People | MAPrc

Our People

MAPrc brings together an extraordinarily diverse group of people who have a wealth of knowledge and experience to offer.

Overall, we have a multidisciplinary team of staff and post-graduate students from medicine, nursing, psychology, allied health, science, and health information services.

Executive

The small executive team of MAPrc comprises of Director / Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, Deputy Director Dr Leo Chen and Manager Anthony de Castella. The MAPrc executive's plan, brainstorm and implement actions in alignment with the Centre's strategic goals and directions.

Director

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni (AM)

Jayashri Kulkarni (AM) was appointed Professor of Psychiatry at The Alfred and Monash University in 2002. She founded and directs a large psychiatric research group, the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc), which expanded from 25 personnel in 2002 to over 160 staff and students in 2017, covering seven different research streams, and conducting over 100 clinical trials.

Professor Kulkarni graduated from Monash Medical School in Melbourne Australia. She initially worked in emergency medicine and then decided to become a psychiatrist. She became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1989 and was awarded a PhD from Monash University in 1997 for her thesis Women and Psychosis. Professor Kulkarni became a Fellow of the prestigious Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2016.

She has won numerous awards and accolades for her work with mental health patients. Of note, Women’s Mental Health is Professor Kulkarni’s major area of interest and research. She is the current President of the International Association for Women’s Mental Health. In 2015, she founded the Australian Consortium for Women’s Mental Health. She has worked in the field of women’s mental health for 25 years and has improved the quality of care for women with mental illnesses by developing specific treatments that are tailored to suit women’s needs biologically, socially and psychologically. Her work has been published in many national and international peer-reviewed publications. To date, Professor Kulkarni has authored in excess of 200 papers, 23 book chapters and 40 other publications.

Deputy Director

Dr Leo Chen

Dr Chen is a registered medical practitioner, Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (FRANZCP) and Associate Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Adminstrators (AFRACMA). He is the Director of Psychiatry Training at Alfred Health and in clinical practice at Alfred health and Epworth Healthcare.

Dr Chen's role at MAPrc combines clinical medical/psychiatric, research and teaching activities. He is an Investigator on several interventional trials at MAPrc investigating the therapeutic potential of novel pharmacological agents. He is undertaking a PhD researching improved efficacy and efficiency of TMS in the treatment of depressive disorders.

Dr Chen is actively involved in psychiatry teaching as a lecturer, tutor, examiner and is also engaged in Monash University's Psychiatry Academy responsible for reviewing and developing the university's psychiatry curriculum. Dr Chen is an accredited reviewer for the RANZCP Scholarly Project and coordinates a RANZCP-accredited Professional Peer Review Group attended by TMS psychiatrists around Melbourne.

Manager

Mr Anthony de Castella

Anthony de Castella is Research Manager and a Research Fellow at MAPrc. Anthony commenced work with MAPrc in 1994 when the group was based at Dandenong hospital. Anthony originally trained as a general registered nurse, before completing a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology and Psychophysiology. Subsequently, he completed a Masters of Applied Science by research in Psychophysiology at Swinburne University. His thesis examined variations in resting EEG across the menstrual cycle in women with schizophrenia.

Anthony’s research interests include women’s mental health, psychopharmacology, problem gambling and mental illness, and healthy lifestyles for people with schizophrenia.

Senior Research Staff

Dedication. Expertise. Passion.

Senior Research staff include psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, neuropsychologists, neuroscientists, and clinical researchers. They are a highly dedicated group with postgraduate research qualifications and/or substantial clinical research experience. Senior Research staff contribute to the Centre's strategic research direction, and occupy a diverse range of roles across all research streams. Primary responsibilities of senior research staff include the coordination and management of research projects (under the guidance of the Executive Team), mentoring and supervising junior researchers and students, teaching, applying for competitive research funding, presenting at research conferences and seminars, and preparing research reports for publication.

Deputy Director

Associate Professor

Caroline Gurvich

Caroline is the Deputy Director, MAPrc and Deputy Driector of the Women’s Mental Health Division at MAPrc, and Head of the “Hormones and Cognition Group". Caroline combines neuropsychological assessments with eye movement research to clearly characterise cognition. She has a particular interest in how hormones influence cognitive functioning in mental health and illness.

Senior Research Fellow

Dr Lisanne Jenkins

Dr. Lisanne Jenkins is a Senior Research Fellow in the Brain Stimulation Lab and an adjunct Assistant Professor at Northwestern University, Chicago. Dr. Jenkins uses neuroimaging to study brain networks involved in emotion and cognitive control, and is starting to apply this expertise in eating disorders and other neuropsychiatric conditions. She holds a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to identify multimodal neuroimaging predictors of onset of non-suicidal self-injury in 10-year-old youths from the longitudinal
Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.

