Steering Group

Anna Lene Seidler

Anna Lene Seidler is leading the TOPCHILD collaboration. She is a Senior Research Fellow based at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. Lene has qualifications and track record in psychology, research methods and mathematics. She specialises in systematic reviews, methods development, project management, and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses. Her clinical focus areas are early childhood obesity and neonatology. She provides statistical support to three teams of 20 researchers and students, and has mentored and supervised many students/staff to complete influential research projects resulting in high impact publications, e.g. an IPD meta-analysis that was chosen as one of ten “maintenance certification articles” for all US obstetricians to read in 2019. She leads several large international research projects, such as the iCOMP collaboration and the TOPCHILD collaboration. Her methods development and pilot work for the TOPCHILD Collaboration ‘Modelling the predicted effectiveness of early childhood obesity intervention components’, was honoured with the Australasian Epidemiological Association Early Career Researcher Award.

Kylie Hunter

Kylie Hunter is a Senior Project Officer for the Evidence Integration team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. She has a background in human movement, research methods, clinical trials registration and public health, and has worked on projects across various clinical areas including childhood obesity, neonatology and breast cancer. She has expertise in systematic reviews and individual participant data meta-analysis, and has been actively involved with the Cochrane Prospective Meta-Analysis Methods Group for over 10 years. She also has experience in deconstructing complex interventions using tools like the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy. Kylie will lead the TOPCHILD individual participant data meta-analysis.

Brittany Johnson

Brittany Johnson is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Caring Futures Institute, at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. Her research interests include improving children’s diet quality by reducing unhealthy food intake, applying behaviour change theory and creating supportive environments where we live, work and play. She has extensive skills in the Behaviour Change Wheel including Behaviour Change Techniques, through training by the University College London Centre for Behaviour Change, which she has applied in projects related to children’s vegetable and unhealthy food intake, and early obesity prevention interventions. Brittany will provide expertise on behaviour change theory and best practice intervention design and is leading the deconstructing interventions component of the TOPCHILD Collaboration project.

Rebecca Golley

Rebecca Golley is Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics and Better Lives Theme Lead within the Caring Futures Institute at Flinders University. Rebecca leads a program of applied research to inform, develop, test and disseminate public health initiatives to improve children’s diet quality, prevent obesity and support children’s growth, learning and development. Rebecca has a strong track record in behavioural nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, dietary assessment, intervention trials and evaluation research.

Louise Baur

Louise Baur is the Professor and Head of Child & Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney. She is a senior consultant paediatrician at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network where she is an active member – and former Head - of Weight Management Services. Louise has worked in many clinical, public health and policy aspects of paediatric obesity and nutrition. She has made extensive research contributions to the prevention of obesity, especially in early childhood; the impact of food marketing to children; the antecedents of obesity and the metabolic syndrome in young people; the complications of obesity; the management of obesity and related disorders in a variety of clinical settings; and the measurement of body composition, dietary intake & physical activity in young people. Louise is currently Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood (funded 2016 to early 2021).

Lisa Askie

Lisa Askie joined the WHO at Geneva Headquarters in Sept 2020 as Scientist and Methods Lead within the Quality Norms and Standards Department, Science Division. Prior to her WHO appointment Lisa led a large team at the National Health and Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney, Australia, which managed the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, undertook Health Technology Assessments for the Australian Federal Government, hosted two Cochrane Collaboration entities (Breast Cancer Review Group, Prospective Meta-analysis Methods Group) and oversaw an extensive medical test evaluation research program.

Lisa has a long standing interest in the conduct and methodology of clinical trials, systematic reviews and other forms of evidence synthesis, especially with regard to increasing research transparency and reducing research waste. She has been involved with the Cochrane Collaboration since 1996 as a systematic review author, trainer and editor. Lisa is the co-convenor of the Cochrane Prospective Meta-analysis Methods Group and undertook her postdoctoral fellowship at the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford.

Angie Barba

Angie Barba is a Senior Project Officer for the Evidence Integration team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. She has qualifications in exercise physiology, and clinical epidemiology. She has previously worked in clinical trials focussing on low back pain, has expertise in clinical trials registration, and is currently also involved in an individual participant data analysis study looking at prevention of childhood obesity.

Sol Libesman

Sol Libesman is a postdoctoral research associate and data scientist for the NextGen Evidence integration team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. His research background is in psychology where he has led projects that have investigated decision-making and perception. His previous research groups at UNSW and the Australian National University, specialized in schizophrenia, hallucinations and delusional-reasoning. He was worked in the evidence integration team since 2019 and his current focus relates to the deployment and optimization of the next generation of evidence synthesis methods including IPD meta analyses and network meta-analyses.

Mason Aberoumand

Mason Aberoumand is a data manager for the Evidence Integration team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. With qualifications in applied mathematics and statistics he has experience in statistical simulation, data management and data quality.

Jonathan Williams

Jonathan Williams is a Research Officer for the Evidence Integration team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. He is currently completing his PhD in molecular biology, specialising in microbiology and human immunology, focusing on issues in vulnerable populations. He has experience in science communication, clinical sample processing and phlebotomy.

Samantha Pryde