Our staff
Dr Wendy Shulver is the Manager of the Centre of Research Excellence in Optimising Care in the Home for Older Australians. She is a sociologist with research experience in the health and wellbeing of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. Dr Shulver has coordinated research projects, trials and programs in rehabilitation and aged care for over 12 years.
Dr Sharm Thuraisingam is a Biostatistician (MBiostat, PhD) specialising in the development of prediction models, clinical registry and electronic health record analysis, randomised controlled trials and healthcare data linkage projects involving large national data sets. She has experience in the design, data management and statistical analysis of randomised controlled trials and clinical registry studies, and experience analysing complex linked health data sets. Having worked previously as an Engineer (BEMech(Hons)), she brings a unique view to medical research. Sharm works on CRE Stream 1 research using ROSA data to identify key elements of successful ageing at home, and co-chairs our Policy & Research Translation Committee.
Dr Rachel McKittrick is a gerontological nurse and Research Fellow at Deakin University. Her work focuses on generating and translating research that supports meaningful home-based aged care reform at the policy and provider level, to improve both person-centred care delivery and workforce models in this space. Rachel’s interest in home-based aged care is driven by her many years of clinical experience, supporting older people and their families to navigate the complex aged care system, so they can live well at home. Rachel works on CRE Stream 1 research learning from the lived experience of older people and their carers to optimise care planning, with a specific focus on people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Dr Suzanne Byers is a social gerontologist and Senior Research Policy and Practice Fellow at CRE partner, the National Ageing Research Institute. She brings extensive experience in government policy and programs, project management, systems thinking, consumer advocacy and research across both ageing and health. Dr Byers is working on CRE Stream 4 work developing methods for real-time aged care policy evaluation.
Sue Williams is a physiotherapist and Senior Research Policy and Practice Fellow at CRE partner, the National Ageing Research Institute. She has over 30 years of clinical practice and research experience working with older people across hospital, aged care, and community settings. Sue will play a key role in supporting the CRE’s capacity building objective. This will involve equipping researchers with the knowledge and skills to apply research evidence to improve care for older people into the future, through the facilitation of targeted professional development workshops. The workshops will provide opportunities for those new to research in ageing including older people, practitioners/clinicians, academics, and policy makers to learn the important aspects of conducting research with older people.