Congratulations to the 2025 MDHS Staff Excellence Award Winners
The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences is delighted to announce the winners of the 2025 MDHS Staff Excellence Awards.
On Tuesday, 2 December, the faculty gathered at the Arts & Cultural Building to announce the winners of the Staff Excellence Awards and to celebrate the hard work and successes of staff over the past year.
The awards recognise and reward outstanding work by academic and professional staff and teams across the faculty, schools, departments, centres and institutes. The awards are aligned with the Advancing Health 2030 Strategy and the faculty’s values of respect, accountability, compassion, integrity, and collaboration and teamwork.
Award winners receive $5000 each (individual and group winners) to be paid to the recipient’s school or department to support a project or activity for career development. There were outstanding nominations for teams and individuals across the faculty and we congratulate all nominees regardless of outcome.
The awards cover three themes:
- Global, Place and Community
- Discovery
- Education
Global, Place and Community Awards
Award for Indigenous Health and Wellbeing
Dr Kim Jones, Indigenous Health Equity Unit, Onemda Aboriginal and Torres Trait Islander Health and Wellbeing
Award for Partnership and Collaboration for Public Benefit
Professor Eva Alisic
Dr Katitza Marinkovic Chavez
Kathryn Joy
Oliver Eastwood
Hannah Morrice
Isabel Chung
Robyn Molyneaux
Disaster Climate and Adversity Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Professor Jane Pirkis
Dr Angele Nicholas
Dr Simone Scotti Requena
Associate Professor Zac Seidler
Dr Maria Ftanou
Dr Justine Fletcher
Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Award for Building an Inclusive, Values-Driven Faculty Community
Dr Shurong Lu, Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Award for Mentor Excellence
Associate Professor Karen Lamb, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Award for Professional Excellence in Demonstrating Impact
Sara Donaldson, Melbourne Disability Institute
Discovery Awards
Award for Graduate Researcher Supervision
Associate Professor Diana Stojanovski, Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences
Award for Interdisciplinary Research
Dr Bao Nguyen
Associate Professor Sam John
Professor Lauren Ayton
Professor David Grayden
Professor Bang Bui
Associate Professor Andrew Morokoff
Dr Lachlan Knight
Mr Max Kaplan
Professor Adam Deane
Dr Yasmine Ali Abdelhamid
Professor Michael Reade
Dr Ceecee Britten-Jones
Professor Gavin Williams
Mr Matt Wingfield
Professor Marcus Watson
Dr Andrew Ronchi
Dr Andre Tan
Dr Emril Ali
Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, School of Biomedical Sciences
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Department of Physiotherapy, Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Department of Critical Care, Melbourne Medical School
Department of Surgery, Melbourne Medical School
Graeme Clark Institute for Biomedical Engineering
Business Development, Research Innovation and Commercialisation
Award for Research Achievements (Early)
Dr Ceecee Britten-Jones, Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Award for Research Achievements (Mid)
Dr Sibel Saya, Department of General Practice, Melbourne Medical School
Award for Research Achievements (Senior)
Associate Professor Stephanie Best, Department of Melbourne Implementation Research Group, Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Education Awards
Award for Sustained Excellence in Learning and Teaching
Dr Sonya Moore, Department of Physiotherapy, Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Award for Learning and Teaching Achievement
Patrick Bowers, Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Award for Education for Collaborative Practice
Dr Rachel Toovey
Dr Kelly Bower
Professor Lucio Naccarella
Dr Free Coulston
Georgia Bartlett
Zoe McNeice
Dr Alice Rota-Bartelink
Dr Meg Keage
Associate Professor Anthea Cochrane
Dr Kim Allison
Dr Peter Carew
Dr Bao Nguyen
Matt Wingfield
Dr Selwyn Prea
Dr Jessica Stander
Associate Professor Karyn Galvin
Emily Shepard
Associate Professor Kelley Graydon
Dr Tandy Hastings-Ison
Karen Kennedy
Professor Dani Tomlin
Dr Ruth Braden
Department of Physiotherapy, Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Award for Program Innovation
Associate Professor Kwang Meng Cham
Keenan Hellyer
Chris Watt
Dr Andrew Huhtanen
Associate Professor Anthea Cochrane
Dr Jia Jia Lek
Dr Selwyn Prea
Dr Amanda Douglass
Jonathan Ng
Department of Optometry & Vision Sciecnes, Melbourne School of Health Sciences