Ms Frances Batchelor
B. App Sc (Physio), Grad Dip Ed (Sport Science), M. Hlth St.

Frances completed her physiotherapy degree in 1987 and since then has worked in Australia, Germany and England in the fields of neurology and aged care, in both acute and sub-acute settings. She completed her Masters in 2005 in the field of Primary Health Care and Community Health. Frances has recently commenced PhD studies under Associate Professor Keith Hill's supervision working on falls prevention after stroke.

Current projects
• Randomised trial of falls prevention after stroke.

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Ms Jenny Fitzgerald
B. App. Sc, Physiotherapy; Grad. Dip Physio., Neurology; MBA; AIMM

Jenny Fitzgerald is the Clinical manger, Physiotherapy at Ballarat Health Services.  She is currently the Chair of the Victorian Branch of the APA Physiotherapists in Leadership and Management Group.  She is a Director of Scope (Vic) Ltd.  Jenny is currently enrolled in a Professional Doctorate of Physiotherapy at La Trobe University. Her area of research interest is falls prevention.

Mr Kade Paterson
BAppSc (Hons) Bpod

Kade’s honours research explored foot function and the resultant patterns of horizontal forces during walking, which then lead to him completing a degree in Podiatry. Currently, he combines his clinical podiatric work with a lecturing position at ACU National, where he is also the co-ordinator for their movement analysis laboratories. He is completing a PhD at NARI investigating symmetry and variability changes with increasing age.

Ms Loretta Quinn
RN (Div 1) AmusA (Piano) Post Grad Dip (MT) Mmus

With a background in classical piano and Div 1 nursing, Loretta completed a post graduate diploma in Music Therapy at Melbourne University in 1992. Since then, she has had extensive experience working as a music therapist in the fields of aged care/dementia and palliative care. In 2002, she completed a Masters in Music Therapy, which focussed on the effect of music therapy on the quality of life on both people with dementia and their carers living at home. Her PhD is due to be completed in February 2010

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Ms Plaiwan Suttanon

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Ms Willeke Walsh
B App Sc (Physio)

Willeke completed her physiotherapy degree in 1995. She initially worked in a variety of fields of physiotherapy and since 2000 has specialised in aged care, particularly in the acute setting. Commencing in 2001, Willeke co-managed a 3 year, Department of Human Services funded, multi-factorial falls prevention project. “Avoiding the tumble”, falls prevention in the acute and sub-acute hospital and residential care settings, was a collaborative project of Western Health and NARI. She continues to work as a physiotherapist in the acute aged care field. Willeke is undertaking Masters by Research studies at the University of Melbourne Physiotherapy department investigating falls risk assessment in the acute hospital setting. Willeke’s research interests include falls prevention, balance and physical activity programs to prevent functional decline in hospitals and acute aged care.

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Ms Xiao Jing Yang
MD MWomen’s Health MHealth Science

Jing was originally trained in medicine in China, with a focus on public health issues. She came to Australia for postgraduate study in 2003, starting with a Master’s course in women’s health at Melbourne University, she then pursued her further training in aged service at Victoria University. Jing spent six month at NARI last year on her Master’s thesis, supervised by Ms Betty Haralambous. She has newly become a PhD student of Assoc. Prof. Keith Hill working on the DVA balance screen project.