The Raine Study is governed by a Joint Venture (JV), a collaborative partnership between the University of Western Australia (the centre agent), Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University, the University of Notre Dame, The Kids Research Institute Australia and the Women and Infants Research Foundation.
The Board is responsible for the governance of the Raine Study, custodianship and control of the assets (such as the data, biological samples and intellectual property) and identifying, establishing and maintaining formal partners and collaborators.
The Board is overseen by our independent Chair, Catherine Resnick.
CATHERINE RESNICK, Chair, The Raine Study GAICD, GradDipAnPsychTh
Catherine brings a wealth of experience in strategy, commercialisation, digital technologies and cultural change. She has successfully established award winning and internationally recognised enterprises in digital health and education, following earlier forays in engineering/ construction and finance. Adept at identifying future trends and market gaps, Catherine has been instrumental in positioning organisations at the forefront of their respective industries, globally.
Formerly, Cath was the founder | CEO of KinChip Systems, a digital health platform delivering person centred solutions for the population health and real-world evidence markets. She is a non-executive director at Diabetes WA, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and held senior executive and board positions in the areas of mental health, youth, disability and education.
ROLAND KERR BSci, MPhil(Chem)
Participant Representative (Generation 2)
Roland was born into the Raine Study’s Generation 2 cohort intake between 1989 and 1992. He has been a part of the Raine Study’s community outreach and cohort representation programs since the early 2000s and has stayed active through the formation of the Raine Study Community Advisory Committee in 2017. He started as the participant Generation 2 cohort representative on the Raine Study’s UJV Board in February 2024. Roland is a graduate of UWA and has 4 years’ experience in contract R&D for the pharmaceutical sector.
AMANDA BLUMER
Participant Representative (Generation 1)
Amanda is a Generation 1 mother who was recruited during the first year of the study. She has been active in the Raine Study Community Advisory Committee since 2021 and joined the UJV Board in 2025 as a Gen1 participant member. Amanda is a graduate of UWA with experience in research, health promotion, communication and marketing, with a keen interest in the health and wellbeing of communities.
PROFESSOR DANIEL GUCCIARDI BSc (Hons), PhD
Dean of Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University
Daniel is a behavioural scientist whose research spans resilience, stress regulation, and human performance across health, military, and sport settings. Daniel has built a career oriented toward creating conditions under which others produce excellent research through mentorship, cross-sector partnerships with government and private sectors, and graduate research leadership. As Dean of Research, Daniel stewards research strategy, capability development, and governance across one of Curtin’s largest faculties. Daniel brings experience in translational research design, interdisciplinary collaboration across institutional boundaries, and multi-stakeholder research governance.
PROFESSOR PETER EASTWOOD PhD, BSc, FAPSR, FTSANZ
Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation, Murdoch University
Professor Peter Eastwood is Deputy Vice Chancellor Research & Innovation at Murdoch University. He has held many academic and research-related leadership positions in Australia and Internationally. Previously, Professor Eastwood was Director of the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute and Dean of Research, College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University; Director of The Raine Study; Deputy Director of the Institute for Respiratory Health and inaugural Director of the Centre for Sleep Science at the University of Western Australia. He has been the Asia/Australasia representative on the World Sleep Society Governing Council; Past President of the Australasian Sleep Association and Immediate Past Editor in Chief of Respirology.
Professor Eastwood has made a significant contribution to understanding and improving the diagnosis and treatments of chronic lung disease and sleep disorders. His research is clinically orientated and undertaken in university and public hospital settings. He has published >250 peer-reviewed research papers and supervised many postgraduate research students across a broad range of disciplines including genomics, public health, rehabilitation and exercise science, life course health studies, metabolic health, neuroscience and chronic disease.
DEBORAH ATTARD PORTUGHES OAM, GAICD
Chief Executive Officer, Women and Infants Research Foundation
Deborah Attard Portughes is the Chief Executive Officer of the Women and Infants Research Foundation (WIRF). She has a background in business development, marketing and fundraising and experience in stakeholder management. She was previously the Development Executive for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC). Prior to this, she worked in Malta where she taught Creative Thinking techniques with Professor Edward deBono. Deb was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in June 2026.
Deb is currently on the board of Freeze Frame Opera, and previously served on the board of WA-based POWA Institute for Creative thinking, a not-for-profit institute based on Edward deBono’s thinking methods. Deb also worked as a family and commercial mediator and was an executive producer of a current affairs television program.
