I am recognised nationally and internationally as a research expert in intellectual and developmental disability health and mental health. My research aims to reduce the health inequalities experienced by people with intellectual and developmental disability. The program utilises co-designed and mixed methods approaches to understand gaps in health policy and services, gaps in primary care and prevention, mortality, mental health needs, health service utilisation, costs and effectiveness of care for people with intellectual and developmental disability. I have strong interagency relationships across health and disability sectors nationally, ensuring robust translation of this work in partnership with people with disability.

A/Prof Elisabeth Lambert joined the School of Health Science and Iverson Health Innovation Research Institute in February 2017. She previously worked at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute for 18 years. Elisabeth’s research program focusses on mechanisms, treatments and prevention of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, with a particular interest on the role played by the sympathetic nervous system in the development of metabolic abnormalities and organ damage. She has led multiple clinical cross-sectional, and interventional investigations in various conditions such as hypertension, obesity, type-2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, orthostatic intolerance, anorexia nervosa as well as studies in people living with intellectual disability. She has published around 220 papers and has been a chief investigator on 12 NHMRC grants. Recent major achievements of her group include: • Refinement and application of techniques for identifying brain areas involved in muscle sympathetic nerve activity in the context of hypertension and obesity (NHMRC Idea grant 2022-2024). Techniques include direct nerve recording using microneurography, magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). • Demonstration that young women with anorexia and those who have recovered from the condition have enhanced arterial stiffness, a marker of vascular aging. • Demonstration that young normotensive individuals with excess adiposity have subclinical organ damage (cardiac, renal and endothelial) and that the degree of organ dysfunction is directly related to the degree of sympathetic activation. • Demonstration of the link between sympathetic activity and endothelial dysfunction in women with dyslipidemia.

Professor Rachael McDonald is the Director of the MedTechVic Hub. The MedTechVic hub creates innovative enabling technology, products and services to enhance lives for people with disability, their families and the people who support them. The hub does this through Development of enabling technology products, Consulting on co-design and manufacture, Best-practice research and development and Educational services, including fellowships and training. Professor McDonald is a clinical, research and teaching Health Professional with an interest in enabling people with lifelong disabilities to participate in life situations. She has worked extensively in this field, with in both children’s services and adult settings. She has or is supervising 31 research (honour’s, MSc and PhD) students specialising in the care of people with complex disability as well as development and evaluation into the effectiveness of assistive technologies, and has published widely (over 150 outputs). She has qualifications in occupational therapy, biomechanics and higher education in addition to her Doctorate and has attracted over $11m in competitive grant funding.

Dr Roberta Asher is an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) and Postdoctoral Researcher at The University of Newcastle. Roberta completed a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2010 after a 10-year career as a trade qualified chef working in restaurant and international hotel kitchens in Australia and overseas. She has worked as a clinical dietitian, a community culinary nutrition educator and research assistant. In 2024 Roberta completed her PhD at the University of Newcastle researching cooking skill development and nutrition education for people with disability using co-design methods. Roberta's research work focusses on programs that aim to improve diet quality, health and wellbeing through cooking and food skill development. Working in a multidisciplinary collaboration, she has also developed resources that can be used by other culinary education program developers, across a range of settings and target groups, to guide program planning, curriculum development and evaluation.