologist at Monash Health and Monash University. Ronil completed his Fellowship in Neuroradiology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Fellowship in Interventional Neuroradiology at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, returning to Monash Health as a consultant Neurointerventional Radiologist in 2012.
In his current role as a senior healthcare clinician leader and academic researcher, Ronil is passionate about creating clinical and research impact to advance knowledge, and to improve patient access and outcomes in NeuroInterventional Radiology.
Over the last decade, he has performed >1000 procedures to improve the lives of patients and continues to provide emergency and elective patient consultation and management in NeuroInterventional Radiology. He has contributed to the development of mechanical thrombectomy guidelines for patients with severe stroke in Victoria and led the implementation of mechanical thrombectomy service at Monash Health after publication of the landmark clinical trials in 2015. This service is now one of Victoria’s designated statewide centres for mechanical thrombectomy and provides care for >1.5 million people.
In 2021, Ronil’s leadership positions include Head of NeuroInterventional Radiology at Monash Health, and Deputy Program Director Monash Imaging, where he leads patient safety and quality of care initiatives in Radiology. Ronil has >180 peer reviewed scientific publications listed on Scopus, publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, and continues to actively participate in clinical research. He is principal investigator of ESCAPE-NEXT clinical trial at Monash Health, co-investigator of several international multicentre clinical trials in stroke (EXTEND-IA, EXTEND–IA-TNK, EXTEND-IA TNK2, DIRECT-SAFE), co-ordinating principal investigator of a first-in-human trial of the Ocudyne system in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, and co-chief investigator of NHMRC funded research in both subarachnoid haemorrhage and subdural haemorrhage.
Ronil has also co-authored multiple professional society clinical practice guidelines and serves as a member of leadership or research committees at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists and World Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology.
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Dr Samantha Siyambalapitiya
BSc, BSpPath (Hons I), PhD, CPSP, SFHEA
Dr Samantha Siyambalapitiya is a speech pathologist and Program Director of the Master of Speech Pathology at Griffith University. Samantha has around 20 years experience as a clinician, tertiary educator and researcher. She is a second-generation migrant who grew up in a bilingual household. Samantha…Dr Samantha Siyambalapitiya is a speech pathologist and Program Director of the Master of Speech Pathology at Griffith University. Samantha has around 20 years experience as a clinician, tertiary educator and researcher. She is a second-generation migrant who grew up in a bilingual household. Samantha leads a program of research exploring how to improve culturally responsive practice with people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This includes leading funded projects, supervising doctoral candidates and providing peer review for numerous journals regarding cultural and linguistic issues. She has extensive experience teaching speech pathology students about aphasia (acquired language disorder), including bilingual aphasia. Samantha recently contributed to the development of the Speech Pathology Australia position statement and clinical guidelines relating to culturally responsive speech pathology services. She is the founder and leader of Sympatico Research Group (Vision: “Integrating Culture and Language with Health and Wellbeing”).
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Ms Saran Chamberlain
After suffering a stroke in 2013 at the age of 38, Saran Chamberlain is a passionate advocate for stroke survivors within her home state of South Australia and at a national level. Before the stroke, Saran was managing an international software company, travelling once a…After suffering a stroke in 2013 at the age of 38, Saran Chamberlain is a passionate advocate for stroke survivors within her home state of South Australia and at a national level. Before the stroke, Saran was managing an international software company, travelling once a month and loving life. In one brief moment her life was turned upside down.
Saran currently works in several Research Projects giving her lived experience to improve lives of survivors of trauma and is a member the Stroke Community of Practice in South Australia. Beyond these roles, Saran is involved in many advocacy activities as well as Support Coordination for people touched by stroke. Saran enjoys sharing her experience with health professional students as they put theory into practice, through her involvement in student workshops. She knows from her own experience with NDIS there is a need for compassion, empathy and direction in this field.
Through her own experience, Saran knows the journey after stroke can be long and isolating for young stroke survivors. She strives for increased awareness of young stroke, to ensure young stroke survivors are connected and have the supports they need to make their journey that little bit easier.