Our Staff and Associates
Staff
Professor Warren Payne Executive Director
PhD, BSocSc (PE)
Warren has worked as an academic, researcher and executive responsible for organisational research development for over 40 years.
As a researcher he worked across the fields of health promotion, occupational health and safety and sports and exercise science. He authored over 250 refereed publications, conference proceedings and major industry reports (H index: 46). His publications have focused on equity and access to physical activity opportunities for rural communities, development of physical activity employment standards for the emergency services and impact of heat on sports and exercise performance. His research has resulted in numerous improvements to industry and government policies and procedures.
Warren has held several senior leadership roles including Head of the School of Human Movement and Sport Sciences at the University of Ballarat (now Federation University) and Vice President (Research and Research Training) at Victoria University. He is a past chair of the Victorian University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Committee and an executive member of the Universities Australia Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) Committee.
He has been a board member and an advisor to a range of professional, industry, government, and community organisations. In particular, he was a founding executive member of the Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science. He has held numerous board positions with Sports Medicine Australia, resulting in him being awarded a Fellowship and President’s Award by Sports Medicine Australia.
As Executive Director of Western Alliance Academic Health Science Centre since 2018, Warren has been responsible for the development and overseeing the implementation of the Alliance’s strategy to improve the health and wellbeing of communities across western Victoria. The strategy has focused on supporting member health services to generate translational research and apply research evidence in their practice. This role has also resulted in Warren successfully advocating for improved access by Australia’s rural, regional, and remote communities to equitable levels of health and medical research funding. Such advocacy has involved Warren convening the national Spinifex Network and being invited to participate in various governmental advisory groups along with Victorian and Australian research translation focused collaborations.
Drew Aras Chief Operating Officer
BAppSci (Physiotherapy), MPH
Hailing from Ocean Grove, Drew started his career as a physiotherapist working in public health settings across Geelong, Melbourne, Sydney and the United Kingdom. He has since completed a Master of Public Health and has worked in health promotion and preventative health, health program and project management and extensively in health research and education.
Prior to commencing with Western Alliance in October 2018, Drew was the Associate Director of Education & Research at Northern Health, a large public health service in Melbourne’s north. Drew has a special interest in health services research, workforce development, preventative health, consumer and community involvement, health literacy and falls prevention.
Drew provides support and advice to the Board, including on policy, planning and implementation, and is also responsible for Western Alliance’s day-to-day operations, financial management and staffing. Drew also administers the research funding portfolio. Drew looks forward to helping to build research and improve health outcomes across western Victoria.
Dr Olivia King Research Capability Building Program Manager
PhD (Health), Grad Cert Diab Ed, BPod (Hons)
Dr Olivia King is the inaugural Manager of Western Alliance’s Research Capability Building Program. The key focus of her role is leading the development of the STaRR (Supporting Translation of Research in Rural and Regional settings) Program.
Olivia has worked in a range of clinical roles as a podiatrist and diabetes educator, research roles and more recently as the Allied Health Research and Translation Lead with Rosalie Boyce, supporting allied health researchers at Barwon Health and South West Healthcare. Olivia’s research interests include health professions education, allied health workforce, and sociology of the professions.
In addition to her role with Western Alliance, Olivia is a Senior Consultant with AHP Workforce working on a research capacity building program and an Adjunct Research Associate with Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education. Olivia wears many hats, but all of her work relates to building research capacity and capability in the healthcare workforce – particularly in rural and regional settings.
Email: o.king@deakin.edu.au
Cassandra Hamilton Administrative Officer
Cassandra provides administrative support and advice to the Executive Director, Executive Officer, the Board of Directors and the Research Translation Committee members, as well as general office administration, financial assistance, website maintenance, correspondence and all events coordination.
Cassandra has over 30 years experience in office administration. Prior to commencing with Western Alliance in March 2018, Cassandra worked at various organisations in the public and private sector in a variety of roles including Executive Assistant, Office Management and management of secretarial teams.
Peter Kelly Consumer & Community Involvement Lead, Research Capability Building Program Officer
BA (Recreation)
Peter’s role is to support research capability initiatives of the STaRR programs, including strategy development, training content and evaluation.
Peter worked in several different sectors, including local government, family services and health services. The majority of his roles have been in project management, focussing on health promotion and community development. Specific areas of interest include prevention of violence against women, family violence identification and response and male health.