PROFESSOR BEN JACKSON BSc (Hons), PhD
Acting Director of Research, The Kids Research Institute Australia
Professor Ben Jackson has a shared appointment between The Kids Research Institute and UWA. He is the Head of the ‘Brain and Behaviour’ Theme and Acting Director of Research at The Kids Research Institute and a Professor in the School of Human Sciences at UWA.
Ben has produced over 200 publications, and his work has been supported with over $10million in funding. Ben is a Deputy Editor for Stress & Health and serves on the editorial board of five other well-known journals in the fields of psychology and health promotion. He is also an Adjunct Professor at James Cook University.
PROFESSOR GERARD HOYNE BSc (Hons), PhD, GCUT
Associate Dean, School of Research, Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Sciences, The University of Notre Dame Australia
Professor Gerard Hoyne is the Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, Midwifery and Health Sciences at the University of Notre Dame Australia. Professor Hoyne has held research positions at Imperial College in London, the University of Edinburgh and was a Research Fellow at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University. He is Chair of the UNDA Human Research Ethics Committee and was recently appointed as Chair of the Raine Awards & Prizes Advisory Committee members. He was a co-founding scientist of a biotechnology company that was established in Cambridge in the UK.
Professor Hoyne has researched within the field of immunology for over 30 years investigating how the immune system regulates immune responses to self and foreign proteins at a cellular and molecular level. This has important implications in the development of autoimmune diseases such as allergies and diabetes. He is currently collaborating on a project investigating the role of immune cells in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis with colleagues at the Institute for Respiratory Health. Professor Hoyne has supervised and mentored PhD students in the fields of Sports Science, Outdoor Recreation as well as Health and Physical Education.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CLAUS CHRISTOPHERSEN, PhD, MSc
Associate Dean, Research, School of Medical & Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University
Claus is an Associate Professor in Nutrition in the School of Medical Health Sciences at Edith Cowan University. He is also Post-Graduate Coordinator for Public Health, Occupational Health & Safety and Allied Health (Paramedical, Occupational Therapies, Nutrition and Diatetics, Speech Pathology).
Associate Professor Christophersen is a microbiologist specialising in the role of the gut microbiome in health and disease. As team leader at CSIRO Associate Professor Christophersen led the molecular gut microbiology capability, which he developed over recent years to close the gap and further the understanding of the complex interaction between the gut microbiome, diet and/or disease, and the host response. To accomplish this he utilizes in vitro and animal models and human intervention studies, and an integration of bacterial 16S rRNA sequencing, biochemical and physiological data using multivariate statistical analysis. Associate Professor Christophersen has published in highly esteemed journals (e.g. GUT) in many areas of gut microbiome research, i.e. obesity, effects of high protein diet, ulcerative colitis (UC), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Gut-Brain Axis (Autism), athletes and other healthy cohorts. Through these studies he has an in-depth knowledge of microbial changes and the resulting changes of the gut environment and microbial fermentation following diet changes, diet supplementation or disease.
PROFESSOR ANNA NOWAK MB BS PhD W.Aust., FRACP
Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) The University of Western Australia
Professor Anna Nowak is acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and has responsibility for research policy development and leadership of the University’s research activities, postgraduate education, industry liaison, intellectual property and commercialisation.
Professor Nowak is a medical oncologist and clinician scientist who completed both her undergraduate medical degree and her PhD in tumour immunology at The University of Western Australia (UWA). A post-doctoral fellowship in clinical trials and quality of life research at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre in Sydney gave her a true bench to bedside research perspective. Anna has been a clinical academic in the UWA Medical School since 2005, and has built a strong research program encompassing laboratory, murine, translational and clinical trials work, with a focus on mesothelioma.
Anna’s research leadership experience includes her role as Pro Vice Chancellor (Health and Medical Research) at UWA, Associate Dean (Research) of UWA’s Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, as Director of the National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases since 2018, and as Chair of the national brain cancer collaborative clinical trials group COGNO from 2017 to 2020. She is a member of the Cancer Council WA Board. Anna is passionate about mentoring, collaboration, building a positive culture for research staff and students, and women in science.
Ex-Officio Members Representing The Raine Study at Joint Venture Board Meetings are:
PROFESSOR MARGARET BYRNE PhD, GAICD, PSM
Director, The Raine Study
School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR PHILLIP MELTON, PhD, MA
Scientific Director, The Raine Study
School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia
Board Liaison, Operations & Finance Advisor
AGGIE BOUCKLEY, BCom, CPA
Operations Manager, The Raine Study
School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia