Researchers

Dr Kathleen Baird

Dr Kathleen Baird is a Senior Midwifery Lecturer and researcher within the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Griffith University. Her field of expertise is in the field of partner and family violence. Kathleen has been a midwife since 1996 and during that time she has gained a wealth of clinical experience in a variety of positions. Such positions included team midwifery, group practice and one to one case holding.

Dr Baird has successfully undertaken several funded research projects in the domain of partner violence, both independently and as part of a team, leading to numerous conference presentations and publications, gaining herself a national and international reputation pertaining to the advancement of routine antenatal enquiry into violence in pregnancy.

Dr Baird has worked alongside several UK Government organisations such as the Home Office and the Department of Health and professional bodies such as the Royal College of Midwives.

The Bristol Pregnancy Domestic Violence Project (BPDVP) a Department of Health funded research study has influenced practice in the field of domestic violence in pregnancy and has led to the introduction of the national routine enquiry in the antenatal period for domestic violence in pregnancy in the UK.

Professor Jennifer Fenwick

Professor of Midwifery and Clinical Chair Griffith University and Gold Coast University Hospital. Jennifer is a registered midwife with over thirty years clinical, academic and research expertise. This has involved the implementation and development of women centred models of maternity care in both the public and private sector in Australia. Jennifer has expertise in qualitative research design and analysis and is well published in the area of women’s experiences of mothering in the neonatal nursery, women’s expectations for labour and birth and women’s experiences of cesarean section and vaginal birth after cesarean. Recent research interests include fear of childbirth and the impact of healthy facility design Jennifer holds a number of national competitive grants and has published over 100 peer reviewed papers. Jennifer is also the co-author of two books that use narrative to describe and explore the histories of nursing and midwifery in Samoa.

Jennifer has three beautiful children, Elise 26, Christopher 22 and Olivia 18.

Professor Jenny Gamble

Professor Gamble was appointed to Griffith University in 2003. She developed an award-winning Bachelor of Midwifery (BMid) program, built a strong, credible academic team, and this team is now introducing an innovative Master of Primary Maternity Care. Her research focuses on critiquing medical interventions in birth; psycho-education interventions to improve women’s emotional health, and enhancing the role of the midwife.

Jenny has held a range of professional leadership positions and worked in several Australian states and overseas. She pioneered caseload midwifery practice in Queensland and was the first midwife to gain visiting rights to a Queensland hospital (1992).

Her life’s work has been aimed at reforming maternity services through strengthening the role of the midwife. Jenny is currently a Professor of Midwifery and Acting Head of School, Nursing and Midwifery.

Professor Tony Perkins

Professor Tony Perkins is a biochemist with particular interests in anti-oxidant enzymes systems in the human placenta. His research is focused on preeclampsia, a complication of pregnancy, and how mitochondrial dysfunction influences placental cell turnover Professor Perkins has an active research laboratory examining the role of oxidative stress in preeclampsia and cardiovascular diseases. He has published approx. 60 papers (h index 23) and raised more than $3 million in research funding. He has an international reputation in placental biology/biochemistry and has been invited on many occasions to present at International and National Meetings. He has several ongoing collaborations with well-respected researchers in the obstetrics field is on the editorial board for ISRN Obstetrics and Gynaecology and is a regular reviewer for a variety high ranking academic journals. Professor Perkins is the current Dean Academic for the Health Group.

Professor Debra Creedy

Professor Debra Creedy is a nurse and psychologist, and currently Professor of Perinatal Mental Health at Griffith University. Professor Creedy has conducted maternity research for the past 25 years. Her clinical research involves several successful randomised controlled trials on the effectiveness of counselling interventions to assist distressed women; and support programs for couples becoming parents. In order to promote evidence-based practice, Professor Creedy has conducted several systematic reviews through the Pregnancy and Childbirth Group of the Cochrane Collaboration and the Joanna Briggs Institute. Professor Creedy is co-author of the text, Health & Human Behaviour, and has over 180 book chapters and journal articles.

Associate Professor Anne Sneddon

Associate Professor Anne Sneddon is Medical Director of Women’s Services at GCHHS. She has a clinical interests in keeping the woman and her family at the centre of innovative models of care. She is Chair of Australian Maternity and Reproductive Education (AMARE), a volunteer multidisciplinary group that develops and delivers quality education such as Advance Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) and Becoming A Breech Expert (BABE). She is Vice President of Women’s Health Australia, a national benchmarking and advocacy group. She is also Chair of Queensland Branch of Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand. (PSANZ). Her research interests are in endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain and clinically focused maternity research.

Professor David Ellwood

Professor David Ellwood is Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Griffith University, Queensland and Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Gold Coast University Hospital. He has broad clinical and research interests, primarily in the field of adverse outcomes of pregnancy and birth including stillbirth. He is a member of the Queensland Maternal and Perinatal Quality Council and co-Chair of the Perinatal Mortality sub-committee, and a member of the National Maternal Mortality Advisory Committee. He is a Chief Investigator on a number of National Health & Medical Research Council grants and is involved in a range of projects, especially those involving stillbirth, and is the past Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Stillbirth Alliance and a previous President of the International Stillbirth Alliance. He is the immediate past-President of the Federation of Asia-Oceania Perinatal Societies (FAOPS) and also a past-President of the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ). He was also the Editor-in-Chief of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology from 2006 to 2010. As well as these clinical roles he is active in the field of medical education and is currently a Director of the Australian Medical Council and their Chair of the Medical Schools Accreditation Committee.

