PIRI Staff
Professor Jeannette Milgrom
Director
Professor Milgrom has been involved in clinical practice and research on difficulties in the mother-infant interaction and postnatal depression (PND) since 1978, and has held a Harkness Fellowship in the USA as well as an O'Rouke Fellowship in Paris for work with families and infants. She has developed a model centre for families and infants, the "Infant Clinic", and the H.U.G.S. intervention program targeting the parent-infant relationship. Professor Milgrom established the Parent-Infant Research Institute, which aims to become the pre-eminent body in Australia conducting research in parent-infant difficulties. Professor Milgrom has published widely in the area and held a number of long-term research grants having just completed a large randomized controlled trial of screening (n=5000) and evaluating comparative treatments of postnatal depression. She is also active professionally, holding positions in the Australian Association for Infant Mental Health (Victorian Branch) and the College of Health Psychologists of the Australian Psychological Society
Ms Jennifer Ericksen
Infant Clinic Coordinator
Jennie Ericksen is Coordinator of the Infant Clinic of the Parent-Infant Research Institute. She is a psychologist specialising in early childhood assessment, parent support and skills training, cognitive behaviour therapy, service planning and implementation. She has worked in a variety of specialist children's services. Currently she works with families during the child's first two years of life. She has a strong interest in training other health professionals, and has been project manager on a number of the Parent-Infant Research Institute research studies, playing a key role in the beyondblue projects and leading a multidisciplinary team of parent-infant specialists. She has published a number of articles and contributed to improving awareness in the media of the needs of mothers, fathers and infants.
Dr Alan Gemmill
Senior Research Officer
Alan Gemmill has strong interests in reproductive biology, human health, psychology and biomedical statistics. His published work has modelled the reproductive ecology of infectious, disease-causing organisms in the light of modern evolutionary theory and has focussed on direct experimental tests of theoretical predictions. In recent years his interests have covered diverse biomedical topics from the genetics of malaria parasite to issues of mother-infant mental health. As Senior Research Officer at the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology Austin Health, Dr Gemmill oversees the design, conduct and analysis of various research studies, clinical trials and public health initiatives.
Ms Elizabeth Loughlin
Dance Therapist
Ms Loughlin is a professional dance therapist who has worked with mothers and infants in dance in the community, studio and clinical setting for many years. At the Austin Health Infant Clinic, she offers dance and movement with music as a therapeutic intervention for mothers with postnatal depression and their infants. The aim is to build on the mother's intuitive processes that may have been dampened by postnatal depression and to encourage expressive communication between infant and mother. Ms Loughlin has published in the area and also teaches about this work at the International Dance Therapy Institute of Australia and creative arts therapies in the University of Melbourne School of Social Work.
Dr Carol Newnham
Neuropsychologist & Researcher
Dr Newnham trained as a neuropsychologist and her main area of interest is optimising the development of premature babies. She is currently running two research projects. The first involves helping mothers understand the unique behaviours and needs of their still-hospitalised infants. The second project is to compare two forums in which parents of premature babies are given a host of information about prematurity: a 3-hour workshop versus an 8-week therapeutic playgroup. In addition, Dr Newnham edits a quarterly PIRI magazine called Premiepress. Premiepress also aims to educate parents about the issues their premature baby (and themselves) may face and ways in which they can be proactive in helping their family. A premature-baby clinic, to which parents can bring their child for assessment or themselves for counselling is also co-ordinated by Dr Newnham.
Chris Holt
Senior Research Officer
Mr Christopher Holt graduated with a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne in 2003 He is currently a PHD student within the school of Psychology at Australian Catholic University. His interests include, workplace engagement, mental health and positive psychology. In 2004 he joined the research team at the Infant Clinic (Austin Health, Melbourne) as a research assistant. He co-ordinates the PremieStart project, which is a research trial evaluating an early intervention for pre-term infants.
Dr Charlene Schembri
Clinical Psychologist & Researcher
Dr Schembri graduated with a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) at RMIT University, Melbourne in 2001 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology at the University of Melbourne in 2002. She completed her Doctor of Clinical Psychology degree at La Trobe University, Melbourne in 2007. Charlene joined the PIRI team in February 2006. She co-ordinates the Beating the Blues Before Birth program, Community H.U.G.S. program and the web-based PND treatment trial.
Dr Jo du Buisson
Senior Clinical Psychologist
Jo is a senior clinical psychologist working within the Infant Clinic on a part-time basis. Jo’s role in the Infant Clinic is to facilitate the Getting Ahead of Postnatal Depression and Baby H.U.G.S. programs and to provide individual treatment to mothers and infants. Jo also works within the Department of Clinical & Health Psychology, Austin Health coordinating the psychology outpatient clinic, coordinating psychology student placements in the department, supervising psychology registrars, and providing clinical services to patients referred to the outpatient clinic.
Sofia Rallis
Psychologist
Sofia completed her Master of Clinical Psychology degree at RMIT University, Melbourne in 2007 and is currently undertaking a PhD in Psychology at Deakin University. This research is focused on exploring maternal and infant wellbeing across pregnancy and the first postpartum year, which will include investigating the relationships and patterns of distress levels during these times, as well as factors that contribute and result from maternal anxiety, depression and stress. Sofia initially joined the PIRI team in July 2006 and is one of the psychologists in the Infant Clinic, and also co-ordinates the 'Parent and Baby Wellbeing Program'.
Carmel Ferretti
Psychologist
Dr Helen Skouteris
Honorary Senior Research Fellow
Dr Skouteris is an expert in developmental and health psychology, who has been appointed to a 4-year NHMRC Obesity Prevention Capacity Building Research Fellow position (2008- 2012) at Deakin University as of February 2008. Prior to this appointment, Helen was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University where she had been a member of academic staff since 1995. Helen's main areas of research interest include: parental influences on pre-school weight gain; maternal psychopathology and its impact on childhood obesity; paternal psychopathology experience during pregnancy and the postpartum; social comparisons among primary-school aged children; prevention of excessive gestational and postpartum weight gain. Given their collaborative work over the last 5 years, Professor Jeannette Milgrom invited Helen to take up an Honorary Senior Research Fellow Position in Parent-Infant Research Institute at Austin Health as of May 2008. Helen works at PIRI half day every week.
Lisa Milne
Postgraduate Student
Lisa Milne is a clinical child psychologist and academic. She has a background in community health, working with at-risk children and their families, and has worked as an independent consultant for child protection agencies. Lisa runs a private practice in clinical psychology for children and adolescents and psychotherapy for women and teaches in post-graduate clinical psychology programs. Her research interests include psychological assessment and infant mental health. Lisa is completing a PhD at the University of Melbourne in which she plans to follow-up the PremieStart cohort of infants at 36 months.
Soledad Coo Calcagni
Postgraduate Student
Ms. Coo is currently undertaking a PhD in Psychology at the University of Melbourne. The focus of her research is exploring the subjective perception of women about their experiences of pregnancy and childbirth, through the assessment of cognitive vulnerability to depression and coping styles. In the context of this research, she is exploring how processing and coping strategies used by pregnant women vary from the waking to the non-waking state. She is also very interested in the influence of sleep on the development of postnatal distress.