Director: A/Prof Helena Frawley
Helena has been the Director of our Allied Health Research since June 2021. An Associate Professor, Helena is a physiotheraphy clinical researcher, specialising in pelvic floor function and dysfunction. She works closely with our women's health, neonatal and allied health researchers to deliver health improvements for women and babies,
Director of Pharmacy: Swee Wong
Swee has been the Director of Pharmacy at the Women’s since 2005. Swee leads a team of dedicated clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who provides a highly valued pharmacy service in our hospital. Swee is passionate about providing evidence based medicines information relevant to women’s health and the newborns and is a great supporter of research in our specialty practice.
Head of Nutrition and Dietetics: Elisabeth Gasparini
Elisabeth has worked as a Dietitian in women’s health for over 20 years. She is the manager of Nutrition and Food Services at the Women’s and co-ordinates the clinical services of the Nutrition department, student teaching and training, and provision of healthy patient meals. Elisabeth’s interest in research began with a successful study looking at the effectiveness of dietary intervention in the management of faecal incontinence in women. Elisabeth actively encourages research within her team and has supported a range of research projects including malnutrition in cancer, nutrition knowledge in pregnancy, dietary management of gestational diabetes and nutrient intake in pregnancy.
Manager Physiotherapy: Sarah Duncan
Clinical Researchers
Amanda Styles
Amanda is an experienced Social Worker and qualified yoga and prenatal yoga teacher with a passion and interest in women’s health. For more than seven years Amanda has dedicated her social work practice to the Young Women’s program where she has gained first hand anecdotal evidence of how young women want to access and response to support.
Shanti Petronzio
Shanti is a Social Worker with several years’ experience in Neonatal Social Work practice. Shanti is passionate about Social Work practice in Neonatal Care and family therapy, including attachment theory.
Dr Alicia Spittle
Associate Professor Alicia Spittle is a physiotherapist who combines clinical practice as a senior clinician in the Neonatal Intensive and Special Care nurseries with research. She is a National Health and Medical Research Council early career research fellow and leads a team of researchers examining early neurobehavioural development of infants born preterm. She also has a special interest in early intervention and long term motor outcomes.
Dr Joy Olsen
Dr Joy Olsen is a postdoctoral research officer with the Victorian Infant Brain Studies (VIBeS) group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Her PhD focused on early neurobehavioural trajectories in very preterm infants. Dr Olsen also works clinically as a senior occupational therapist in the neonatal intensive care unit and follow-up clinic at the Royal Women’s Hospital.
Christine Gilmartin
Christine Gilmartin is the Clinical Trials & Research Pharmacist for the Women’s. Her role is to provide leadership in clinical research and encourage more inter-disciplinary projects between pharmacy and our various specialised units.