Dr Peter Schmidt

Peter Schmidt is a neonatologist and currently Director of Neonatology at Gold Coast University Hospital. Over the last 8 years he has been part of a multidisciplinary team, focussed on the design, planning and implementation of a new level 6 neonatal service at Gold Coast University Hospital. Prior to working on the Gold Coast, he worked in NICUs in Christchurch, New Zealand and Vancouver, Canada. Peter has research interests in family centered developmental care and neonatal clinical care. He is involved in a multicentre trial on Family Integrated Care within the NICU and is supervising studies on light and sound within the NICU and jaundice assessment.

Dr Tim Hong

Dr Timothy Hong has been a Neonatal Staff Specialist at the Gold Coast University Hospital since 2011. He graduated with a B. Med. Sci. from the University of Sydney in 1997, majoring in Immunology and Infectious Diseases. Tim completed his medical degree (MBBS) at the University of Sydney in 2001, and completed his specialty training in Neonatology / Paediatrics in 2010 becoming a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP) in 2011. In 2010 he also completed a Masters of Clinical Epidemiology with Distinction through the University of Newcastle and was an Associate lecturer in Medicine at the University of New South Wales. In 2011Tim became a Neonatologist at Gold Coast Hospital and was involved in the development of tertiary level neonatal services at GCUH. Part of his role is in teaching medical students from Griffith and Bond Universities.

Tim has published a Cochrane review on screening for developmental dysplasia of the hips in neonates, which was presented at the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ) conference in 2010. He has also completed a linkage study examining respiratory readmissions for infants born less than 32 weeks in the first 3 years of life in NSW, with the results being presented at the PSANZ conference in 2011 and will soon be submitted for publication.

Tim is currently a member of the Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network Data Collection Operating Committee (ANZNN DCOC), which oversees data collection and reporting for neonatal units, particularly tertiary units, throughout Australia and New Zealand. Tim has an interest collection of epidemiological data and its use for quality improvement and benchmarking of neonatal services. He is currently involved in a study comparing the short-term outcomes for preterm infants between an open ward style neonatal unit and a single family room unit.

Ms Cathy van den Berg

Cathy completed her nursing and midwifery training in South Africa where she awarded the Grooteschuur Hospital Gold Badge and the Captain Hare Award. Cathy moved to Australia with her family in 1995 and commenced employment in Special Care Nursery at Gold Coast Hospital (GCH) in 1996.

In 2008 Cathy attended the 21st Annual Gravens Conference for the Physical and Developmental Environment of the High Risk Infant in Clearwater Beach, Florida, USA. During this trip Cathy along with a team from GCH, reviewed single family room neonatal intensive care unit design in preparation for the development of the new neonatal unit to be built at GCUH.
In 2008 Cathy was appointed as project officer with the Queensland Maternity and Neonatal Clinical Guidelines Program and during the next two years managed the development of state-wide Maternity and Neonatal Clinical Guidelines, during this time Cathy presented at conferences and was co-author of the Australian College of Neonatal Nurses Inc. Clinical Practice Guideline ‘Palliative Care in the Neonatal Nursery’.

Cathy was appointed Project Manager for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Transition Project at GCH in 2011. Cathy worked with the neonatal team managing the implementation of the two-cot prototype NICU and the transition from a Level 4 to a level 5 neonatal service at GCH and the development of the new single family room neonatal unit being built at GCUH to ensure it met user requirements and was ready for service implementation on relocation from GCH to GCUH in 2013. In March 2014, Cathy was appointed to the position of Nurse Unit Manager of the NICU and was awarded the Juanita Hynes Excellence Award. She is currently undertaking her Masters in Health Service Management at Griffith University.

Associate Professor Mary Sidebotham

Mary is a registered midwife. Prior to moving to Australia in 2005 she held senior operational positions within maternity organisations in the UK where she designed and conducted service level reviews and subsequently implemented innovative service delivery models in maternity care. She has worked as a midwife in Australia in a variety of settings including small rural units and private practice and is currently employed by Griffith University as the Program Director of Primary Maternity Care degree programs. Mary has a research interest in building a strong resilient midwifery workforce and her Doctoral thesis examined the factors influencing the migration of midwives from the United Kingdom to Australia and what their experience was of transition into the workforce in Australia. Her current research focusses on workplace culture and the emotional wellbeing of the midwifery workforce. She is interested in promoting professional development and education as a means to strengthen the workforce and this has led to a growing reputation for excellence in midwifery education. Mary is an Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) National Citation recipient for inspirational leadership within midwifery education. She has a particular interest in curriculum design, assessment, and the integration of graduates into professional practice. Mary contributes to maintaining professional standards through her work as an ANMAC assessor and as an assessor for the Queensland Civil and administrative Tribunal (QCAT).

Dr Jocelyn Toohill

Jocelyn is a midwife passionate about safe delivery of woman centred maternity care, aligning practice with evidence, redesign of workforce and collaborative models of continuity of midwifery care, promoting normal birth, reducing stillbirth and perinatal mental health. She has more than 20 years clinical, management, education and research experience across primary and tertiary level services within both the public and private maternity sector. In her PhD, a multi-site randomised controlled trial, she demonstrated midwife psycho-education is effective in reducing childbirth fear in pregnant women.

Some of Jocelyn’s achievements/positions include; establishing the Gold Coast Birth Centre and Midwifery Group Practice Model; supervision of higher degree students; co-leading the Queensland state-wide clinical guideline for promoting normal birth (published in 2012); executive member PSANZ Queensland; Fellow of the Australian College of Midwives. Jocelyn has a gazetted government appointment as a Nursing and Midwifery expert for the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), and is recognised as an expert on professional matters by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.