Alumni Profiles

Christopher Roberts Senior Scholars

“I was very fortunate to have received the songs of the Star Mountains before they were lost. The importance of preserving the teachings of that tradition, which villagers impressed upon me with such gravity, now lies in making the songs permanently available.”

Dr Christopher Roberts, composer and researcher in traditional music, has won a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to work with the South Australian Museum on a project to feature a unique musical tradition from Papua New Guinea (PNG).

“After earning my first master’s degree from the Juilliard School, I was awarded a grant to document traditional music in Papua New Guinea just as a huge mining project arrived and changed the culture there forever,” Christopher said.“What I found was a lively tradition of music that had not previously been documented due to the remoteness and isolation of the people of the Star Mountains.”

Through his Fulbright, Christopher will integrate two hundred songs he documented from the Wopkaimin people into an exhibit and ongoing research project in conjunction with an international group of scholars based at the South Australian Museum who are compiling a complete anthropological portrait of the region. This will involve cross-disciplinary collaboration with anthropologists for the transfer of audio recordings, related visual media, notation, analysis, and translations of each song to be cross-referenced with corresponding field data. Working with the Curator of Foreign Ethnography at the South Australian Museum, Christopher will then co-author a paper on the topic of Star Mountains motifs in which they will combine their documentation of the relationship between visual motifs in Star Mountains carvings and the way musical motifs are composed.

Christopher has a Bachelor’s of Music from Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles; two MMs and a double DMA from The Juilliard School. This is his second Fulbright; in 1987, he received a Fulbright-Hays grant to travel to Taiwan to study the classical qin. He has won many awards and prizes including a Continental Harmony Commission through the American Composer’s Forum, a Pacific Cultural Foundation Grant, and a Roger Tory Peterson Institute Research Grant. His interests include Chinese classical music and jazz bass, both of which will be featured in his lectures at the Elder Conservatorium of the University of Adelaide.

Ray Cadmore Professional Scholars

“It is critical the skills base of the Australian workforce meets the need for a ‘tech literate’ workforce.”

Ray Cadmore is a Senior Educator at Sunraysia Institute of TAFE and a Director of the Mildura Regional Waste Management Group, a Victorian Government statutory authority. He holds a Masters in Professional Education and Training and has a strong professional background in identifying the integration of emerging technologies and skill gaps.  He will study at the Forsyth Community Technical College under the Centre for the Biotechnology Workforce in North Carolina from July to October 2014.

His studies focus on the drivers of new and emerging technologies in vocational education and training curriculum in the U.S., in particular, the way industry, government and vocational educators engage with future training needs and with each other.

“Bio manufacturing has the capacity to become a very significant employer and could offer great economic benefit for Australians. I would like to see Australian regions take the lead in developing and innovating new technologies such as bio-manufacturing. It is critical the skills base of the Australian workforce meets the need for a ‘tech literate’ workforce.”

Professor Matthew Clarke Professional Scholars

Matthew is currently Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University and an executive member of the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership (CHL).

Matthew will use his Fulbright Scholarship in Non-Profit Leadership to spend three months at Save the Children USA, Harvard University and Tufts University to develop formal relationships between these institutions and the CHL. These partnerships will enhance the professional development of humanitarian workers in responding to complex humanitarian emergencies. Working with Save the Children USA, Matthew will increase connections between aid agencies in the U.S. and the CHL in Australia and create new professional development initiatives that respond specifically to the needs of humanitarian workers responding to disasters in North and South America.

Michelle Deshong Professional Scholars

Michelle grew up in the Townsville region of North Queensland and is a mother of 3 children.  She has worked in both the government and NGO sectors as a senior manager and held prominent senior leadership roles.  From 2001-2010 Michelle was the Executive Director of the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre and in 2001 she was awarded ACT Aboriginal Person of the year.  She has also held a number of community advocacy roles such as the co-chair of the Canberra Bushfire Recovery Appeal, Chair of Midtha Goothilans Indigenous women’s network in Townsville and was appointed to the Queensland Justice Taskforce in 2012. She is currently a Director of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service and Fair Agenda.

