OUR TEAM

Dr Janessa Pickering is an early career discovery scientist working to prevent Strep A infection and the progression to Rheumatic Heart Disease. She has 12 years experience in microbiology, molecular diagnostics and host pathogen interactions of upper respiratory tract pathogens that cause disease in children. Her recent expertise is in clinical microbiology research, and she continues to carve out a career in the laboratory science of Strep A infection and carriage. Her work has driven the development of new standards for Strep A detection in surveillance studies, contributing to research studies in the Kimberley, and the Australian Strep A Vaccine Initiative. Being embedded in the END RHD Program at the Telethon Kids Institute places her at the forefront of RHD prevention research in Australia. 

Professor Hayley Christian is a distinguished researcher in child health, serving as Head of Child Physical Activity, Health, and Development at The Kids Research Institute Australia. Hayley leads a large multidisciplinary team across The Kids and The University of Western Australia with a focus on cardiovascular disease prevention by improving children’s movement behaviours, health and development through impactful, multi-level interventions spanning the child, family, social, physical and policy environment. This includes evidence-informed Early Childhood Education and Care specific physical activity policy and strategies to enable young children to establish healthy behaviours and support their cardiovascular health.  

Hayley collaborates with multi-sector partner organisations across government, not-for-profit and the private sector in WA, nationally and internationally to promote children’s physical activity and cardiovascular health. Her contributions extend globally, with her ECEC policy being adopted by the World Health Organization.

Through her role as Chief Investigator and Co-Director of the Western Australian node of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, she is also dedicated to promoting health equity.

A three-time consecutive Heart Foundation-funded Research Fellow (2012-2024), she has earned 50 research awards, including a 2024 appointed Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to children’s health through policy development and research. Her dedication continues to shape impactful policies and interventions to promote healthy behaviours in childhood and prevent cardiovascular disease.

Lauren is an early-career cardiovascular researcher in the Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute at Edith Cowan University. She leads a research program to better understand the cardiovascular health benefits of different types of vegetables and their bioactive constituents, as well as finding new and improved ways to increase vegetable consumption at a population level to reduce the burden associated with cardiovascular disease.

Lauren is a passionate advocate for raising awareness of the burden associated with cardiovascular disease, and to promote the need for further funding for early- to mid-career researchers to continue to discover new knowledge to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease in Australia. She wants to be part of the change to increase cardiovascular research funding to support early- and mid-career cardiovascular researchers across WA universities and affiliated institutions to retain their research careers in their respective cardiovascular fields.

Dr Stephen Ball is a Research Fellow and Deputy Director of PRECRU (the Prehospital, Resuscitation and Emergency Care Research Unit), in the School of Nursing, Curtin University, Western Australia; and adjunct Senior Research Fellow with St John Western Australia. Dr Ball’s research focusses on the epidemiology of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, ambulance dispatch, spatial analysis of health data, and perinatal epidemiology. Dr Ball currently five PhD/MPhil students, and teaches human anatomy and physiology at Curtin University. Since 2018, Dr Ball has overseen the management of the West Australian Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Database (established 1996), which is maintained by PRECRU on behalf of St John Western Australia. Dr Ball is a member of the St John WA Research Governance Committee.

Dr Jane Oliver is a mid-career researcher investigating ways to reduce suffering from rheumatic heart disease (RHD). Her research has addressed multiple public health issues, including infectious diseases and the impact of socio-environmental factors on health outcomes. As a Senior Research Officer at The Kids Research Institute Australia, she runs several clinical trials evaluating a novel treatment for RHD prophylaxis in partnership with Aboriginal communities. She is privileged to work closely with Aboriginal collaborators and mentors, including Elders and community members with firsthand experience of RHD.  

Dr Oliver’s focus on addressing RHD began with her master’s degree (University of Otago, 2013), when she was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Health to evaluate the rheumatic fever surveillance sector. Recommendations from her thesis continue to guide national reporting today. Her doctorate (University of Otago, 2018) revealed novel risk factors for RHD and provide guidance for RHD prevention efforts globally, particularly regarding antibiotic stewardship. Her subsequent research and advocacy underpinned the $56 million Healthy Homes Initiative, which yielded a five-year return on investment of 507%.

As a Postdoctoral Fellow based jointly at the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Dr Oliver applied her epidemiological and qualitative skillsets to reveal ongoing morbidity from Strep A diseases. Her engagement with policymakers resulted in invasive Strep A disease becoming nationally notifiable, and ARF & RHD becoming notifiable in Victoria. Other infectious disease research which Dr Oliver oversaw provided insights into Buruli ulcer transmission pathways, informing the Victorian epidemic response. Her COVID-19 diagnostic studies enhanced testing early in the pandemic, and later qualitative research guided national vaccine communications. Findings from her community co-designed evaluation of a COVID-19 health promotion program helped to establish the Community Connectors initiative, which works to enhance social housing residents’ access to services. 

Dr Oliver has been based at The Kids Research Institute since early 2024. Her research teams have received multiple awards, including the 2014 New Zealand Prime Ministers’ Science Prize, the 2023 Liley Medal and a Finalist placing in the 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes. She has received numerous research awards and Fellowships.  

At 9 years old Ayden was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy. Over the last 18 years he has lived with and effectively managed his condition with a support network that includes his family. Ayden’s youngest brother was also diagnosed with the same condition 16 years ago. Throughout the years Ayden has been involved in a number of cardiovascular charities and research organisations by sharing his and his families experience to assist in fund raising and advice on consumer perspective, needs and wants in funding and research.

Professor Livia Hool is the Wesfarmers, UWA-VCCRI Chair in Cardiovascular Research and Director of the Ben Beale Laboratory in Cardiovascular Research at The University of Western Australia. Following completion of her PhD as a Gaston Bauer Cardiovascular Fellow in the Cellular Electrophysiology Laboratory at the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, she was awarded an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship to pursue further electrophysiology research in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. Subsequently, with an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellowship she returned to Australia and relocated to The University of Western Australia. She has received continuous competitive funding from national and international granting bodies including the American Heart Association, Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) since obtaining her PhD. Her research focuses on the role of calcium in the excitability of the heart and in the regulation of mitochondrial energetics in inherited heart disease, with an emphasis on designing therapy to prevent the development of cardiomyopathy and heart failure.

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Professor Hool is currently President of the Australian Physiological Society, Treasurer and executive member of the World Council of International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) and Past President of ISHR Australasian Section (2013-16; 2016-19). She is a Fellow of the American Heart Association, a Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and a Fellow of the International Society for Heart Research. She develops cardiovascular health policy internationally (ISHR World Council) and nationally with Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand as a member of Scientific Committee. She is a member of the Heart Foundation Research Committee. She has held numerous positions on university committees, society councils including World Congress scientific programming committees, grant review panels for WA Department of Health, ARC, Heart Foundation of Australia, NHMRC and Canadian Institutes for Health Research. She serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Physiology (London), Current Opinion in Physiology and Heart, Lung Circulation.