Meet the team

Associate Professor Christina Aggar

Associate Professor

An important feature of Christina’s research work has been leading and working closely with peak organisations (Carers NSW, Australian Primary Healthcare Association) and industry (FEROS, ICARE), consumers, academics and clinicians to improve patient care by supporting workforce development. This has led to Southern Cross University’s first interprofessional education (IPE) clinical placement opportunity in international and rural remote facilities.

Associate Professor Michelle Bissett

Associate Professor

Michelle Bissett is currently Associate Professor in Occupational Therapy in the Faculty of Health, based at the Gold Coast Campus. Michelle is a registered occupational therapist with extensive clinical and academic experience. Michelle’s research relates primarily to the occupational engagement of older adults across community and residential care environments. This work is motivated by her commitment to ensure that older adults age well and maintain opportunities to stay connected in their co

Professor Jennene Greenhill

Professor

As a nurse leader, Jennene is passionate about socially accountable health professional education and research that benefits communities, especially disadvantaged populations. Her international research profile encompasses rural health workforce, transformative learning, and health service improvement in underserved communities.

Professor Mark Hughes

Professor

Professor Mark Hughes's research centres on ageing and the delivery of health and aged care services to older people. He has previously researched conflict and violence in care-giving relationships, dementia and care-giving, older people's transitions through health and community care systems, and educational initiatives to facilitate reflective practice with older people. He has also published broadly on social work education, social work organisations and the impact of social work research.

Associate Professor Louise Ward

Associate Professor

Louise's research focuses on innovative nursing education, acute mental health, Older Person’s Mental Health (OPMH) care, chronic illness, clinical nursing practice, workplace culture, and experience. Louise maintains an active role promoting mental health education.

Associate Professor Matthew Yau

Associate Professor

Matthew has extensive academic and clinical experience in mental health practice, and has received training in sex therapy. He is an active advocate for sexual and intimacy rights of people with disabilities. His academic and research interests include occupation-based intervention, community mental health practice, culture & mental illness, and sexuality & disability. He often presents workshops, conference papers, and publishes articles on these topics.

Dr Jodie Cochrane Wilkie

Senior Lecturer

Jodie's work and research has focused on optimising or regaining movement and function. Previous work in this area had focused on developing athletes and elite athletes and optimising their movement, minimising injury or rehabilitating in return from injury so they could be the best in their sport (in preparation for World Championships, Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games). In recent years her work in optimising or regaining human movement and function has focussed on working with those with c

Dr Louise Horstmanshof

Senior Lecturer

Dr Horstmanshof is an active researcher and has peer review publications in the field of higher education, preparation of the health workforce, productive ageing, simulation and communication. She is a regular reviewer for several national and international journals.

Dr Barbara Adonteng-Kissi

Lecturer

Barbara's research interests and scholarly contributions are notably influenced by her Ghanaian cultural background. Her work primarily focuses on the lived experiences of older individuals and their family carers managing chronic life-limiting illnesses and providing informal care in rural Ghana. A key aspect of her research involves investigating methods to strengthen social structures, aiming to enhance the quality of life for both older people and their family carers...

Dr Claire Hutchinson

Lecturer

Claire has an extensive background in emergency nursing, working in education and clinical consultant roles before moving into an academic role in 2020. Claire started her career as a medic in the Royal Navy before training as a Registered Nurse in the UK. Claire completed her PhD in March 2023.

Dima Nasrawi

Lecturer

Experienced Registered Nurse with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in Research and teaching in the school of health and human sciences. Dima is a current PhD candidate and a unit assessor at Southern Cross University. Dima is a Cardiac Nurse and a member of the Australian Cardiac Rehabilitation Association.

Dr Felicity Walker

Lecturer

Dr Felicity Walker is currently a Lecturer of Nursing in the Faculty of Health at SCU. Felicity is interested in nursing workforce issues, leadership and management, and work integrated learning. Current projects engage collaborative partnerships with industry and education providers with a focus on WIL, supervision and leadership and student learning. Felicity has a background in clinical trials nursing and acute care nursing.

Dr Luke Del Vecchio

Lecturer

Highly Qualified health and exercise science professional with more than 17 years of experience teaching, leading, motivating and researching in a wide range of environments, including medical and government programs. Highly motivated, energetic, and passionate about evidenced based practise. Flexible, with an aptitude for tertiary level, fast-paced, and diverse education.

Dr Mitchell Longstaff

Lecturer

Dr Longstaff's research relates to fundamental and applied cognition (working memory, eyewitness memory), discrete/dynamic motor control, psychomotor skills (handwriting, drawing, aiming) and factors affecting these (dual-task performance, neurological degradation, individual differences, sex differences, anxiety). It has applications in education, development, forensics, ergonomics and neurological assessment, with Cognitive Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology as its theoretical foundation.

Dr Robert Lingard

Adjunct Senior Lecturer

Robert approaches research with a range of lens acquired through his qualifications and experience in the fields of human genetics, theology, and sociology. He is a qualitative researcher with Critical Realist commitments.

Dr Meaghan Vosz

Research Fellow

Meaghan is Research Fellow with the Co-creating rainbow-inclusive care for gender and sexually diverse people in residential aged care research project (2024-2029), led by Professor Mark Hughes. The project will collaborate with LGBTQ+ people, residential aged care providers and staff to design, implement and evaluate an inclusive model of residential aged care for LGBTQ+ people. Meaghan also works for the Centre for Children and Young People..