She has been an Australian NGO representative (representing Indigenous women) at the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) negotiations and the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations over a number of years.  This work has prompted her interest in further research and development of gender equality principles and domestic policy development.   She is a strong advocate for Indigenous women and human rights with a background in gender equality work and research that ensures the voices of Indigenous women are represented at all levels.

Michelle has completed a BA Honours (First Class) in Political Science and Indigenous studies at James Cook University and she is now in her final stages of a PhD on ‘enabling the participation of Aboriginal Women in public and political life in Australia’.  Michelle has received a University Medal and Dean’s List award from James Cook University.  She was awarded the Runner Up in the 2012 Queensland Rural Woman of the Year and in 2013 Michelle was named in the Australian Financial Review/Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards.

She is also a Fellow with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and an accredited trainer and facilitator in Leadership, Politics and Governance fields. Michelle is passionate about working with Indigenous women and in particular runs a range of Indigenous women’s leadership programs across the country to empower and engage women in capacity building.

Michelle will be working collaboratively with the Udall Center and Native Nations Institute to undertake a comparative analysis on First Nations women in governance roles.  This will include the completion of an Indigenous Governance program at the University of Arizona.  She will be working to identify best practice and key principles that contribute to effective nation building and link to areas of self-determination and decision making as underpinned by the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Michelle is eager to learn from an international gendered perspective on tribal leadership, native nations development and educational services between CANZUS countries. Michelle wants to enhance the capacity to engage broadly and increase Indigenous knowledge and apply these principles to an Australian context. Importantly the relationships established as part of the collaboration will lead to the development of new tools and resources to engage Indigenous women in areas of leadership and governance in Australia.

Gayle Maloney Postdoctoral Scholars

Gayle is the founder and principal Clinical Psychologist at the Psychological Wellness Centre, a private practice formed in 2006. The practice is comprised of a team of Clinical Psychologists dedicated to providing best practice by matching client’s presenting issues with the most appropriate Clinical Psychologist based on their different areas of special interest, experience and therapeutic approach.

Gayle has worked as a Clinical Psychologist for the past 15 years since graduating with the masters prize in psychology from Curtin University in 2000. Gayle holds a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) with first class honours; a Masters degree in Psychology (Clinical); and a Ph.D. She is a member of the Australian Clinical Psychology Association and the International OCD Foundation.

Gayle has gained extensive clinical experience working with adult clients and multi-disciplinary clinical teams in diverse environments including Western Australia’s largest public and private hospitals. Gayle has training in a range of psychotherapeutic approaches including cognitive-behavioural therapy, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, schema therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Gayle’s clinical work is predominantly in the area of providing psychological treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), perfectionism and anxiety. Gayle also provides clinical supervision and training in psychological therapy to other mental health professionals.

Through her clinical work Gayle became fascinated by the more complex causes of OCD and elected to undertake further research in this area, while continuing to work in her private practice. Gayle was the recipient of an Australian Postgraduate Award to complete a PhD during 2007-2011 that investigated the salient aetiological factors in the development of unrelenting levels of perfectionism, which is a known factor associated with OCD. In particular she examined how parental bonding and temperament interact to form specific core beliefs that contribute to the development of perfectionism. Gayle has presented her research at national and international conferences.

In addition to practicing evidence-based psychological therapy for OCD, Gayle’s research interests are concurrently focused on the development of adjunct psychological treatment strategies for OCD sufferers whose symptoms do not adequately respond to existing available psychotherapeutic approaches and medications. Gayle believes that the process of achieving successful treatment outcomes often requires drawing on knowledge from multidisciplinary teams, and a variety of therapeutic approaches to develop optimised treatment methodologies.

