Alumni Profiles

Dr Patrick Kilby Senior Scholars

Patrick is the Coordinator of the Masters in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development Program at the Australian National University, and carries out research in gender and development, foreign aid policy, and NGOs.

Patrick’s Fulbright project will see him working with Feed the Future Innovation Labs at Kansas State University to analyse their agricultural research in aid and development programs, and in particular how local communities (particularly women) can adapt this research to their local needs. From this research Patrick will gain an insight into the future directions foreign aid-supported agricultural research may take. The focus will be on the implications for U.S. and Australia’s agricultural development assistance in a rapidly changing world, and most importantly, how this research can have the greatest impact on local communities.

Dr Ateev Mehrotra Senior Scholars

Ateev is a physician and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Health Care Policy. His research focuses on the growing use of telemedicine in the United States and its impact on improving the care patients receive and increasing access to rural communities.  

During his Fulbright Scholarship he will partner with hosts at the Centre for Online Health to compare how telemedicine is being used in the United States and Australia. In both countries, the use of this promising technology is growing rapidly, but which conditions is telemedicine being used to treat? Is it reaching the most underserved populations? Findings will inform clinical practice, policy discussions, and reimbursement policies in both countries. 

Professor Mark Trotter Senior Scholars

Mark grew up on a dairy farm on the mid-north coast of NSW where he developed a passion for agriculture and life-long goal of helping farmers become more productive, efficient and sustainable. He is an Associate Professor in Precision Livestock at CQUniversity Australia and focuses his research on sensor technologies for animals and pastures.

Mark’s Fulbright project will explore how data from GPS tracking and behavioural sensors on livestock can be integrated with satellite imagery of the pastures or rangelands being grazed. The project will be undertaken in two very different environments: the first in Ohio where soils are fertile and rainfall plentiful; and the second in New Mexico, where desert rangelands dominate. The outcomes will provide farmers with a deeper understanding of the way in their cattle or sheep are using the pasture and landscape, enabling them to make better decisions to increase production efficiency and reduce environmental impacts such as overgrazing.

Kristian Wale Professional Scholars

Kristian has been working with vulnerable young people for over 25 years. Having first started working on the streets of Brisbane with homeless young people in the early 1990s, he soon realised that education was a key factor in the prevention of youth disengagement. As a registered teacher and a former outdoor education worker, he has pioneered a number of alternative education programs and Special Assistance Schools across Queensland. Kristian has worked extensively in the not for profit sector with organisations such as Teen Challenge and Youth for Christ. He was seconded to Singapore in the mid 1990s to establish programs that targeted disenfranchised young people. In 1998, Kristian joined the Shaftesbury Centre as an educator and in 2007 was promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer. In his role as CEO, Kristian has developed an innovative independent school named Arethusa College that caters for disenfranchised students from mainstream schools. Utilising unorthodox educational and learning methods such as bull-riding, animal assisted learning, building and riding skateboards made from imported Canadian maple, Arethusa College now has five campuses located in Queensland and is currently founding its sixth campus in Tasmania.

Kristian is an active member of his local community and has participated in everything from constructing orphanages in Mongolia to feeding the homeless across the state. A Rotarian for over 15 years, he is committed to contributing to positive change in the local community in a wide range of areas. Kristian was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 2009 and a Paul Harris Fellowship in 2013 in recognition for his work in the community.

Kristian is a strong advocate for working with Indigenous young people caught up in the juvenile justice system in Queensland. He has initiated a number of educational, agricultural and social enterprise programs that assist young people to acquire adequate skills in literacy and numeracy and transition into the workforce. As a Scholarly Visitor to the Centre for Indian Education housed within Arizona State University’s School of Social Transformation, Kristian will conduct research on strategies used in Native American Reservations that target adolescent disengagement. An outcome of the proposed research is that Indigenous communities in Australia will benefit from some of these strategies being used in the United States and that this may assist in addressing the oversubscription of young Indigenous people being incarcerated.

Kristian will be accompanied by his wife and youngest daughter for the 12 week visitation to the United States.

Dr Kathryn Crowe Postdoctoral Scholars

Kathryn is a postdoctoral researcher at Charles Sturt University and a project officer on an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant addressing children’s speech and literacy development. Previously Kathryn has worked as part of the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) study, and as a speech pathologist at the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children. Kathryn is a university medalist and holds a Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts, majoring in linguistics, and a Master of Special Education (Sensory Disability) from the University of Newcastle. In her PhD studies at Charles Sturt University she examined cultural and linguistic diversity in children with hearing loss in Australia and their families, and how caregivers made decisions about which language/s and communication modalities their children with hearing loss would use. Kathryn also holds a Diploma in Interpreting Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and English. As a speech pathologist, educator, and researcher Kathryn is working towards a world in which Deaf and Hard of Hearing learners will have equitable access to education, and show language and academic outcomes on par with those of their hearing peers.

