The Prader-Willi Research Foundation Australia is a registered charity which seeks to improve the lives of people living with Prader-Willi Syndrome.

Our team of people bring together world-class scientists, families living with Prader-Willi Syndrome and outstanding legal and business professionals:

BOARD

Board
Kathlene Jones
Kathlene Jones

CEO, FOUNDER AND BOARD MEMBER

Kathlene Jones is mother to a beautiful young girl with Prader-Willi Syndrome and is establishing PWRFA to develop breakthrough treatments that will enable people with Prader-Willi Syndrome to live independent lives. She has extensive experience in management and strategy, having previously worked as General Manager, Strategy at Australia Post and a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Prior to this she worked around the world (London, Beijing, Hong Kong, Sydney) in marketing strategy and research, business development and as an economist. She has an MBA (Dean’s Honours List) from Melbourne Business School and Columbia Graduate School of Business and graduated first in class with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Economics) from the University of Queensland. She is now a freelance management consultant and has been working in the health technology area.

DUNCAN MCGAUCHIE - PRINCIPLE, TW STRATEGIC
DUNCAN MCGAUCHIE - PRINCIPLE, TW STRATEGIC

CHAIR

Duncan is a Corporate Affairs professional with over 15 years’ experience advising CEOs, Boards and Ministers across the Corporate Affairs Function including strategic communications, public affairs, media relations as well as public policy development and advocacy.

Duncan provides counsel and support to a wide range of large and small organisations as Principal Consultant with TW Strategic. He supports clients to engage with markets, government, media and other stakeholders via communications and positioning strategies as well as reputation, issues and crisis management across multiple sectors. He has previously served as a senior policy and political advisor for the Victorian Premier and Minister for Education.

Amy Brennan
Amy Brennan

BOARD MEMBER

Amy Brennan is a barrister and practices extensively in the criminal and employment law jurisdictions, including occupational health and safety work. She completed her articles and initially practiced as an employment lawyer at Maddocks. Amy then took up a position as Associate to Justice Teague at the Supreme Court of Victoria. Immediately prior to signing the Bar Roll, Amy worked at Victoria Legal Aid. In 2012, Amy was chosen by the Victorian Bar Council to represent the Victorian Bar at a nine week internship program in Paris called the Stage Internationale du Barreau de Paris. She is currently the secretary of the Equality & Diversity Committee at the Bar.

Amy has a sister with cerebral palsy giving her a personal understanding of the challenges and needs of families living with disability.

 

Rebecca Cross PSM
Rebecca Cross PSM

BOARD MEMBER

Rebecca Cross joined Bupa at the end of February 2016 to undertake a 12 month secondment as Head of Government, Policy and Regulatory Affairs. Her responsibilities include supporting Bupa's interactions with governments, industry stakeholders and regulators on private health insurance and aged care, as well as Bupa's other health and care services.

Rebecca was previously a Deputy Secretary heading up Domestic Policy at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C), where she was responsible for social policy (including health, education, social and health services), the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), regulatory reform, and the Office for Women.

Prior to joining PM&C in 2009 Rebecca spent over 16 years in the education, training and employment portfolio in the Commonwealth government. During this time she worked on policy and programs in schools, vocational education and training, youth transitions, international education, and employment, including a period as Senior Advisor to the then Minister for Employment, Education and Training, the Hon. David Kemp MP.

 

 

Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson is a Chartered Accountant and mother of a wonderful boy with Prader-Willi Syndrome. She holds qualifications from both UTS and UNSW in Sydney in commerce, business and international studies. With a career spanning tech, financial services, travel and telco in both Australia and the United Kingdom, Amy is passionate about helping teams achieve more than they thought possible. Amy is based on Sydney's Northern Beaches and joined the Board in the capacity of company secretary in 2021.

Professor Ian Cooke
Professor Ian Cooke

BOARD MEMBER

Prof Ian Cooke is CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for Mental Health, a 19-party consortium that was established in 2011 under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program. The CRC for Mental Health aims to develop biomarker-based clinical decision tools for use in the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, psychoses and mood disorders.

Prof Cooke’s previous roles include appointments as a Professorial Fellow in the Asia Pacific Centre for Science and Wealth Creation at Monash University, CEO of Foursight Associates, a science and technology advisory company based in Melbourne, CEO of CNSBio, a clinical-stage venture capital-backed company spun out of Monash University to commercialise novel therapies for the treatment of severe pain and Associate Director (R&D) of the Burnet Institute in Melbourne. He has held academic and research appointments at Deakin University, Princeton University, Bell Laboratories and the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.

Prof Cooke holds BSc (Hons), PhD and M IP Law degrees from the University of Melbourne and an MBA degree from Monash University.

PROFESSOR JOE PROIETTO
PROFESSOR JOE PROIETTO

BOARD MEMBER

Joseph Proietto is Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne in the Department of Medicine Austin Health and an Endocrinologist specialising in Diabetes and Obesity. He established the first obesity clinic in Victoria at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and is now Head of the Weight control clinic at Austin Health. Professor Proietto was the inaugural Sir Edward Dunlop Medical Research Foundation, Professor of Medicine, and Head of the Metabolic Disorders Research Group in the Department of Medicine, Austin Health. He is currently on the executive of World Obesity and is Chair of the Clinical Care Committee.

Professor Proietto has published over 200 articles and several book chapters on obesity and diabetes. He is the Author of “Body Weight Regulation: Essential Knowledge to lose weight and keep it off”.

