Meet our leadership team

Professor Jane Gunn was appointed interim Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences (MDHS) in February 2021. Professor Gunn was previously the MDHS Deputy Dean, following a decade as Head of the Department of General Practice and a further two years as Deputy Head of the Melbourne Medical School.  As Dean, Professor Gunn steers the faculty’s strategic aims and objectives. a distinguished academic general practitioner and inaugural Chair of Primary Care Research at The University of Melbourne. As one of Australia’s leading primary care researchers she traversed the research-practice gap. Her Diamond Cohort Study established one of the largest and longest running studies of people experiencing depressive symptoms in primary care and has enabled better management of those at risk of persistent and disabling depression. In 2016 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in recognition of her outstanding leadership in health and medical research. In February 2020 Jane became the Chief Public Health Advisor for the University of Melbourne and was instrumental in steering its public health response to COVID-19.

Professor Mike McGuckin is responsible for the strategic oversight of a broad spectrum of health research across the University. As Deputy Dean he oversees portfolios of people and culture, diversity and inclusion, Indigenous development, engagement and international relations. Professor McGuckin is the author of over 150 scientific publications with his research focused on mucosal infection, chronic inflammation and cancer in the gastrointestinal tract, and has held four patents. His research investigated disease pathophysiology across three major fronts connected by the common thread of inflammation: cell surface mucins in cancers, chronic inflammatory diseases of the gut and beta cell stress in diabetes. He also mentors emerging independent scientists who have taken over various aspects of his research program.

Professor Liz Molloy is responsible for learning and teaching strategy and implementation in the Faculty. Liz is Professor of Work-Integrated Learning in the Department of Medical Education, Melbourne Medical School. Her research focuses on workplace learning, feedback and assessment, interprofessional education, and teacher professional development. Prior to her current role, Liz worked as Academic Director of Interprofessional Education and Practice in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. In 2015, Liz received an inaugural Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professions Education and in 2019 received a Karolinksa Fellowship Prize for Excellence in Research in Medical Education.

Professor Sandra Eades is a Noongar woman with family from the Minang and Goreng mobs in south-west Western Australia who has made pioneering contributions to the epidemiology of Aboriginal child health throughout her career. Beginning as a general practitioner, Professor Eades went on to become the first Aboriginal medical doctor to be awarded a PhD for her studies on the causal pathways and determinants of health among Aboriginal infants in the first year of life. Appointed as the Rowden White Chair upon her return to the University of Melbourne in 2022, Professor Eades brings an exceptional track record as one of Australia’s most significant Indigenous health leaders.

Andrew is an experienced leader across public and private health care sectors. Prior to joining the Faculty, Andrew was Chief Executive Officer at the Melbourne Teaching Health Clinic and was an executive at Epworth HealthCare (Epworth). He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science, Graduate Diploma in Education and a Master of Business Administration. Andrew is Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and an Associate Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Management (AFCHSM). In August 2020, he joined the Faculty as Chief Operating Officer to provide strategic leadership and oversee its operational structures including people and culture, infrastructure, finance, research support and evaluation, teaching and learning, advancement, and marketing, communications and student recruitment.

Professor Alicia Spittle is a physiotherapist and clinician researcher who is a current recipient of a National Health Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Fellowship, Chief Investigator on the NHRMC Centre of Research Excellence in Newborn Medicine and has received over $22 million in grant funding and has authored over 160 publications. In 2020 she was recognised as the top Australian research in Paediatric Medicine in 2020 by The Australian Newspaper, for the highest number of citations from papers published in the last 5 years in the top 20 journals in her field. In addition to her research, she works clinically in the neonatal intensive care unit and follow-up clinic at the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia and has a research appointment at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Professor Justine Mintern is head of the Vaccine Biology Laboratory at the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology in the School of Biomedical Sciences. Her research focuses on understanding the fundamental biology of immune responses and has led to significant discoveries to advance the design of next-generation vaccines and immunotherapies. Justine has chaired the Research Training Committee for the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology and the Research Training Committee for the School of Biomedical Sciences. She has been an active member of the Faculty Graduate Research Committee and is the Deputy Chair of the Academic Board’s Higher Degrees Research Committee.

Professor Natalie Hannan is a NHMRC CDF Principle Research Fellow at the University where she leads the Therapeutics Discovery and Vascular Group (laboratories based at both the Mercy Hospital for Women and at the Northern Health Research Precinct) and holds an honorary position at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Mercy Hospital for Women and the Northern Hospital Epping. Professor Hannan has a dedicated focus on reproduction, understanding serious pregnancy complications and Women’s health.

Professor Peter Choong AO is the Sir Hugh Devine Professor of Surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and Head of the Department of Surgery at Melbourne Medical School. He is an internationally recognised orthopaedic surgeon, an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow, and leads the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence into Total Joint Replacement. Founder of the AxcelaPen project, Peter’s research career has led to innovations in medical technology and the development of new intellectual property. His experience across the research and development pipeline has enabled him to form close connections with industry, government, health institutions and community advocacy organisations. Peter is passionate about improving health and wellbeing through innovation, creativity and enterprise.

