Study Team

The Hazelwood Health Study (HHS) is being led by Professor Michael Abramson from the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and Dr Matthew Carroll from the Monash School of Rural Health. These two Principal Investigators, along with two other researchers and the Project Manager, form the Project Management Group which oversees all study operations.

A larger team of researchers from across Monash University, Federation University Australia, the University of Tasmania, CSIRO and the University of Adelaide has been assembled and forms the Project Steering Committee, responding to a series of key research questions outlined in the study aims.  To do this, the research is being undertaken in a number of targeted research streams. Links to the official university profiles for each of the stream leads are included below.

The HHS team, from Principal Investigators and Project Managers, through to Research Stream leaders and contributing staff, are outlined below:

Principal Investigators

Professor Michael Abramson - Principal Investigator

Professor Michael Abramson is the Principal Investigator for the study and is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Monash University. He obtained his PhD from the University of Newcastle for research on occupational asthma. His current research program covers the epidemiology of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including genetic and environmental risk factors such as smoking, air pollution and occupation. This work has been supported by the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australian Research Council, Department of Health, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Australian Lung Foundation and Asthma Victoria. He is a Chief Investigator on the NHMRC funded Centre for Air Quality & Health Research and Evaluation (CAR). He undertook a consultancy on ambient air quality standards for NHMRC and the en Health Council. He teaches epidemiology and Evidence Based Clinical Practice to medical students, postgraduate Clinical Epidemiology and units in the Doctor of Public Health at Monash University. He has received the Research Medal of the Thoracic Society of Australia & New Zealand, a Community Service Award from the Asthma Foundation of Victoria and a National Research Award from Asthma Australia. He has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lung Foundation Australia.

Dr Matthew Carroll - Co-Principal Investigator

Dr Matthew Carroll is the Co-Principal Investigator and is responsible for the Gippsland components of the study. Dr Matthew Carroll is a Senior Research Fellow within the Monash School of Rural Health and is based at Churchill, in the Latrobe Valley. Dr Carroll has been involved in the study from its inception, and leads the Psychological Impacts stream as well as being involved in other stream activities. As well as being one of the leaders of the Hazelwood Health Study, Dr Carroll is the National Convenor for the Emerging Researchers in Ageing initiative. With the other members of the Hazelwood Health Study Management Group, Dr Carroll is the recipient of the 2017 Dean's Award for Excellence in Research Impact (Economic and Social Impact) and the Dean's nominee for the Vice Chancellor's 2017 Research Impact Award. Dr Carroll took over the role of Hazelwood Co-Principal Investigator from Professor Judi Walker, who retired from Monash in 2020.


Core Project Team

Dr Jill Blackman – Senior Project Manager

Dr Jill Blackman commenced as Senior Project Manager to the Hazelwood Health Study in October 2015. Formerly a Research Fellow in the Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, Jill has approximately 20 years experience coordinating large-scale health studies including the longitudinal health study of Australian veterans of the 1991 Gulf War and the health study of Australia’s veterans of the Korean War. Jill oversees all aspects of the Hazelwood Health Study, including the research streams, contractual deliverables and budget. Jill is based at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the Alfred Centre in Melbourne. Jill can be contacted on 03 9903 0308 or jill.blackman@monash.edu

Dr Sharon Harrison – Project Manager

Dr Sharon Harrison joined the Hazelwood Health Study in February 2016. Sharon holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. She has over ten years experience working in the higher education sector and has extensive experience in research management and program coordination. Sharon can be contacted on 03 9903 0892 or via email at  sharon.harrison@monash.edu

Dr Tyler Lane - Study Senior Research Fellow

Dr Tyler Lane joined the Hazelwood Health Study in February 2022 as a Senior Research Fellow, where he works across study streams and is the Co-Stream Lead for the Cancer stream.. To date, his work has focused on long-term consequences of smoke exposure including COVID-19 vulnerability and cancer outcomes. Tyler has 15 years experience in quantitative research with stints as Senior Research Fellow in Cancer Council Victoria, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Healthy Working Lives Research Group, Assistant Statistician in the UK Civil Service, and Research Project Manager at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In 2021 he received a Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research (Economic and Social Impact) for his work on the COMPARE Project. Tyler holds DPhil in Evidence-Based Intervention from the University of Oxford, for which he studied the effects of familial illness on childhood responsibilities in South Africa. Originally from the United States, Tyler has lived in Australia since 2015 and became a citizen in 2022. Tyler can be contacted at tyler.lane@monash.edu.


Stream Leads

The study is about identifying potential health outcomes for people who may have been impacted by the smoke from the mine fire. These might include heart and lung disease, cancer, and mental health problems. It also looks at the effects on vulnerable groups such as infants and children, young people, and older people.

In order to address these key research questions, the following research stream areas have been established, which are led by the following team of expert researchers from across Australia.