DR SUSAN BLAIR - NEPHROLOGIST
DR SUSAN BLAIR - NEPHROLOGIST

BOARD MEMBER

Dr Susan Blair is the mum of an endlessly delightful six year-old with PWS.  She has 10 years’ experience as an adult Nephrologist and her particular interest is in delivering high quality, chronic, complex care.  She is a practicing clinician in Geelong, following previous appointments at the Southern and Eastern Health Care Networks in Victoria and at Monash University.  She gained her MBBS (Hons) from Monash and is a Fellow of the RACP. 

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COUNCIL

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PROFESSOR JOE PROIETTO:
PROFESSOR JOE PROIETTO:

SAC CHAIR - PROFESSOR EMERITUS, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE. HEAD, WEIGHT LOSS CLINIC, AUSTIN HEALTH. CHAIR, CLINICAL CARE COMMITTEE, WORLD OBESITY.

Joseph Proietto is Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne in the Department of Medicine Austin Health and an Endocrinologist specialising in Diabetes and Obesity. He established the first obesity clinic in Victoria at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and is now Head of the Weight control clinic at Austin Health. Professor Proietto was the inaugural Sir Edward Dunlop Medical Research Foundation, Professor of Medicine, and Head of the Metabolic Disorders Research Group in the Department of Medicine, Austin Health. He is currently on the executive of World Obesity and is Chair of the Clinical Care Committee.

Professor Proietto has published over 200 articles and several book chapters on obesity and diabetes. He is the Author of “Body Weight Regulation: Essential Knowledge to lose weight and keep it off”.

Professor Anthony Hannan
Professor Anthony Hannan

HEAD NEURAL PLASTICITY, THE FLOREY INSTITUTE OF NEUROSCIENCE AND MENTAL HEALTH

Professor Hannan currently holds an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship, and is Professorial Fellow at the Florey and the University of Melbourne.  His Neural Plasticity Laboratory explores how genes and environment combine via experience-dependent plasticity in the healthy and diseased brain. This research includes models of specific neurological and psychiatric disorders which involve cognitive and affective dysfunction, investigated at behavioural, cellular and molecular levels so as to identify pathogenic mechanisms and novel therapeutic targets

HERBERT HERTZOG
HERBERT HERTZOG

Prof Herbert Herzog studied Chemistry, switching to Biochemistry for his PhD, which he obtained from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) in 1989. In 1991, he joined the Garvan Institute where he studies the role of NPY and other family members like PYY and pancreatic polypeptide, investigating the numerous different functions of these important molecules publishing over 280 articles on this topic.

Prof Herzog currently holds a NHMRC - Senior Principal Research Fellowship and is the Chair in Neuroendocrinology at the Garvan Institute in Sydney.

Prof Herzog’s current work focuses on determining the fundamental processes that can lead to the development of obesity, or the other extreme anorexia, especially investigating the brain's role in the regulation of eating behaviour, stress and glucose homeostasis. He is also interested in how homeostatic processes that regulate bodyweight are coordinated with other homeostatic processes in the body, like the one that control bone and fat mass and how this changes with age.

Dr Theresa Strong
Dr Theresa Strong

CHAIR, SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD, FOUNDATION FOR PRADER-WILLI RESEARCH

Dr Strong received a B.S. from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Medical Genetics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).  She performed postdoctoral studies at the University of Michigan in the laboratory of Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., studying the molecular basis of the inherited diseases cystic fibrosis and Huntington disease.  After completing her postdoctoral work, she returned to the faculty at UAB, where she is currently a Professor in the Department of Medicine.  She is also a Scientist in UAB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, where her laboratory focuses primarily on gene therapy for cancer.  She and her husband Jim have four children, including a son with PWS.  Theresa is one of the founding members of FPWR and directs FPWR’s Grant Program.

Lauren Rice
Lauren Rice

Lauren Rice is a Research Fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney and The Children’s Hospital Westmead Clinical School.

She completed a Bachelor of Psychology from the University of Western Sydney and a PhD from the University of Sydney. Her thesis explored the characteristics and causal mechanisms of temper outbursts in Prader Willi Syndrome and included the first study to identify a deficit in brain gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in PWS. Lauren’s postdoctoral PWS work is looking at the efficacy of a mindfulness-based intervention at reducing temper outbursts, the nature of the oxytocin abnormality and the role of the GABA system in behaviour disturbance. Before research, Lauren spent seven years as a coordinator of group programs for children with developmental disabilities.

OUR TEAM

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Dr Diane Webster
Dr Diane Webster

RESEARCH DIRECTOR

Dr Diane Webster is a highly skilled science professional, with experience in the management of projects, people and research. She has a detailed understanding of the Australian regulatory landscape and is adept at working within the scope, policies and procedures of academic and government organisations and committees. She holds a PhD in molecular virology and has been a Project Leader at the Burnet Institute and a Laboratory Head at Monash University. In addition to her role as Research Director at the Prader-Willi Research Foundation of Australia, she is the Chair of the Swinburne Biosafety Committee, a member of the Gene Technology Advisory Committee (until Jan 2017), and was the concluding National Convenor of the Women in Science Enquiry Network (which has now merged with Women in STEMM Australia).

Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson

COMPANY SECRETARY

Amy Johnson is a Chartered Accountant and mother of a wonderful boy with Prader-Willi Syndrome. She holds qualifications from both UTS and UNSW in Sydney in commerce, business and international studies. With a career spanning tech, financial services, travel and telco in both Australia and the United Kingdom, Amy is passionate about helping teams achieve more than they thought possible. Amy is based on Sydney's Northern Beaches and joined the Board in the capacity of company secretary in 2021.