Outside of her work Kathryn is a passionate figure skater having skated in national and international competitions in the discipline of synchronized skating. She is an accredited coach teaching beginner skaters at her home rink and with her home team Fire On Ice. Kathryn also enjoys travelling and is always on the lookout for something tall to conquer. Her latest adventures were hiking to Upper Yosemite Falls in California and trekking over the icy Fimmvörðuháls pass in Iceland, including over the new craters and lava from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities calls for inclusive education for learners with disabilities. Inclusion cannot mean merely placing Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) learners in hearing classrooms, but understanding differences in the learning needs of DHH and hearing students. For her Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship, Kathryn aspires to develop pedagogies that take these differences into account so that DHH learners can achieve greater levels of language and literacy skills. Kathryn will work with Professor Marc Marschark to examine how DHH university students process, store, and retrieve words/signs in memory. Kathryn will conduct projects which will investigate the relationships between words/signs in memory (semantic networks) and how networks vary between DHH and hearing students, and students who use English and/or American Sign Language.

Dr Andrew Gardner Postdoctoral Scholars

Andrew is an early career research fellow and Co-Director of the Hunter New England Local Health District’s Sports Concussion Clinic.

For his Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship Andrew will be visiting the Football Players Health Study (FPHS) at Harvard to learn as much as he can about the FPHS’s work on prevention, diagnostics, and treatment strategies for common and severe health conditions affecting former professional football players. He will equip himself with the knowledge, resources, and capability to replicate the FPHS in rugby players in Australia. Ultimately this program will result in improving the health and quality of life of retired rugby players.

Dr Sean Martin Postdoctoral Scholars

Sean is a National Health and Medical Research (NHMRC) Early Career Research Fellow, based in the Freemason Foundation Centre for Men’s Heath at the University of Adelaide. Sean’s current research interests centre on urological epidemiology, specifically how urological symptoms relate to other chronic diseases.

For his Fulbright Scholarship, Sean will be examining in detail the socio-cultural & demographic influences on the high level of urological dysfunction seen in disadvantaged urban communities, a noted public health concern in both the USA and Australia. This work will be based out of the New England Research Institutes (Boston), world-renowned for their work in health disparities, in association with local collaborators at Harvard and Massachusetts
General Hospital.

Thomas Newsome Postdoctoral Scholars

“The Australian understanding and approach to dingoes is characterised by conflicting and often extreme views on what role the dingo should have, if any.”

Dr Thomas Newsome, an Honorary Research Fellow of the Desert Ecology Research Group at the University of Sydney, and Senior Ecologist at the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation, is this year’s Fulbright NSW Scholar Sponsored by the New South Wales Government and universities. Through his Fulbright, Thomas will go to Oregon State University (OSU). He will collaborate with researchers from both OSU and the University of Washington on research into the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park. Bringing together experts in the U.S. and Australia, Thomas’ focus will be on whether there would be benefits for Australia in using similar measures with dingoes in areas where they have become locally extinct.

“Research on the dingo is important for two reasons. First, wild dogs, including dingoes, cause millions of dollars of damage to agricultural productivity annually. However, and second, recent studies suggest that the reintroduction of the dingo into areas from which it has been extirpated (made locally extinct) could be the key to restoring Australian ecosystems decimated by introduced predators such as the feral cat and European red fox,” Thomas said.

“From a scientific point of view the key questions are whether the dingo has a positive or negative impact on ecosystems and whether it should be reintroduced into areas where it no longer exists. From a social and economic point of view, the questions are whether humans and dingoes can co-exist and, if so, how to manage negative interactions. Due to the contentiousness of the issues, the conflicting interests of stakeholders, and the present uncertainty in the evidence, no reintroduction of the dingo has been trialled.”

“My career goal is to find answers to those questions and be part of a solution to an issue that has remained unresolved for decades: how to manage dingoes in Australia.”

Thomas has a BSc, MSc and PhD from the University of Sydney. He has received several grants and has published his doctoral research. His awards include: Awards Australia – Finalist – Northern Territory Young Achiever; combined Australian Postgraduate Award and Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre PhD scholarship. He was selected for the pioneering Desert Knowledge Australia two-year cross-cultural leadership program for emerging leaders in Central Australia. His interests include rowing, mountain biking and golf.

