The AIPN were delighted to present the following awards at last years 12th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference, in recognition of outstanding achievement in injury prevention research, policy and practice.
Award for Outstanding Contribution to the AIPN
Dr Sophie Pointer, Flinders University
A special award was also presented to Dr Sophie Pointer for her long standing support and involvement in the AIPN Executive Committee. Sophie is a Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Injury Studies located in the Prevention, Promotion and Primary Health Care Cluster within the School of Medicine. The Research Centre also houses the National Injury Surveillance Unit, a Collaborating Centre of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. She has been working in the field of injury epidemiology for several years and have a special interest in Indigenous injury, child injury, patient safety and policy.
Contributions to Practice in Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion
Associate Professor Tony Lower, University of Sydney
Tony is the Director of the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health & Safety, University of Sydney. He has over 20 years experience in agricultural health and safety, with his interests covering a range of public health issues. He has worked extensively across rural Australia and internationally in the areas of agricultural injury and chronic disease.
Contributions to Research in Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion
Professor James Harrison, Flinders University
Professor Harrison is an injury epidemiologist and public health physician. He was appointed as founding Director of Research Centre for Injury Studies at Flinders University in 1997 and has been the Director of the National Injury Surveillance Unit (NISU) since 1990. He is active nationally and internationally in the areas of measurement and classification of injury, injury burden and determinants of injury in populations, and the descriptive epidemiology of injury for public health purposes.
Contributions to Policy in Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion
In 2015, two Awards were presented for this category:
Dr Erica Davison, Department of Health, Western Australia
Dr Erica Davison is Principal Policy Officer—Injury Prevention at the Department of Health, Western Australia. Erica acts as senior policy advisor and leads the development of strategic public health policy on injury prevention. Erica reviews and monitors policy, research and programs and recommends action to ensure resource allocation and implementation of policy through government contracting and key state and national initiatives. Erica has held management positions at the Cancer Council WA, Kids & SIDS WA, the Department of Fire & Emergency Services and as research manager at Creating Communities Ltd. She has held numerous board positions & is a member of the AIPN Executive Committee. Erica also has an interest in healthy eating in children from a global, curriculum and policy perspective and this was the title of her Doctor of Education thesis. Adolescent Gambling was also an interest area and the subject of her Masters of Science thesis.
Deb Costello, WA Road Safety Commission
Deborah Costello has 25 years experience working with a range of government, non-government and not-for-profit organisations. She has worked across the health, community care, aged care and injury prevention sectors gaining experience in areas such as management, partnership development, funding, contract negotiations, community engagement, policy development and analysis, strategic and business planning, program design management, implementation and evaluation. Deborah has been on numerous Board and Committees throughout her career and is the current Chair of the Australian Safe Communities Foundation Inc and is also a co-Chair of the Pan Pacific Safe Communities Foundation Inc.
Pam Albany Memorial Award for Contribution to Policy and Practice in Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion
Dave Strachan, Office of Fair Trading, Queensland
Dave is a leading expert in Australia on consumer product safety regulation and has worked passionately and tirelessly across wide-ranging issues for over two decades to ensure product safety regulators incorporate injury prevention perspectives into decision making.
Dave has been instrumental in advocating for and developing safety standards and regulations to reduce product-related death and serious injury in Australia. His efforts have been wide ranging and cover; use of bunk beds in short term rental accommodation, domestic sale of dishwasher detergents, development of a ban on the sale of small powerful magnets, regulating safer installation of blind cords, flammability of infant sleepwear, development of (and the first regulator to mandate) the cot standard, and development of a new standard for cot mattress firmness, for which as chair of the Standards Australia committee, he accepted the prestigious international US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Chairman’s Commendation Award in 2013.
Sustained Achievement and Contributions to the Field of Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion
Associate Professor Richard Franklin, James Cook University
Richard Franklin holds the positions of Associate Professor within the College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, Director of the World Safety Organisation Collaborating Centre for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion at James Cook University and Senior Research Fellow with the Royal Life Saving Society – Australia. He teaches into the Master of Public Health, supervises Honour, Masters and PhD Students and conducts research into topics such as public health policy, injury prevention and safety promotion, rural safety, aquatic safety, disasters and farm safety. He has authored over 50 peer reviewed publications, 70 professional reports, presented over 150 conference presentations, been an investigator on 21 research grants, had over 20 television appearances and over 200 radio appearances. Career highlights include receiving a World Safety Organisation Educational Award, becoming a Fellow of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, Fellow of the Public Health Association of Australia and Ambassador for Kidsafe Queensland.
2015 AIPN Conference Student Bursaries
Christopher Mulligan
Clinical Associate Lecturer, Neuroscience Research Australia, University of New South Wales
Dr Christopher Mulligan is a medical doctor and clinical research fellow at Sydney Children’s Hospital and undertaking higher degree research at the University of New South Wales.
Patricia Cullen
PhD student, Injury Division of the George Institute for Global Health
Patricia Cullen is a PhD student in the Injury Division of the George Institute for Global Health. She is currently evaluating the Driving Change program, which is a licensing support program assisting young Aboriginal people to navigate the licensing system and attain their driver license. Patricia has been involved in the evaluation of road safety programs and has previously co-authored several reports to government. She is jointly funded by an Australian Postgraduate Award from the University of Sydney and the AstraZeneca Young Health Programme.
