​​Dr Claire Foldi​

Dr Claire Foldi is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Physiology at Monash University and a Group Leader in the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI). She completed her PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience at the Queensland Brain Institute in 2012 under the supervision of A/Prof Thomas Burne and Prof Darryl Eyles. Following Postdoctoral training in electrophysiology and molecular neurobiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden (Advisor; A/Prof Jens Hjerling-Leffler), she was recruited to the laboratory of Prof Brian Oldfield at Monash University in 2015. Dr Foldi’s research priority is to understand the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie serious psychiatric disease. She is particularly interested in the often-unreported response heterogeneity that occurs in single neurons, animal models and patients in the clinic. She believes that interrogating the mechanisms underpinning this variability will inform the development of more effective treatment strategies.
Claire's current work focuses on the impact of specific neural circuitries on feeding behaviour and body weight maintenance in anorexia nervosa and the therapeutic potential of psilocybin for treating anorectic pathologies. The Foldi Lab is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia, with previous funding from the Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation and the British Society for Neuroendocrinology.

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Professor Leah Brennan​

Professor Leah Brennan is a clinical, health, educational and developmental psychologist and a board approved supervisor. Her areas of clinical research focus include eating, weight and body image (e.g., eating disorders, overweight/obesity, body image, weight stigma), and promoting the availability of best-practice psychology treatment (e.g., telehealth psychology, guided self-help). She works as both an academic (teaching and research) and a clinician.
Leah has a particular interest in the application of psychological approaches to understand, prevent and treat eating, weight and body image concerns and their biopsychosocial comorbidities (e.g., polycystic ovary syndrome, depression, stigma) in children, adolescents and adults. She leads the Body Image, Eating and Weight Clinical Research Team (BEWT). She has a range of ongoing and upcoming projects examining eating disorders, overweight/obesity, body image and weight stigma and their treatment.  

Leah is passionate about the provision of best-practice psychological treatment in the community, and the development, evaluation and dissemination of evidence-based interventions suitable for ‘real-world’ application. She also has a particular interest in the provision of best-practice psychological support in rural areas (e.g, optimising the use of telehealth psychology to facilitate access to treatment). Much of Leah’s academic teaching has focused on training psychologists to be scientist-practitioners by promoting the integration of evidence-based practice and practice-based research across postgraduate coursework, placement and theses.

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Professor Elizabeth Rieger​

Prof Elizabeth Reiger has 25 years’ experience as a practicing Clinical Psychologist, having undertaken her clinical training at the University of Sydney.
The primary focus of her clinical practise has entailed working with adults experiencing eating and weight disorders in public and private hospitals, university clinics, and private practice. She has also been extensively involved in teaching clinical skills to diverse populations including students and health professionals in psychology, medicine, dietetics, nursing, and social work.  

In 2001, Professor Rieger completed her PhD at the University of Sydney, the focus of which was developing an instrument to assess motivation to change in anorexia nervosa (the Anorexia Nervosa Stages of Change Questionnaire). From 2001-2, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Centre for Eating and Weight Disorders (University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University) where she was trained in interpersonal psychotherapy. She commenced as an academic at the University of Sydney in 2003 and the Australian National University in 2009. Her research focuses on understanding the cognitive, interpersonal, and motivational processes involved in eating and weight disorders, and their translation into more effective treatments, with Professor Rieger having conducted many clinical trials. She is a member of the Eating Disorders Research Society, the Australia and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders, the College of Clinical Psychologists of the Australian Psychological Society, and the Australian Clinical Psychology Association.

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Professor Genevieve Pepin

Genevieve is an experienced mental health occupational therapist and academic. Built on almost 20 years' work in the areas of mental health and eating disorders in Canada and at Deakin University in Australia and including partnerships with national and international leaders in the field, Professor Pepin has established herself as a significant contributor to eating disorders research. Her expertise and passions are in research co-produced with carers of people with an eating disorder, understanding the impact of eating disorders on function and the daily activities of those with an eating disorder and their family, and the development of innovative interventions promoting best health outcomes. Her research is impactful and translational, leading to changes in practice and services as demonstrated by her invitation to join the Advisory Committee for the development of the Australian Eating Disorders Research & Translation Strategy 2021-2031. She is a member of the executive group of the Australian Eating Disorder Research and Translation Centre. She is the co-lead of the Lived-Experience and Co-Production stream of the Centre and a member of the National Eating Disorders Research Consortium. In addition, Professor Pepin’s reputation as an occupational therapy scholar rests on a unique expertise and knowledge of ground-breaking interventions and conceptual model of practice that have influenced practice, research, and education in the field for decades. The contribution of Professor Pepin to mental health and eating disorders initiatives includes her contribution to the National Strategy Eating Disorders Workforce Development Working Group, the Allied Health Profession Australia Mental Health Working Group, the National Eating Disorders Collaboration credentialing working group, the National Mental Health Workforce Strategy, and the National Mental Health Forum – Occupational Therapy Australia. She is also the Chair of the Research Committee of Eating Disorders Families Australia (EDFA) and a member of the board of directors of EDFA. Professor Pepin believes in multidisciplinary approaches to understanding eating disorders and co-produced research and interventions. She believes in best practice and is interested in emerging knowledge and interventions about eating disorders.

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Dr Sanna Barrand

​Dr Sanna Barrand is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Deakin University. Sanna has worked in various research projects nationally and internationally. She has a PhD in Epigenetics from University of Oslo, Norway. Her PhD aimed to define the epigenetic landscape of pluripotency genes in cells with varying differentiation capacity to increase our understanding of cell plasticity. Her post-doctoral study at Deakin University focused on understanding the impact of maternal suboptimal diet on the health of the next generation.
Recently she worked as a Lived Experience Research Officer at HARMON-E clinical trial at Food and Mood Centre, Deakin University. In this role Sanna was involved in the various stages of the trial and contributed to the development of processes and review of trial documents with a lived experience lens. Additionally, she contributed to the design of one-on-one interviews, the development of workbooks and created a lived experience package for the trial participants.  During this role Sanna developed a passion for co-design and co-production practises in research. She believes that creating meaningful partnerships between people with lived experience (individuals, family, and carers) and researchers will improve research relevance, quality, and outcomes.
Dr Barrand works with A/Prof Genevieve Pepin and Shannon Calvert in the Lived Experience and Co-Production stream of the Centre. Sanna will be involved in developing co-design guidelines and resources to advance co-designed research in the field of eating disorder. She will contribute to generating new evidence about the role of people with lived experience in eating disorders research and education.

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