As a Fulbright scholar, Gayle will collaborate on a research program with one of the leading experts in OCD, A/Professor Christopher Pittenger at the Yale OCD Research clinic, during July-November 2015. The Yale clinic has a 25-year history of groundbreaking advances in the understanding and treatment of OCD. In particular, they will work together on combining an adjunct clinical component with established treatments whilst utilising Yale’s neuroimaging technology, in order to expand the scientific evidence base for new OCD treatments.  Gayle will have the opportunity to learn about aetiology and treatment from a wide breadth of disciplines through observing research trials that seek to advance the field’s understanding and treatment of the disorder. Gayle will also complete advanced-level courses on OCD and related treatments, at training facilities only available in the U.S.

Through pursuing research areas that combine Gayle’s clinical experience with OCD sufferers with the biological and neuroimaging expertise at the Yale OCD Research Clinic, the collaboration seeks to foster mutual enrichment of knowledge between Australia and the U.S. to inform further research, and develop desperately needed new adjunct treatments in the field of OCD.

Based on additional knowledge gained in the U.S., Gayle will provide training to the Clinical Psychologists working at the Psychological Wellness Centre, and make available professional development webinars and workshops for Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatrists in the broader Australian profession involved in the treatment of OCD.

By far the most important area to disseminate the findings of the Fulbright scholarship is to the sufferers of OCD and their families. Hence, Gayle plans to open the ‘Perth OCD and Anxiety Clinic’ in 2016, which will be comprised of a team of experienced Clinical Psychologists with a special interest in the treatment of OCD. The clinic will also provide ongoing advanced professional development opportunities in the field of OCD psychological treatment.

Peter Nugus Postdoctoral Scholars

#Older people are more likely to have multiple health problems, requiring care coordination across different professionals and organizations. Our aging populations, therefore, make “integrated care” a new and vital field of study.”

Dr Peter Nugus, a Research Fellow with the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at UNSW has won a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship to spend several months at the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of California-San Francisco. Through his Fulbright, Peter will research the integration of hospital and community care of older people.

Peter’s cross-disciplinary, qualitative research project will evaluate an internationally unique policy experiment by the State of California to enhance the coordination, or “integration”, of health care for older persons (aged 65 and above). This project will produce internationally transferable criteria to determine whether and how policy reforms designed to enhance the coordination of health care do and do not work in practice.

“This in-depth observational project aims to produce new, international professional development criteria and policy guidelines for best practice in integrated care,” Peter said.

“It will evaluate the extent to which, and how, clinicians successfully implement internationally innovative reforms to link health services for older patients. Although such work is largely communication work, little qualitative research has addressed how effectively frontline staff coordinate care.”

Peter said that the project will give empirical substance to the debate over the shape of future reforms and how learning from the US can be translated to the Australian context.

Peter has a BA(Honours) in Political Science and Philosophy, and an MA(Honours) in Sociology (from the University of New England), a Graduate Diploma and Masters of Adult Education (from the University of Technology Sydney), and a PhD in Medical Sociology (from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales). Peter has received awards and prizes including the prestigious “Jean Martin Award” from Australian Sociological Association, and the UNSW Dean of Medicine’s “Rising Star” Award. He has also published extensively and been awarded competitive grants to further his research. He continues his musical interests, including organising musical performances in retirement villages and a remand centre. He also raises money and runs in charity events.

Tarah Barzanji Postgraduate Students

“A number of social problems, prevalent in family homes, have historically received low priority in Australia and continue to impede happy and healthy childhood development”

Tarah Barzanji, currently working on bureaucratic performance in the US with consulting firm Monitor Group, will have the opportunity to spend two years undertaking a Master of Public Administration through a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship. Tarah will focus on non-profit management and social policy implementation. Her particular areas of interest are children’s and women’s welfare.

