Director
Kelsey Hegarty
Professor Kelsey Hegarty leads the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence.
Kelsey holds the joint Chair in Family Violence Prevention at the University of Melbourne and the Women's. She co-chairs the Melbourne Research Alliance to End Violence against Women (MAEVe).
An academic general practitioner, her research includes the evidence base for interventions to prevent violence against women; educational and complex interventions around identification of domestic and family violence in primary care settings and early intervention with men, women and children exposed to abuse.
Kelsey focuses on interventions for delivery through health care and through use of new technologies.
Deputy Director
Elizabeth McLindon
Dr Elizabeth McLindon is a Clinician Research Fellow at the Women’s and University of Melbourne.
Liz has worked to strengthen the Women’s and Victorian healthcare system response to family, domestic and sexual violence since she began at the Women’s in 2008.
Liz’s research about family, domestic and sexual violence against health professionals was integral to the workforce component of the Victorian Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence program. She has helped improve the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Vic Branch) response to thousands of survivor nurses and midwives across Victoria.
In addition to research, Liz works as a senior clinician at Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA House). The voices and experiences of the survivors with whom she works underpins Liz’s approach to conducting safe and ethical research that is co-designed with survivors and meaningful to their lives.
Researchers
Laura Tarzia
Laura Tarzia is an ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow in the Department of General Practice and the Centre for Family Violence Prevention at the Women's.
Laura has a background in sociology, with an emphasis on qualitative methodologies. Laura's work focuses on sexual and domestic violence against women, including the use of technology as a form of early intervention. She is currently leading the "Beyond Silence" innovative project.
Laura also works across a range of other projects with an emphasis on women's lived experience of violence, the dynamics, context and health effects of different types of sexual violence, and the health system response to women who have experienced violence.
Minerva Kyei-Onanjiri
Minerva coordinates the SUSTAIN research team and has worked in various roles with direct clinical experience as well as in research projects involving pregnant women.
Having completed doctoral studies in nursing, she has developed skills in mixed methods research. Minerva has a professional background in general nursing practice, with a keen interest in women and children’s health.
Heather McKay
Heather is coordinating the System Audit Family Violence Evaluation (SAFE project) at the Women’s.
Her background is in women’s health research and, after completing her PhD, she has worked in the areas of family violence (including responding to family violence within the health setting), maternity care, and maternal and child health. Heather has experience in mixed methods research projects and evaluations.
Kitty Novy
Kitty has a nursing background and currently has an Education and Recruitment Officer role in the Centre.
She has worked on the SUSTAIN and other student projects assisting with recruitment of staff and patients. She coordinates a large project on Sustaining the Primary Care Response to Family Violence in Melbourne's North West.
Surriya Baloch
Surriya is a gynaecologist from Pakistan. She is undertaking a PhD on effectiveness of screening in antenatal care for women of Pakistani and Indian backgrounds.