Victoria Austin Postgraduate Students

Victoria is a PhD candidate researching the structure and function of female superb lyrebird vocalisations at the Lab of Animal Ecology at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University. For her Fulbright Scholarship, Victoria will learn cutting edge song analysis techniques with Professor Mike Webster at Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Female song is widespread in song birds, but there is limited understanding of its function both independently and in relation to males. Hypotheses proposed in recent research have yet to be empirically tested and field-based studies are urgently needed. Using a comprehensive field-based study of female superb lyrebirds accompanied with detailed acoustic analysis, Victoria aims to identify sex-specific ecological and social drivers of elaborate female vocalisations, and account for variation in song within and between females. Her research will contribute to the understanding of both the evolution of bird song and the behavioural ecology of this iconic Australian species.

Stephen McAnearney Postgraduate Students

“Innovation and entrepreneurial drive within technology organizations has helped shape the world we live in. With a strong history of innovation and a continued commitment to this focus, the United States provides a positive environment in which to explore the elements necessary for successful and meaningful innovation. I hope to build on this experience and contribute to Australia’s leadership as an innovator in the biotech and healthcare industries.”

Stephen McAnearney, a recent graduate of the University of Western Australia has won a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to go to Columbia University in New York. Stephen is planning to undertake a Master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation in high tech organizations, specifically within the healthcare and biotech industries.

“The program is designed to be broad based with the option to take courses in various departments including the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Business School, the School of International and Public Affairs and the Law School. This emphasizes a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to healthcare and technology innovation” Stephen said. Stephen hopes to explore the interaction between the healthcare industry and the emerging Web 2.0 technologies such as social and digital media organizations, cloud computing and high-speed internet services and the potential of these new technologies in improving clinical outcomes.

“Australia already has a history of innovation within the biotech industry and is now prioritizing the opportunities provided by the internet and other technologies at the Federal level. It is a crucial time to investigate the interaction between the healthcare industry and these technologies within the entrepreneurial context. This would help develop new products, services and organizations which provide meaningful and lasting improvements to patient outcomes and the wider community” Stephen said. Stephen has recently completed a BSc and BEng with First Class Honours at the University of Western Australia. He received various awards and scholarships including the Engineers Australia Sir Russell Dumas Medal for the top ranked final year student in the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics and the Convocation, UWA Graduates Association Prize for the most significant contribution to the Faculty. He also undertook a semester abroad at University College London and an internship at Harvard Medical School. While at UWA, he co-founded a student volunteer group, Engineering Happiness, dedicated to providing fun, science based programs for children in hospital and primary school students around Western Australia.

Miranda Samuels Postgraduate Students

Miranda Samuels earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in 2014 from UNSW Art and Design. Whilst at university she co-founded the Girl Genius award and founded the Brightside alternative education program. She is currently Public Engagement and Events Officer at UNSW Galleries and the Co-editor of the Countess Report for whom she publishes data on gender representation in the Australian contemporary art world and regularly speaks in public forums about gender inequity in the arts. She has established a number of responsive art education programs for young people without access to mainstream art education, and has built education programs for organisations within the public, private and community spheres including Youth Off The Streets and Hermes Australia. Until recently she worked at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in the Learning and Participation department working on community, access and school programs.

Miranda will use her Fulbright Scholarship to pursue interdisciplinary studies in the philosophy and politics of art education, feminist pedagogy, cultural policy and contemporary art practice to understand how the interplay of such disciplines work to uphold or challenge the status quo. Through the application of this research she hopes to improve access to and access within art education through inventive cultural policy making and radical education programming that actively addresses social inequities and is more responsive to social, political and environmental complexities within Australian society.

Dr William Yan Postgraduate Students

William is a surgical trainee and postgraduate researcher with an interest in ophthalmology, digital health and blindness prevention. After completing his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at Monash University, he studied ophthalmic epidemiology at the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) exploring the impact of socioeconomic factors on the quality and distribution of eye care services worldwide. William is an advocate for technology-driven approaches to increasing healthcare access and sustainability and has collaborated with companies such as Google to develop disease-screening tools for patients and clinicians.

As a Fulbright Future Scholar, William will complete a Fellowship in Ophthalmic Innovation at the Stanford Byers Eye Institute to advance his understanding in translational research and technology development. In addition, he will pursue studies in clinical bioinformatics with a view to supporting the application, efficiency and impact of health data analytics that will complement informed clinical decision-making in Australia.