Email: p.kelly@deakin.edu.au
Dr Michael Field Research Translation Coordinator - Barwon/Colac Region
MBBS, BA (Psych), BCom
Dr Michael Field is the Western Alliance Research Translation Coordinator for the Barwon/Colac region. Michael grew up on the Bellarine Peninsula and studied at Deakin University on Geelong before moving to Adelaide where he attended medical school. Michael worked as a junior doctor in South Australia in both city and country settings then returned to Victoria taking up a position in population health research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Michael’s research experience spans clinical trials, cross-sectional studies and cohorts, and his research interests include childhood allergy and addressing rural health outcome inequalities. He also maintains part-time clinical practice in surgical assisting.
Michael joined Western Alliance in February 2020 and aims to build research capacity in the Barwon/Colac region through supporting clinical and administrative staff at Western Alliance partner sites in the region.
Email: MField@cah.vic.gov.au
Dr Ella Ottrey Research Translation Coordinator - East Grampians & Maryborough region
PhD, BNut(Hons), BNutrDietet
Dr Ella Ottrey is the Western Alliance Research Translation Coordinator for the East Grampians & Maryborough region.
Ella grew up in Gippsland, before moving to Melbourne to train and work as a clinical dietitian. Ella’s research career began eight years ago, completing honours and then a PhD, exploring mealtimes in hospital. In addition to her role with Western Alliance, Ella is a Postdoctoral Fellow with Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education.
Ella enjoys building research capacity and capability within the health services in her region. She provides support to people conducting research, by reviewing protocols or ethics applications, accessing statistical support, navigating the pathway to publication, and in linking health services with universities.
Email: ella.ottrey@eghs.net.au
Alesha Sayner Research Translation Coordinator - Grampians region
Alesha Sayner is taking on part of the Research Translation Coordinator role covering Grampians Health.
Alesha will be undertaking this role alongside her existing position at Grampians Health as Allied Health Research & Knowledge Translation Lead. Alesha is also a pelvic health physiotherapist and PhD candidate.
If you are from Grampians Health and want to get in touch with Alesha to discuss your research or translation ideas, you can do so at Alesha.Sayner@gh.org.au .
Dr Jessie Adams Research Translation Coordinator - South West region
BPubHealth&HealthProm(Hons), BComm, PhD
Jessie grew up in north east Victoria before moving to Melbourne to complete university. In 2018, Jessie moved to Hamilton to join the National Centre for Farmer Health, where she worked on numerous research projects aiming to improve the health, wellbeing and safety of farmers and their families. Since, she has completed her PhD exploring children’s safety on farms. In addition to her role with Western Alliance, Jessie will continue as an Associate Research Fellow at the National Centre for Farmer Health. Jessie aims to assist in building research capacity within the health services in south west Victoria.
Email: Jessie.Adams@wdhs.net
Charlotte Molesworth Biostatistician
BSc, MBiostat
Following the completion of a Masters in Biostatistics in 2013, Charlotte worked with the Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit and the Emergency Research Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at the Royal Children’s Hospital for a number of years. Charlotte is now employed by Deakin University as a Casual Research Fellow within the Biostatistics Unit.
As a consultant with Western Alliance, Charlotte’s primary role is to support other researchers in applying the best research methods and statistical methodologies suitable within the wide range of member regional and rural health settings. Charlotte can help with all stages of a research project, providing advice from study design, data collection and data management, through to the final stages of statistical analysis and interpretation.
Sarah Shaw Research Communications Officer
BSc (Hons)
Sarah Shaw has been with Western Alliance since 2022, in a role that supports the communications needs of the Western Alliance team, and raises awareness of Western Alliance with our member organisations and other stakeholders. Sarah also works in a research communications role with Barwon Health. Sarah began in medical research before a ‘funding-induced career change’ saw her take on a range of fundraising, marketing and communications roles in health organisations such as Eastern Health and the Heart Foundation. She now comes to work excited every day, as she gets to combine her love of research with her passion for communication.
Associates
Professor Anna Peeters Principal Research Translation Investigator
Prof Anna Peeters is Director of the Institute for Health Transformation and Professor of Epidemiology and Equity in Public Health at Deakin University. She is Principal Research Translation Investigator at Western Alliance, Board Member for the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and Obesity Australia, and Past President of the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society. Anna is Program Director of the DELIVER Program, a 5 year research project funded through the Australian Commonwealth Government Medical Research Future Fund, led by Western Alliance and the Deakin University Institute for Health Transformation.
In 2014 she was awarded the prestigious World Obesity Federation Andre Mayer Award for research excellence in obesity and a Churchill Award for innovative work in equity and population prevention. She works to build the evidence for effective and equitable policy and practice to improve health outcomes.