“With scarce resources, it is tempting for governments not to prioritise ‘low yielding’ social policy, where the investment does not produce immediately visible outcomes, but instead prioritise funding towards causes where results are tangible and rapid,” Tarah said. Tarah will team a postgraduate education in social policy and non-profit management with her experience working in the former Office of the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to help the non-profit sector in Australia to better deliver social policy programs. “Working in the Prime Minister’s Office demonstrated to me the good that can be achieved through public funding of social policy,” Tarah said. “There is a real opportunity to elevate the profile of some social problems located in the family home, which is why I am looking to postgraduate study in a program specialising in social policy and the management of the non-profit sector.”

Tarah says that the US is the home of a thriving, large non-profit sector and a culture of philanthropy, which will provide her with exposure to best practice in non-profit management. Academically, the US is one of the few countries that offer postgraduate subjects specializing in non-profit management and will give her access to academics and practitioners in the field. Tarah has a BA and an LLB (First Class Honours) from the University of Sydney. She entered the public service through the graduate program at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and subsequently worked as an advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office. She has previously received prizes including an Australia Day Achievement Award, the John D’Arcy Memorial Prize and the Federal Minister for Education Australian Student’s Prize. Her personal interests include writing, travel, dance and soccer.

The prestigious Fulbright program is the largest educational scholarship of its kind, created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange, it operates between the U.S. and 155 countries. In Australia, the scholarships are funded by the Australian and U.S. Governments and corporate partners and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission in Canberra. Tarah is one of 26 talented Australians to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011.

Reuben Finighan Postgraduate Students

“Energy is the lifeblood of the globalised economy. Standing upon the shoulders of the Industrial Revolution, the average Australian today releases energy equivalent to 50 barrels of oil per annum–equal to one human labouring for 250 years.”

Mr Reuben Finighan, Research and Project Manager with the Climate Group in Melbourne, is the inaugural winner of the Fulbright Climate Change and Clean Energy Scholarship. The scholarship was established by the Australian and U.S. Governments in 2010. Through his Fulbright, Reuben will spend two years at Harvard University carrying out a Masters in Public Policy, specialising in energy and climate policy.

“Empowering as fossil fuels have been, we are increasingly aware of their alarming limitations. Our energy system is intimately tied to the great challenges that loom large this century: the environmental (climate change); economic (peaking oil); security (international conflict); and humanitarian (energy poverty). Market failures of such diversity and magnitude demand public policy solutions of matching sophistication and scale,” Reuben said.

Reuben said that energy sector innovation is key to addressing the issue.

“The 2010 Gates Foundation annual letter emphasised that, ‘the most important innovation required to avoid climate change will be a way of producing electricity that is cheaper than coal and that emits no greenhouse gases.’ A ‘Clean Industrial Revolution’, built upon low carbon, abundant, and cheap energy, will complete the work left unfinished by the Industrial Revolution and enable global prosperity to become both universal and sustainable into the future.”

Reuben’s goal is to become a leader in the design and development of effective policies and institutions to help in the achievement of this end.

“My core interest is accelerating energy technology innovation, in the context of issues such as climate change. Key issues include the balance between R&D, commercialisation support and large-scale deployments in bringing cost reductions; and fostering international collaboration,” Reuben said.

Reuben has a BA and a BSc (both First Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne. He has won awards and prizes including a Melbourne Community Foundation Scholarship; first prize in Australia’s $45,000 National Energy Essay Competition; and he shared in the Banksia Awards: Mercedes Benz Australian Environmental Research Award. In his spare time Reuben enjoys dancing, gardening, cooking, reading, hiking, music, singing, travel and writing.

Claire Gordon Postgraduate Students

“Patients who have received a heart, lung, liver, kidney or bowel transplant, have an increased risk of viral infections, which can lead to failure of the transplanted organ and even death.”

