Our people
Executive team
Prof David Berlowitz
David holds the University of Melbourne Chair of Physiotherapy at Austin Health and is a physiotherapist with the Victorian Respiratory Support Service. David’s research encompasses respiratory physiology, sleep, health systems research, machine learning, and clinical trials of therapies and care models.
Dr Marnie Graco
Marnie is an implementation scientist and leads the Implementation Science Stream at BEST. Marnie’s research aims to improve the health and quality of life of people living with neuromuscular diseases, by increasing the uptake of evidence-based treatments of their sleep and breathing disorders.
Dr Nicole Sheers
Nicole is a respiratory physiotherapist with over 25 years of experience and leads the Clinical Innovation Stream at BEST. Nicole’s research focuses on the development and testing of novel treatments to improve breathing, sleep and cough function for people living with neuromuscular diseases.
Dr Joel Yang
Joel is a sleep scientist and leads the Technological Innovation Stream at BEST. Joel holds a senior scientist position in the Paediatric Sleep Service at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. His research involves the development and integration of emerging technologies to enhance patient outcomes across sleep and respiratory medicine.
Dr Yasmin Ahamed
Yasmin is a post-doctoral researcher and trial manager for the multinational clinical trial: ’Polysomnographic titration of non-invasive ventilation in motor neurone disease (3TLA).’ Yasmin manages finance, human resources and governance for the BEST research group.
Dr Kate Carey
Kate is the laboratory manager and a post-doctoral researcher at BEST providing operation support and clinical trial monitoring expertise. Kate’s varied academic background spans basic science, exercise science, and clinical neuromuscular disease research.
Our team
Dr Charissa Zaga
Charissa is a post-doctoral clinician-researcher in speech pathology and implementation science. Her clinical research interests include the early facilitation of communication and swallowing rehabilitation in critically ill patients.
Nicole Grivell
Nicole is an implementation scientist, qualitative researcher, and registered nurse. Her research interests include the sleep and breathing of people living with motor neurone disease, primary care management of sleep disorders, co-production of research with consumers and communities, translation of research findings into practice, and the design of new models of care to improve the delivery of health services.
Dr Laura Stendell
Laura is a physiotherapist and post-doctoral researcher with experience in neurological rehabilitation and spinal cord injury. She is the trial coordinator for the Restoration of Respiratory and Upper Limb function after cervical spinal cord Injury (RRULI) trial.
Chris Michael
Chris is an experienced data analyst and data manager at BEST with expertise in creating, implementing and managing databases. Chris utilises advanced data analysis and visualisation to examine, clean and model raw data to uncover actionable insights, trends, and patterns for research and clinical decision-making.
Jessica Kearney
Jess is a research officer and occupational therapist who works across multiple projects at BEST. She combines clinical expertise and a communications background to bring a comprehensive and person-centred approach to care, research and research communications.
Megan Walsh
Megan is a research assistant and physiotherapist with expertise in neurological rehabilitation and spinal cord injury. She works across multiple projects developing innovative therapies and models of care for people living with spinal cord injury.
S. Natascha Voelker
The Austin Health Physiotherapy Department provides early career physiotherapists with the opportunity to develop research skills and experience during an 8-month rotation with the BEST research group. This role is currently being filled by physiotherapist Natascha Voelker who is providing research assistance support across a number of projects.
Students
Elena Gerstman
Elena is a PhD candidate and senior physiotherapist working in general medicine at Austin Health. Elena’s health services research focuses on frailty, novel care models and the use of data to improve health care delivery.
Stacey Haughton
Stacey is a PhD candidate through the MACH-Track program and a senior physiotherapist at Austin Health specialising in complex assessments and discharge planning. Stacey’s research is focused on improving management of sleep disordered breathing and equitable healthcare access for people with spinal cord injuries.
Talia Clohessy
Talia is a PhD candidate through the MACH-Track program and senior physiotherapist at Austin Health. Her research focuses on respiratory and ventilatory management and is investigating the effectiveness of acute intermittent hypoxia as a therapy for improving functional outcomes after incomplete spinal cord injury.
Nicola Burgess
Nicola Burgess is a PhD candidate through the MACH-Track program and orthopaedic outpatient physiotherapist at Austin Health. Nicola’s research is examining how prehabilitation success is measured, identifying barriers and enablers to effective delivery, and developing screening tools to enable stratified, needs-based prehabilitation.
Luke McDonald
Luke is a PhD candidate and senior physiotherapist and clinical educator in the Intensive Care Unit at Austin Health. Luke’s research focuses on the competency assessment and training of ICU physiotherapists, including advanced scopes of practice in sedation and ventilation weaning for frail critically ill patients.
Thomas Wilson
Thomas is a PhD candidate through the MACH-Track program and senior speech pathologist at Austin Health. Thomas’ research interest focuses on the intersection of cough and swallowing, exploring how quantitative cough and respiratory measures enhance aspiration risk stratification.
Tom Rollinson
Tom is a senior Intensive Care Unit physiotherapist and the Physiotherapy Research Lead at Austin Health. He is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. His research has explored physical activity in patients with critical illness, muscle wasting in critical illness, early exercise interventions and biomarkers of catabolic state.