VaxPol Lab Leader
Associate Professor Katie Attwell is an academic researcher at the UWA School of Social Sciences, where she leads VaxPol Lab. She specialises in mandatory vaccination policy across Australia, Europe, and the United States, researching the tactics these countries’ governments use to motivate people to vaccinate, how policies make it to the agenda, how they are designed, how they differ and how they work. A/Prof Attwell led the Coronavax project and currently leads the large, interdisciplinary Mandate Evaluation (MandEval) project . A/Prof Attwell is also interested in vaccination policy and vaccination social science more broadly, and collaborates on a range of projects focused at the intersection between members of the public and government vaccination programs.
Associate Professor Marco Rizzi is a legal academic at the UWA Law School, where he teaches and researches Tort Law, Health Law and Policy, and Risk Regulation. His interest in vaccination stems from the impact of the anti-vax phenomenon on public health over the past 15 years in his home country, Italy. He has investigated the complexities of the causal inquiry in alleged vaccine injury cases across a range of jurisdictions and using multiple methodologies and approaches. His broader interests include the relationship between risk and the law, and the role of legal and regulatory tools to promote public health and safety, particularly in the field of access to therapeutic goods.
Associate Professor Sandra Salter is in the School of Allied Health at The University of Western Australia, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Victoria. She has more than 30 years’ experience as a clinical pharmacist, including in private and public hospital, general practice (GP) and community pharmacy sectors. She has been active in allergy and adverse reactions research since 2011, including intervention, linked data, and epidemiological studies, and in 2020 developed an active vaccine safety surveillance system for patients immunised in pharmacies. This was critical to Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, is now part of national infrastructure, and for this A/Prof Salter received national recognition as the 2022 UTS Innovative Pharmacist of the Year. Sandra serves as an invited expert for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia; the National Allergy Council; the Quality Use of Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Pathology program; and continues to practice as a pharmacist in community pharmacy. She is a member of ASCIA and holds Fellowship of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.
Associate Professor Chris Blyth is a clinical academic, mid-career researcher and NHMRC-funded Emerging Leadership Fellow. He is co-director of the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases (Telethon Kids Institute) and Associate Professor of Paediatrics (School of Medicine, University of Western Australia). He established the Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) where he works as a paediatrician and clinical microbiologist. He is the current co-chair of the Australia Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and its COVID-19 working group, also serving on the COVID-19 Vaccines and Treatment for Australia Science and Industry Technical Advisory Group.
Dr Samantha Carlson is an early-career, mixed-methods social researcher, leading research that seeks to understand how to improve access to and understanding about immunisation. She is a Senior Research Officer at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at Telethon Kids Institute, and an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia. Samantha draws on her expertise to contribute to important resources about vaccination for consumers and health care providers.
Dr Shevaun Drislane is an early career political science and vaccination social science researcher. She engages in qualitative research and comparative analysis methods and has a particular interest in the intersections between government, policy, and individuals. Shevaun is Postdoctoral Researcher on the MandEval project, leads VaxPol Lab research on infant RSV immunisation, and lectures in political science.
Dr Hang Duong is an early career public policy scholar and emerging expert on vaccination policy. She has over 18 years of experience working in the public sector in Vietnam before doing her PhD at The University of Western Australia (UWA). Her thesis focusing on policy transfer and meritocracy in authoritarian regimes was granted the Award of Honourable Mention on the Dean’s List of UWA. She has had publications in esteemed research journals, including Policy & Politics, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, Political Studies Review, Public Administration and Development, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, Journal of International Relations and Development, and International Journal of Public Policy. She also has a book on policy transfer under authoritarianism published by Palgrave Macmillan and a book chapter in The Public Productivity and Performance Handbook published by Taylor & Francis. Hang currently works as a researcher on the interdisciplinary MandEval project led by Associate Professor Katie Attwell. She is involved in projects investigating the reasons and timing of the introduction and removal of vaccine mandates and lessons learned by policymakers in deciding vaccination policies. Dr Huong is a qualitative researcher with experience in collecting and processing qualitative data, particularly with in-depth interviews and document analysis.
Dr Joshua Lake is a Lecturer in the UWA School of Social Sciences. His work lies across the fields of psychology, political science and marketing, with a particular emphasis on the application of advanced and novel quantitative methods. His research interests centre on the understanding of human values and personality traits, and their relations to behaviour. As a member of VaxPol Lab his focus is on investigating associations between individual differences in personality and attitudes towards vaccination mandates, and the patterns and effects of value-expressive messaging in speech and text regarding mandatory vaccination.
