Staff
Busselton Testing Centre
Dr
Michael Hunter - Senior Scientist
Dr
Michael Hunter was awarded a PhD with Distinction by the University of
Western Australia for his studies in molecular
biology and genetics conducted at the Western Australian Institute for
Medical Research and the Department of
Clinical Neurosciences, Royal Free
Hospital, London.
His investigations led to the discovery of the
possible molecular basis of an inherited peripheral neuropathy through
the identification of a novel interaction related to lipid metabolism,
at the same time identifying a candidate gene regulating HDL
levels. Since 2005 his interests have extended to
population health research where he is currently the Busselton
Population Medical Research Institute's Senior
Scientist and Site Manager at the Busselton testing centre and adjunct
Research Fellow with the UWA School of Population Health. He has
overseen onsite data collection, protocol and questionnaire
development, as
well as
staff and technical management on numerous
local, national & international collaborative research
projects. These
include investigations
into asthma, COPD, allergy, sleep
apnoea,
diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders and cardiovascular disease. Dr
Hunter is an ex
officio
Board member of the Busselton
Population Medical Research Institute, member of
the Busselton Healthy Ageing Study
(BHAS)
Scientific Management Committee and Chairs the Busselton
Health Study
Local Advisory Committee. He is an associate member
of the
GP
Down
South -
Division of General Practice and serves on the University of
Western Australia's Rural Clinical School's
Local Advisory Group in Busselton.
Elspeth Inglis - Study Office Coordinator
Elspeth Inglis is the local study
office administrator in Busselton and has been involved with the
studies for
over 30 years. She is responsible for
participant recruitment and scheduling, office administration and
coordination of volunteer staff. Elspeth is also treasurer of
the Busselton Health
Study
Local Advisory Committee
and plays an active role in the
on-going
fundraising activities for the BPMRI and promotion of the studies.
Aida Embling -
Research Nurse (Busselton Healthy Ageing Study)
Aida
is a local research nurse with extensive experience as a
registered nurse, phlebotomist and lab technician and prior to
joining the Busselton Health Study has
held appointments at the Busselton Hospital and Pathwest
laboratory. Aida has previously worked on
the last major survey conducted in Busselton in 2007 as well as Phase
II of the Busselton Diabetes Study in 2010. Aida joined the Busselton
Healthy Ageing Study in 2011.
Debra Burwood -
Research Nurse (Busselton
Healthy Ageing Study)
Debra
joined the BHAS in mid-2011 and is a long-term resident of Busselton.
She holds qualifications in enrolled nursing and laboratory
skills obtained from the WA School of Nursing and Bunbury TAFE. Deb has
held various positions within pharmacy, chemotherapy and pathology
departments at Busselton, Royal Perth and Mount Hospitals, as well as
working in the private pharmacy and pathology sector in the region.
Jessica Storey -
Research Assistant (Busselton
Healthy Ageing Study)
Jessica
joined the BHAS in early 2012 and holds double
Bachelor of
Science degrees in Health Promotion, and Nutrition obtained from Curtin
University. She has held appointments as a research assistant at the WA
Centre for Health Promotion Research, as well as the Centre of
Excellence for Science, Seafood and Health, Curtin University, WA.
Jessica has had extensive volunteer experience with a number of
organisations including the UWA Health Promotion Unit, WA Country Health Service - Community
Health and Population Health in Bunbury, the Bentley Child and
Adolescent Community Health, the WA Allied Health Rural Health club and
the SCGH Bone and Calcium Research group. Jessica has been a student
representative of the Australian Health Promotion Association (WA
Branch) and in 2011 was the Vice President of the Curtin Health
Promotion Student Association.
Dianne Toovey -
Research Assistant (Busselton
Healthy Ageing Study)
Dianne
joined the BHAS in 2012 and holds a Bachelor of
Applied Science degree (Occupational Therapy) and Post Graduate
Diploma (Hand and Upper Limb Rehabilitation) from Curtin University.
She has had extensive experience working as an
Occupational Therapist in various public hospitals including Sir
Charles Gairdner Hospital, Royal Darwin Hospital and the Royal Free
Hospital London before establishing and managing the Hand and Upper
Limb Centre in Subiaco, WA. Dianne has held appointments as a
Clinical Coordinator and Lecturer in the School of Occupational Therapy
at Curtin University. Her research interests include memory retraining
techniques in the elderly, and rehabilitation techniques in Dupuytrens
Contracture and tendon repair. She has been a member of a number of
professional societies including Australian Hand Therapists
Association, Australian Occupational Therapy Association and the WAAOT
Hand Therapists Interest Group and was secretary and member of the
Northern Terrritory Occupational Therapy Association.
Stephanie Murphy -
Research Nurse (Busselton
Healthy Ageing Study)
Stephanie
obtained a Bachelor of
Science degree in Nursing from Edith Cowan University Bunbury and
commenced employment with the Surgical Ward at Bunbury Hospital in 2012
as a Registered Nurse. She joined the Busselton Health Study team in late
2012 to pursue a career in population health research and community health.
Perth - based Staff