Research Fellow

Dr Elizabeth Thomas

Lizzie is a post-doctoral research fellow who gained her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience (2019) and a Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Hons)/Bachelor of Science (2014) from Monash University. Elizabeth has authored or co-authored one invited book chapter and 15 publications in high-ranking journals, and has presented her research at >30 national and international conferences in the areas of mental health, sex hormones and/or cognition. She has a passion for research inTMS, Cognition, Eye tracking, Mental Health

Research Fellow

Dr Eveline Mu

Eveline's research focuses on understanding the neurophysiological impact of trauma in individuals with complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Eveline explores electroencephalography correlations of attention including oscillations and event-related potentials. Exploring the electrical brain signals may uncover mechanisms and circuitry that are disrupted as a function of trauma, which can be utilised in prevention, screening, and intervention efforts.

THRED Research Fellow

Dr Eva Gregertsen

Dr Gregertsen is a dedicated and passionateresearch psychologist specialising in eating disorders. Her recently completed PhD at University College London, UK, focused on advancing our understanding of anorexia nervosa through a multi-site longitudinal clinical study which explored pre-treatment patient predictors of recovery in the illness.
Notably, she has authored an invited article for the National Eating Disorders Information Centre in her area of expertise, egosyntonicity in anorexia nervosa.

THRED Psychiatrist

Dr Romi Goldschlager

Romi Goldschlager is a consultant psychiatrist with a special interest in complex trauma, eating disorders, addiction psychiatry, chronic pain, psycho-oncology, psychotherapy, and family therapy.

She is currently working at the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Center researching novel biological therapies for the treatment of anorexia nervosa. She also works at the Alfred/Ramsey partnership's State Wide Women's Mental Health Service developing a Hospital in the Home program for adult patients with eating disorders. .

Research Fellow

TMS Clinical Trials Unit

Dr Andris Cerins

Dr Cerins is a Research Fellow in the Clinical TMS Research Unit where he is seeking to develop new brain stimulation protocols that will enhance the efficacy of brain stimulation treatments. In the TMS Clinical Research Unit, he works on clinical trials in depression, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and anorexia nervosa

Research Support Staff

Dedication. Expertise. Passion.

The Research Staff are a diverse group of dedicated and dynamic people, with a focus on ground-breaking and innovative outcomes for participant-oriented care. We acknowledge the participant as the hub of all our research activities, and make every effort to ensure continuity of optimum health and wellbeing, in an holistic manner. Our values encompass caring and responding appropriately to our patients/participants; encouraging and achieving excellence through continual learning and improvement; working in partnership and co-operation with all allied health services; being responsible and accountable for the services we provide; and treating all people with integrity, in a friendly, trusting and respectful manner and environment.

Research activities include project advertisement, ethics processing, project recruitment, participant interaction, project co-ordination and data analysis; development of clinical networks; conference attendance and project presentations; publication of study progress and results within a variety of reputable journals and departmental representation at a diverse range of mental health forums, both nationally and internationally.

Ethic Manager/ Senior Research Facilitator

Emmy Gavrilidis

Emmy Gavrilidis is the Clinical Trials Manager at MAPrc and HER Centre Australia. She has 16 years’ experience in Clinical Trial Research including research methodology, protocol development and staff and student supervision. She has a strong career background in scientific research and has coordinated and managed several large international multi-centre research trials all around the world.

Research Nurse

Violet Francis

Research Assistant

Kaila Bianco

Clinical Trials Coordinator

Marta Malicka

Clinical Trials Coordinator

Navneet Legha

Biostatistician

Dr Qi Li

Medical Officer (TMS)

Dr Jessica Chiodo-Reidy

Research Assistant

Jasmine Tadjibaeva

Clinical Trials Coordinator

Amanda Karagiannidis

Clinical Trials Coordinator

Ebony Rauer

Clinical Research Nurse

Prue Read

THRED Research Assistant

Karen Goldschlager

Psychiatrist

Mizan Ahmad

Mental Health Dietician

Cindy Yu

Communication and Events

Communication and Events Manager

Gill McPhee

They are also responsible for strategic communications, branding and marketing, translating complex research and clinical findings into accessible content, as well as management of the organisation's social media channels.

Project Management

Senior Project Manager

Adoria Li

The Project Manager is dedicated to the Centre's diverse portfolio of programs, reports and educational courses. They are involved in website management, promotional and educational events, disseminating new research initiatives to the lived experience community, health professionals and researchers.

Administration Staff

Reception/PA to Director

Robyn Johnston

EA to Director

Marie Iglesias

Our People

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Executive

Senior Research Staff

Research Support Staff

Research Nurse

Violet Francis

Research Assistant

Kaila Bianco

Clinical Trials Coordinator

Marta Malicka

Clinical Trials Coordinator

Navneet Legha

Biostatistician

Dr Qi Li

Medical Officer (TMS)

Dr Jessica Chiodo-Reidy

Research Assistant

Jasmine Tadjibaeva

Clinical Trials Coordinator

Amanda Karagiannidis

Clinical Trials Coordinator

Ebony Rauer

Clinical Research Nurse

Prue Read

THRED Research Assistant

Karen Goldschlager

Psychiatrist

Mizan Ahmad

Mental Health Dietician

Cindy Yu

Communication and Events

Gill McPhee

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Project Management

Administration Staff

Robyn Johnston

Marie Iglesias

Anne Crawford

Volunteers

Tahlia Selzer

Alex Zhang

Mahak Gera