Our team

Shavaun Wells is a proud Taungurung woman. She has a passion for working with communities and two way learning between communities and researchers. The concept of improving Indigenous health, wellbeing and quality of life resonates with Shavaun and has influenced the roles, research and studies that she has undertaken. She is supportive of the idea that there will always be an important role for academics and health professionals to improve health and empower Indigenous communities.

Shavaun has a Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion and has worked in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector for 12 years, commencing as an Aboriginal Health Worker and continuing into a researcher role at the ANU.

Makayla-May Brinckley is a Wiradjuri woman from Cootamundra. Makayla is a PhD student and research assistant in the National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research, with much of her work based within the Mayi Kuwayu Study. Her PhD focuses on developing a knowledge translation method for use in the Mayi Kuwayu Study. Makayla is passionate about holistic health and wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Professor Ray Lovett is an Aboriginal (Wongaibon/Ngiyampaa) man from western NSW. Ray is a social epidemiologist with extensive experience in health research, public health policy development and evaluation, and is the Mayi Kuwayu Study Director in the National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research at the Australian National University. Prior to his research career, he was a health policy advisor in the Aboriginal health workforce. He has a clinical background as a registered nurse and Aboriginal health worker.

Ray is recognised nationally for his work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care research. His work includes integrating culture and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research ethics.

Associate Professor Lisa Whop is a Gumulgal woman from the Wagadagam tribe of Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait and is Australia’s leading authority on cervical cancer control in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Lisa is an Indigenist epidemiologist with experience in implementation health research to develop, inform and change public health policy, guidelines and practice. Lisa has extensive research experience in cancer control leading large multijurisdictional administrative linked data studies, qualitative studies and implementation trials. She holds a National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Grant and leads a research program dedicated to eliminating cervical cancer for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. She is incoming Chair of the Cancer Australia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership Committee on Cancer Control.

Jan Chapman is the Mayi Kuwayu Study Manager, and also the Senior Field Worker in the National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing at the Australian National University. Jan is a proud Taungurung woman from Victoria. She has a degree in Public Policy and Social Ecology.

Jan moved to Canberra in 2008, working with the “Tackling Indigenous Smoking and Indigenous Chronic Disease” sections in the Department of Health before working at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra in the research section.

Katie Thurber is a non-Indigenous researcher originally from the United States. She has lived on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country since 2011 and has been working with the Mayi Kuwayu Study team since 2016, currently as an NHMRC Early Career Fellow.

She completed her PhD at the ANU on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s health, supervised by Ray Lovett.

Emily Banks is a public health physician and epidemiologist with interest and expertise in chronic disease, tobacco control, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and healthy ageing. The main emphasis of her work has been in using large-scale evidence to identify actions to improve health and health care, at an individual and population level.

She is Head of the Centre for Public Health Data and Policy at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Chair of the NHMRC Health Research Impact Committee, Member of NHMRC Council, Deputy Chair of the Heart Foundation Research Committee and a Visiting Professor at Oxford University.