Professor Wendy Chapman is the Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health. She moved to Melbourne from the United States to help build a digitally enabled health care system. She has a PhD in medical informatics and came to the field via her love for language and linguistics, which she applies in her personal research to identify symptoms, diagnoses, and social risk factors described in clinical notes from electronic medical records. She is passionate about improving outcomes that matter to patient and clinicians through digitally enabled models of care. Wendy has been nominated to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, is a member of the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director and is an elected board member of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health.

Forbes McGain is an Associate Professor at the Department of Critical Care at the University of Melbourne, and is an anaesthetist and intensive care physician at Western Health. His research focus is on the overlap and interplay between environmental, financial, and social sustainability in healthcare, with the goal of making healthcare more patient-centred, less polluting, less expensive and more environmentally sustainable. Becoming a member of Doctors for the Environment Australia in 2011, Forbes remains passionate about implementing seemingly small but scalable environmental sustainability interventions across a variety of healthcare settings.

Professor Alastair Sloan is an Oral Biologist and Tissue Engineer with interests in mineralising tissue repair. His research is focussed on understanding the dentinogenic and osteoinductive properties of dentine and bone matrices to facilitate novel tissue engineering methodologies and natural regenerative processes and is related to the development of novel clinical therapies and methods in relation to dentistry and orthopaedics regarding tissue regeneration and repair. Prior to taking up the role of Head of School in 2019 Professor Sloan was Professor of Tissue Engineering and Bone Biology and Head of the School of Dentistry at Cardiff University in the UK.

Professor Bruce Thompson is the Head of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences. He joined our faculty recently in March 2022 from Swinburne University of Technology, where he was serving as the Dean of Health Sciences. Prior to that he was Head of Physiology Services in the Department of Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory medicine at the Alfred Hospital. Bruce brings over 30 years of experience working in hospitals, universities, the community sector and business. Bruce has played a significant role during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the now former President of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, the peak body for health professionals and scientists working in respiratory health in Australia, with many members working on the front lines.

Professor Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka is a global expert in the vision-threatening diseases, diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity. Her pre-clinical research led to the discovery that the blockage of the hormone angiotensin II reduces retinal vascular disease, and this research contributed to the largest clinical trial in diabetic retinopathy. Professor Wilkinson-Berka is passionate about educating our future clinicians and scientists remains of as well as strengthening our partnerships with medical research institutes and industry. Before taking up the role of Head of School in 2020,  she was Head of the Department Anatomy, where she established the Melbourne Academy of Surgical Anatomy, an initiative that delivers a lifelong teaching and research experience for aspiring surgeons and allied health professionals as well as established physicians and surgeons.

Professor Sarath Ranganathan is an internationally renowned clinician scientist and expert in respiratory medicine, specialising in detecting and monitoring lung disease in young patients. Prior to Sarath’s role as Head of the Melbourne Medical School, he held several leadership positions in the Faculty including Stevenson Chair in Paediatrics, Head of the Department of Paediatrics and Academic Director in Clinical Education, Strategy and Risk. Sarath is a consultant respiratory physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital and served as Director of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine between 2012 – 2020. He is also a Group Leader at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, a Principal Investigator of the Australian Respiratory Early Surveillance Team for Cystic Fibrosis (AREST-CF), and holds several international leadership roles within paediatric respiratory medicine.

Professor Nancy Baxter is a clinical epidemiologist, general surgeon and health services researcher. An established clinical researcher with an international reputation, Nancy has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters and has extensive experience in using cancer registry data and health administrative data to examine the long-term impact of cancer care for adults. Prior to taking up the role of Head of School in 2019 Nancy was a Professor of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. As the Ontario Provincial Endoscopy Lead for Cancer Care Ontario, she played a major role in influencing public policy and transforming the funding strategy for endoscopies to enable best-practice pricing and a reduction of the use of deep sedation in routine hospital-based endoscopies.

Professor Rob Hester is a cognitive neuroscientist whose lab examines the brain mechanisms involved in self-control, learning, and adaptive performance, investigating how these mechanisms are implicated in a range of neurological and psychiatric conditions using brain imaging and psychopharmacological methods. He joined the University in 2008 and has held academic positions in the School supporting Research/Research Training, Teaching and Learning portfolios.

Associate Professor Shawana Andrews is a Palawa Trawlwoolway woman and has a long history working across Aboriginal communities in Victoria with 20 years experience working in Aboriginal health. Beginning as an Aboriginal hospital liaison officer, Shawana established a co-designed Koori mental health program, an Aboriginal child and family case management program and a comprehensive Aboriginal child outpatient clinic. Shawana has since held policy, project management and teaching roles across the health and higher education sectors.