Lorena Herrero
Ms Lorena Herrero is the Acting Research Manager at the VaxPol Lab, The University of Western Australia. In her role, Lorena oversees and manages the administrative functions of MandEval: Mandate Evaluation, a large-scale interdisciplinary research project funded by the Medical Research Future Fund of Australia. Lorena also provides administrative leadership and support to other VaxPol Lab projects, crucial support in ethics, governance, and publication submissions. She plays a pivotal role in project management, ensuring seamless communication and coordination with both internal and external stakeholders.
Associate Lecturer Amy Thomasson is a lecturer and researcher, undertaking her PhD candidature in the UWA Law School. Her academic focus is on health law, in particular how the law responds to public health crises and makes 'tragic choices'. This involves both doctrinal and sociolegal research. Amy works in the legal stream of the MandEval project, which aims to better inform policy makers in future pandemics.
Nor Kamila Kamaruzaman
Nor Kamila Kamaruzaman has been an Administrative and Diplomatic Officer (PTD) for the Malaysian government since 2007. PTD officers are responsible for implementing government policies and managing various administrative functions within government departments and agencies. They also contribute to policy formulation and development by providing recommendations to policymakers. Based on her performance and contributions to the Malaysian government, Nor Kamila Kamaruzaman received a scholarship from the Public Service Department, Malaysia to further her higher research degree in policymaking at The University of Western Australia. She is now being supervised by A/Prof Katie Attwell, A/Prof Marco Rizzi and Dr Hang Duong.
Towhidur Rahman
Towhidur Rahman is an Australia Awards Scholar funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Policy. As an experienced civil servant in public administration and governance, he has served the Government of Bangladesh for more than a decade in various policy analysis and implementation positions. Towhid has first-hand experience with the complex policy problems faced by developing countries. He is passionate about working in the field of socio-economic disparity in health, education, and nutrition based on gender, religion, and other social identities.
Anjali Pushkaran
Anjali Pushkaran is a PhD student working on the Mandate Evaluation (MandEval) project at UWA. Her research focuses on the government decision-making process in COVID-19 vaccine mandate policies. Her research examines the policy actors, power dynamics, institutional factors, and approaches influencing COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Anjali holds a Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy, a Master's degree in Public Health from India, and a second Master's in Global Health Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom. She has authored three journal articles based on her master's thesis, contributing to the academic discourse on health policy and governance.
Demokrat Xhori
Demokrat Xhori is a PhD student within the Mandate Evaluation (MandEval) project at UWA. His research focuses on government communication of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and community values, particularly informed by qualitative methodology. Demokrat holds a Bachelor's degree in Governance and Public Policy from the University of Passau and a Master's degree in Political Science from the University of Bonn (Germany). He has work experience in policy consultancy, management, and journalism.
Eliza Keays
Eliza Keays is a UWA student currently completing a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) in Political Science and International Relations. In 2022, Eliza worked alongside A/Prof Katie Attwell and others to publish a qualitative research study about mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for children. Her honours research is part of the broader UWA-led research program ‘Mandeval’, and focuses on the experiences of young hospitality workers responsible for enforcing COVID-19 public space mandates in WA.
Dr Barbara Nattabi is a senior lecturer at the UWA School of Population and Global Health. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) (Makerere University, Uganda), an MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries (University of London) and a PhD in International Health (Curtin University). Previously she worked at the Western Australian Centre for Rural Health (2010–2019) where she held a NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship (2014–2018). Prior to that, Barbara worked as a medical doctor and public health researcher for over seven years with rural disadvantaged and marginalised populations in post-conflict Northern Uganda. Barbara is particularly interested in the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse communities in vaccination programs.
Dr Sian Tomkinson worked as a researcher and as the inaugural research manager for VaxPolLab from 2021. Sian conducted stakeholder research on vaccination coverage in country areas of Western Australia. She has authored papers on government communications about vaccines and mandates, the public’s attitudes and experiences regarding COVID-19 vaccination, and social media interactions about the pandemic vaccination rollout. Sian is involved in various projects related to digital communities and cultures. Her PhD and main research areas are in game studies and gender.