Dr Claire Gordon, an Infectious Diseases Registrar at the Royal Darwin Hospital, is one of two winners of the Fulbright Northern Territory Scholarship, sponsored by the NT Government, Charles Darwin University and Blackboard (Australia). Through her Fulbright Claire will go to the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Columbia University Medical Center, New York for three years to undertake a Master of Arts in Biomedical Informatics.

Claire will work on two research projects that encompass the fields of virology and viral immunity. She has a special interest in viral infections in solid organ transplant recipients, a vulnerable group who are given immunosuppressive medications in order to prevent rejection of the donated organ.

“The outcome of an infection with a virus in these patients is the result of the interaction between the virus and the immune system. To study only the virus or only the immune response may not provide the complete answer. My two research projects will therefore examine both the virus itself, as well the virus in context of the host immune system response,” Claire said.

Claire’s first research project will focus on Cytomegalovirus (CMV), a herpesvirus which infects up to 70% of the population. CMV tends to reactivate in transplant recipients, which can be devastating for the patient. Her first research objective is to examine the immune factors responsible for preventing CMV reactivation in healthy tissues, which will allow her to develop an understanding of the immune response to viruses and the skills needed to conduct scientific research into viral immunity.

Her second research objective is to identify novel viruses in transplant recipients with unexplained infections, and then to develop and improve molecular tools to diagnose these novel and other known viral infections in immunocompromised patients.

Claire has a MBBS with honours and a BMedSc from the University of Melbourne, and is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She has won numerous awards and prizes including:  2011 Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) Trainee Research Award; 2010 Victorian RACP Trainee Research Award; 2010 Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases Trainee Research Award; 2010 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Fellows Travel Grant, 2009 ASM ICAAC Fellows Grant Program Award; 2004 Melbourne University Dean’s Honours List; 2004 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ Students’ Prize; 1998 Australian Students’ Prize for Excellence. In 2010, she made a major discovery in relation to the severity and treatment of swine flu, which propelled her into the international medical arena. She has also published widely internationally. In her spare time she enjoys running, multi-day hiking, swimming and yoga.

Abby Kelly Postgraduate Students

Abby began her professional career as a residential interior designer after completing a Bachelor of Science in Design at the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL) in 2005. After working as a designer for three years in Lansing, Michigan, she decided to return to school to pursue a degree in engineering in order to make a more significant contribution to society. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Biological Systems Engineering from UNL in 2012. At the end of her bachelors, she was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship due to her undergraduate research on the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize and diagnose muscle degradation associated with Peripheral Arterial Disease and for her work in engineering education on the accreditation and assessment of undergraduate engineering curricula. Abby conducted her Masters research in the field of gene delivery, developing a method to improve the delivery of foreign DNA to human mesenchymal stem cells through nonviral means for improved genetic reprogramming. She was awarded a Master’s degree in Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering from UNL in 2014. Abby is currently pursuing a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Washington, where her research focuses on the development and evaluation of more effective drug delivery systems to combat pulmonary infections caused by tier 1 agents Burkholderia pseudomallei and Francisella tularensis. Abby has coauthored multiple publications on her undergraduate and graduate research as well as on her work in engineering education, and is a co-inventor on a patent for a device to more accurately quantify air-leaks from the pleural space following a traumatic lung injury.

Abby will conduct her Fulbright research at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in the manufacturing flagship where she will characterize the effects of polymer architecture on the efficacy and toxicity of peptide delivery. She is most excited to improve her polymer synthesis skills while working with the inventors of one of the most-used polymerization techniques in the world, reversible addition fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Abby will be joined in Australia by her husband, an aspiring filmmaker who is excited to document their once-in-a-lifetime Australian Fulbright adventure.

Adam Webster Postgraduate Students

“In recent years much of south-eastern Australia has been plagued by drought. In a number of states of the United States water is an equally scarce resource.”

Mr Adam Webster, a PhD candidate in law at the University of Adelaide, is one of two winners of the 2012 Fulbright South Australia Scholarship. Through his Fulbright Adam will extend his PhD research regarding rights to water from rivers that flow through more than one state.  He will spend the majority of his time in the United States at the University of Arizona.