Research StreamStream Lead Researcher/s
Adult StudyProfessor Michael Abramson
CardiovascularProfessor Dion Stub
RespiratoryMs Brigitte Borg
Community WellbeingDr Sue Yell
Older PeopleThis stream has now merged into the "Community Wellbeing" stream above.
Psychological ImpactsDr Matthew Carroll
Early Life Follow upProfessor Fay Johnston
HazelinksProfessor Yuming Guo
CancerProfessor Malcolm Sim and Dr Tyler Lane

Staff

Marita Dalton – Manager, Early Life Follow-up Stream

Marita Dalton commenced her position as Manager of the Latrobe Early Life Follow-Up (ELF) Study in May 2015. With a background in health information management, epidemiology and database management, Marita’s experience with large cohort studies has most recently been as Project Manager of the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health (CDAH) Study at Menzies Institute for Medical Research (Tasmania). She is responsible for overall coordination of activities relating to recruitment, data collection and data linkage for the ELF Study. Marita is based at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the Alfred Centre in Melbourne. Marita can be contacted on 1800 322 102 or marita.dalton@utas.edu.au

David Brown – Data Manager

David Brown has worked in Information Technology projects in large organisations for more than 20 years. More recently, he has worked on Information Management and Reporting for Alfred Health before joining Monash University in 2015. His role on the Hazelwood Health Study is to oversee the management of information collected as part of the study. David is based at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Melbourne. He can be contacted via email david.brown@monash.edu

Christina Dimitriadis – Data Linkage and Extraction Manager

Christina Dimitriadis has worked as a researcher in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University for over ten years. She has coordinated several externally funded projects and has prior experience conducting data linkage for the Australian Firefighters’ Health Study and Healthwise Cancer Incidence & Mortality Study. Christina is responsible for aspects relating to ethics applications for the Hazelwood Health Study and provides assistance with the data linkage processes. Christina is based at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the Alfred Centre in Melbourne. Christina can be contacted on 03 9903 0159 or christina.dimitriadis@monash.edu

Natasha Kinsman – Data Linkage and Extraction, Ethics

Natasha has been working in the public health research field for more than 10 years. She also has several years' experience working in government health policy roles. More recently, Natasha has coordinated several large projects that investigate ways to reduce musculoskeletal disorders associated with work. Natasha joined the Hazelwood Health Study team at the start of 2023, and is responsible for coordinating ethics approvals and data linkages whilst Christina is on maternity leave. She can be contacted on natasha.kinsman@monash.edu

Dr Caroline Gao – Lead Biostatistician

Dr Caroline Gao commenced as the project biostatistician on 24 Feb 2017. Caroline obtained her PhD in infectious disease epidemiology from the University of Hong Kong in 2012. After that, she joined Turning Point, Monash University Eastern Health Clinical School working on alcohol and drug epidemiology. Caroline has been involved in a diverse range of research projects involved with analysing different types of administrative, clinical and survey data. Caroline’s role with the Hazelwood Health Study will be to undertake analyses of collected data. Caroline is based at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the Alfred Centre in Melbourne. Caroline can be contacted on 03 9903 0317 or caroline.gao@monash.edu.

Catherine Smith – Biostatistician

Catherine Smith commenced as a project biostatistician in June 2020. Catherine has a Masters degree in Applied Statistics from Melbourne University and a  Master of Public Health from Sydney University. She has been working as a biostatistician in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine since March 2011 and has worked on a range of research and consulting projects during this time. Catherine can be contacted at catherine.l.smith@monash.edu

Tim Campbell - Mental Health Researcher

Tim Campbell is a mental health researcher and commenced his role as a research officer with the Psychological Impacts Stream of the Hazelwood Health Study in 2018. Tim contributes to planning, coordination, and reporting across the stream’s program of research. In conjunction with his work with the HHS, Tim is a PhD candidate based in Gippsland with Monash University's School of Rural Health. Tim's PhD project investigates how Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) can best respond when a young person attending for mental health care has a parent who also experiences mental illness. Tim can be contacted via email at tim.campbell@monash.edu

David Poland - HHS Administration Gippsland

David joined the HHS team in 2021 to assist with the roll out of the Adult Respiratory clinical assessments and has since taken on the role of HHS Administration for Gippsland. David came to the study with over 20 years of service as a paramedic with Ambulance Victoria, and has extensive experience in health and in customer support. David supports all local activities including communications, website, surveys and clinical assessments. David can be contacted via telephone on 1800 985 899, or via email at david.poland@monash.edu

Shantelle Allgood – HHS Administration Gippsland

Shantelle joined the HHS team in August 2017. Shantelle is member of the Gippsland team and her role includes performing a host of administrative tasks, at times extending to the broader study. Shantelle has played an important role in data collection/fieldwork for the Psych, ELF, Cardiovascular and Respiratory streams as well as handling many of our interactions with the community. Shantelle can be contacted on 1800 985 899.

Our Partners

Acknowledgement to Country

We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Elders and Traditional Owners of the land where our Study teams are based, particularly the Gunaikurnai peoples of Gippsland.