Ms Leah Roberts is a Research Officer in the VaxPol Lab at The University of Western Australia, where she undertakes bespoke research roles. She played a key role in the ‘community interviews’ component of the Coronavax study focusing on groups such as young people, parents of child aged 5-17, adults with comorbidities and vaccine hesitant individuals. Leah also teaches Political Science and International Relations at UWA whilst completing her doctorate in the School of Population Health, focused on drug policy.
Dr Michael Deml
Dr Michael Deml holds a PhD in Epidemiology/Public Health (Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, Switzerland) and a MA in Sociology (University of Geneva, Switzerland). A Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc. Mobility Fellow, Michael collaborated with the Coronavax team to study coronavirus vaccine rollout in the Australian context and the impacts of the epidemic on routine vaccine uptake and sentiment. His previous research has employed qualitative and mixed methods to study vaccine hesitancy and under-immunisation in Switzerland. As a social scientist, Michael is interested in patient-provider interactions, infectious disease prevention, medicalised prevention, the politics of prevention and health risk governance.
Adam Hannah
Adam Hannah is a Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Queensland, where he focuses on comparative politics and public policy. He is primarily interested in the translation of political ideas and expert knowledge into health and social policy. He has particular expertise in international comparative research, including with regard to major bouts of health care and public pension reform in Sweden and the United States, policy responses to health crises such as antimicrobial resistance and COVID-19 vaccinations and distributional inequality across welfare systems. He has published in scholarly journals such as Policy & Politics, Public Administration, Policy Sciences, Policy & Society and The Journal of European Social Policy.
Jake Harvey
Mr Jake Harvey is an early career professional with four years of experience in mixed-methods social research. He is primarily interested in understanding how the values of policy implementers impact the implementation of mandatory vaccination policies. Currently working as a health policy analyst, Jake also has experience as a researcher within government, non-governmental bodies and in senatorial offices. Jake is currently researching, alongside Associate Professor Katie Attwell, how the values of implementers have affected the implementation of the No Jab, No Play policy enforced by some Australian states.
Dr Julie Ji
Dr Julie Ji is a Lecturer at the School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, UK. She is an expert on mental imagery-based future thinking and its impact on emotion, judgment and behaviour in the context of depression, anxiety, and self-injury. Bringing insights and methodologies from her cutting-edge research, Dr Ji is working with VaxPolLab to investigate modifiable psychological factors driving vaccine hesitancy and refusal. Dr Ji completed doctoral training at the University of Cambridge in 2017, and worked at UWA as an inaugural Forrest Postdoctoral Fellow between 2018-2022, following postdoctoral training at the University of Virginia, USA.
Mark Christopher Navin
Mark Christopher Navin, PhD, HEC-C, is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Oakland University (Rochester, MI, USA) and Clinical Ethicist at Beaumont Health. He works primarily in clinical ethics and the ethics of public health, and also conducts empirical research about immunisation policies. His monograph Values and Vaccine Refusal: Hard Questions in Ethics, Epistemology and Health Care was published by Routledge in 2016. His articles have appeared in journals including JAMA Pediatrics, Milbank Quarterly, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Pediatrics, Vaccine, American Journal of Bioethics, Hastings Center Report, and Journal of Medical Ethics. Along with Katie Attwell, he is author of America's Vaccine Wars: California and the Politics of Mandates (Oxford University Press 2023).
Maxine Chau
Maxine Chau is a second-year Doctor of Medicine student at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle. Her interests include paediatrics, and vaccine social science research. She completed a qualitative, co-design study at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne as part of her Honours project. The study, recently published in Vaccine, explored the experiences of migrant parents with navigating catch-up vaccination for their children and co-designed some interventions to improve the process.
Professor Lisa Wood
Dr Lisa Wood is a tireless advocate for research being relevant and useful to the real world, with a breadth of research focusing on reducing health inequalities, across areas of homelessness, family and domestic violence and mental health. Lisa leads an expansive program of collaborative homelessness research, strongly anchored around priorities identified by services working at the coalface of homelessness and people with a lived experience. Tackling barriers to preventive healthcare is a high priority, and together with Homeless Healthcare, she has led since 2019 the implementation and evaluation of targeted influenza vaccination clinics for people experiencing homelessness.
Since the onset of COVID-19, Lisa has worked closely with the health and homelessness sectors in WA and nationally to amplify the need for people experiencing homelessness to be recognised as high priority population group because they cannot ‘stay home’ and have a high prevalence of risk factors for COVID mortality. Through the Coronavax 3 project, Lisa is contributing to ensuring that the barriers and enablers to COVID vaccination for vulnerable populations groups are heard.