“In particular, my research examines the dispute between the states of Australia over the allocation of water from the River Murray,” Adam said.

“The issue of interstate water rights in Australia is an area of law that has received very little academic attention. Given that in recent years the states have had difficulty in reaching political agreement on how best to solve the problems associated with a shortage of water in the River Murray it is likely that these legal issues will receive greater attention in the future.”

Adam’s research in the United States will examine the history of interstate water disputes in that country with a view to determining how the legal solutions developed in that country may assist in the resolution of similar disputes in Australia.

“In the U.S., courts have recognised the existence of an interstate water right. The question of whether there exists an interstate water right in Australia has never been put before a court,” Adam said.

As part of his research, Adam will examine whether the resolution of similar issues in the United States of America assists in finding a legal solution to similar problems in Australia. Whilst the dispute over water from the River Murray is a uniquely Australian problem, there are many similarities between Australia and the United States which make for an ideal comparative study: both countries have federal systems of government and in both countries water is at a premium in arid zones.

Adam has a B Eng (Civil) (Hons) and a LLB (Hons) in Law from the University of Adelaide and a Grad. Dip. in Legal Practice from the Law Society of South Australia. He has won various awards and prizes including the Zelling-Gray Postgraduate Scholarship in Law. In his spare time Adam enjoys travel, coaching and officiating hockey, painting and cricket.

Daniel Wodak Postgraduate Students

“I am interested in how philosophy of language can be applied to meta-ethical debates, drawing from emerging methodologies like experimental philosophy, and the implications this has for morality and law.”

Daniel Wodak, who recently graduated in Arts and Law from The University of Sydney, has won a Fulbright Scholarship, which he will use to undertake a PhD in philosophy at in the United States, specialising in moral philosophy.

“My interests in moral philosophy are fairly broad, ranging from meta-ethical questions about how moral obligations provide reasons for action, to questions in normative ethics about what our moral obligations are, to debates in semantics (philosophy of language), jurisprudence (philosophy of law) and philosophy of happiness,” Daniel said.

“Moral philosophy is something people often engage in on a regular basis, because disagreement about important moral issues is everywhere. Philosophers just take these debates to greater and greater levels of abstraction. It’s important to keep in mind that however abstract you get – and many of the meta-ethical debates that I’m interested are pretty abstract – the arguments involved have serious real world implications. Daniel says that America has a strong tradition of making these implications apparent.

This is largely due to “a stronger culture of philosophers being engaged in political commentary and debate.” Also, “professors of philosophy are often involved in teaching and writing about law, and vice versa. This makes law students all the more likely to be critically engaged in philosophical debates about what law is, and what it ought to be.” Daniel’s interest in philosophy began when he enrolled in Mind and Morality, in his penultimate year of High School. He continued this study through his university years. Over the last two years he has lectured and tutored in philosophy at the University of Sydney while completing his Bachelor of Laws, with a particular focus on jurisprudence.

Daniel has a BA and LLB (First Class Honours) from The University of Sydney. He was awarded the University Medal and the John Anderson Prize for Best Thesis in Philosophy. In addition to Philosophy Daniel is interested in debating, swimming, cycling, reading, theatre, film and art. He has edited a range of student publications including Honi Soit, The Bull, The Sydney Globalist and Dissent, and interned at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency and the Refugee Advice and Casework Service.

The prestigious Fulbright program is the largest educational scholarship of its kind, created by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright and the U.S. Government in 1946. Aimed at promoting mutual understanding through educational exchange, it operates between the U.S. and 155 countries. In Australia, the scholarships are funded by the Australian and U.S. Governments and corporate partners and administered by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission in Canberra. Daniel is one of 26 talented Australians to be recognised as a Fulbright Scholar in 2011.