Dr
Jennie Hui - Senior Scientist
Dr Jennie Hui was
awarded a PhD
scholarship by the Immunogenetics Research Foundation in 1998 and
completed her PhD in 2002. Her PhD project involved the investigation
of the genetics of Psoriasis, in particular, the immunologically
interesting MIC gene where she made new and internationally important
contributions to knowledge. Her PhD work has resulted in seven
publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Apart from her interest in
immunology and molecular genetics, she is also actively involved in a
number of studies in animal genetics and was a chief investigator on an
ARC linkage grant to investigate the relevance of the Bovine MHC to
milk production. In November 2003, she was awarded a post-doctoral
fellowship by the Western Australia Institute for Medical Research at
the University of Western Australia to work on the epidemiological and
genetic relationship between asthma and chronic airflow limitation.
This on-going work is in collaboration with the Asthma genetics Group,
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford University. In 2005,
she was awarded a prestigious fellowship under the Japan society for
the Promotion of Science (JSPS) scheme to continue her research into
asthma genetics in collaboration with Professor Inoko at the Tokai
University School of Medicine. Professor Inoko's group at Tokai
University has contributed much of the sequences for the Human Major
Histocompatibility (MHC) complex in the Human Genome Project (HGP).
During this time, she has conducted a full genome wide scan association
study in asthma. As part of her post-doctoral fellowship in
Japan, she was involved in promoting public health and genetics to the
community by giving scientific presentations to local high school
students. Jennie currently works as a Research Fellow at
PathWest
laboratory of Western Australia and is an adjunct Research
Fellow with the UWA School of Population Health.
She is actively involved in
the
genetic research in the Busselton Health Study (BHS) and is also the
Perth-based study co-ordinator for the BHS.
University of Western Australia
Staff
Mark
Divitini -
Research Associate (School of Population
Health, UWA)
Mark
Divitini completed a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Mathematics
and Computing at Curtin University of Technology in 1988. During 1989
he was employed by the School of Physiotherapy at Curtin University of
Technology as a statistician. He then worked for two years at the
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University
of London mainly in projects involved with occupational asthma and its
causes. Since 1993 Mark has been employed as a Research Associate in
Statistics at the School of Population Health, University of Western
Australia. In this time he has been involved with various analyses
relating to the Busselton Health Study. These include the analysis of
cardiovascular risk factors and mortality, familial aggregation of
cardiovascular risk factors and various aspects of respiratory disease.

Kashif
Mukhtar - Database Programmer
(School
of Population Health, UWA)
Kashif Mukhtar is the database
programmer at the School of Population Health at
the University of Western Australia. Kashif manages the data
from
all past Busselton Health Study surveys. He works to maintain the
accuracy and integrity of these data, and assists with new surveys to
ensure data quality. He also provides data extraction services to
researchers using the data collection.

|