Professor Anita Bundy
Professor Louise Baur
Professor Louise Baur is the Professor and Head of Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney, and a consultant paediatrician at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney. She has a special interest in the prevention and management of child and adolescent obesity. Professor Baur has been instrumental in raising the profile of childhood obesity as an issue of clinical and public health importance, in Australia and internationally.
Professor Baur is the Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood and is an active member of The Prevention Research Collaboration, a specialised research group within the Sydney School of Public Health.
Associate Professor Paul Tranter
Paul is an Honorary Associate Professor in geography at UNSW Canberra. His research on children’s geographies began in the early 1990s, with the first Australian and New Zealand study of children’s independent mobility. Since then Paul has researched children’s active travel, child health and well-being, play and risk, environmental learning, child-friendly environments and children’s rights. His research is based on the objective of creating better environments for all citizens, both now and in the future. In 2011, Paul co-authored Children and their Urban Environment: Changing Worlds, with Claire Freeman, placing children’s well-being within the context of global concerns about health and well-being for all citizens.
Dr Shirley Wyver
Shirley is a senior lecturer in child development and is a registered psychologist (NSW).
Her main role on the Sydney Playground Project relates the psychological and educational measures used. She has been actively involved in research on outdoor play for the past two decades. She also conducts research in the area of low vision and blindness in young children and consults as a psychologist with Vision Australia.
Dr Grace Spencer
Grace Spencer is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Grace has a background in nursing and public health and has worked in a number of country contexts including Brazil, South Africa, Tanzania, Canada, UK and Australia. Her research focuses on young people's health and their health-related practices with reference to concepts of risk and empowerment theory in health promotion. She has particular expertise in qualitative research methods and research ethics.
Dr Glenda Jessup
Glenda’s background is in Leisure and Health. She has experience in a variety of fields, including: app development, mental health, e-health, and child and adolescent development. Her PhD explored the social inclusion of Australian high school students with vision impairment. For this research, she was awarded the Australian Government Postgraduate award and the Helga Pettitt Postgraduate Study award. Glenda is a member of the South Pacific Educators in Visual Impairment and also the Active Spaces Network.
Dr Kassia Beetham
Kassia is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist who has a varied research background, in which she has conducted exercise training studies on patients with cardiometabolic conditions, as well as having an interest in children’s play behaviours. Kassia was previously a Research Fellow for the Sydney Playground Project, which she has been involved with since 2014. More recently, Kassia’s role is as an Associate Investigator in the Sydney Playground Project through her position at the Australian Catholic University in Brisbane. Kassia is interested in investigating the physical activity and energy expenditure component involved with modifying children’s play environments.
RESEARCH TEAM
Jo Ragen
Jo Ragen is an interdisciplinary researcher, educator and social innovator. She has a background in leisure, business and community management. Jo has a variety of community health work experience including in direct service, community development, administration, and as an academic and senior researcher. Jo is a PhD Candidate and Research Affiliate with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Sydney University, and a Research Associate with the Centre for Disability Research and Policy. Her PhD thesis titled 'The Risk of Good Intentions: Navigating outcomes for people with disability' is a study investigating person-centered practice from a disability rights and inclusion perspective.
Dr Michelle Villeneuve
Michelle’s international program of research, Collaborating 4 Inclusion, addresses disability-inclusive capacity development using social learning methodologies to impact policy and practice and overcome inequities that people with disability experience in everyday living. Integrating policy decisions with local actions at the community level is fundamental to how my research impacts community resilience.
Dr Iliana Skrebneva
lliana has a vast experience in the area of Inclusive and Special Education. She has taught diverse groups of students with different disabilities. Iliana’s research interests are within the broad field of Inclusive Education, focusing on how teaching approaches or services can be developed to successfully support diverse groups of students. Her recent work has also focused on how the inclusive practices of teachers might be enhanced through the development of 'positive risk taking'.