Meet our Staff
Director:
Assoc. Prof. Robert (Bob) Davis PhD, MB,BS, FRACGP, Dip (Obst) RACOG, GDEB
Bob started his professional life as rural general practitioner for 12 years in the Riverland in South Australia where his work as chair of a local community organisation developing services for people with disability led to his career as a leading medical practitioner in the field. He has been the director of the Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria, at Monash University, since its inception in 1998. He works as a clinician, teacher and researcher. His interests include the management of medical issues for people with developmental disability and in particular those issues which impact on challenging behaviours. Bob's PhD thesis looked at self-injurious behaviour in people with intellectual disability. He co-authored two chapters on challenging behaviours and the use of medication for challenging behaviours in both the first and second editions of the Management Guidelines Book; People with Developmental and Intellectual Disability. He recently chaired the Disability Working group for the new RACGP curriculum. Bob is the foundation President of the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine and the secretary of the Health Issues Special Interest Research Group of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability.
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Educational Director
Dr Jane Tracy MBBS (Hon), DipRACOG, GCHE
Jane is a medical practitioner and senior lecturer with the Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria (CDDHV) and has worked with children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families and carers for nearly 20 years. Over the last decade she has been the Educational Director of the Centre and has worked with her colleagues to developed a curriculum in Developmental Disability Health for medical students and teaching resources for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. During her time at the Centre she has completed a postgraduate degree in higher education to enhance her teaching knowledge and skills. Jane now focuses on providing doctors, medical students and other health professional students and practitioners with educational opportunities to build their understanding of the health issues experienced by people with disabilities and, by doing so, to improve the healthcare they provide to all their patients. Among the resources she and the teaching team at the CDDHV have produced is an interprofessional teaching and learning resource in Developmental Disability Health: ‘Health and Disability: Partnerships in Action’. Jane has an adult son with developmental disabilities, and so has both a professional and personal understanding of and commitment to the field.
Read more about Healthcare Scenarios in Developmental Disability Medicine
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Clinical Director
Dr Mary Burbidge (MBBS)
Mary has a personal as well as a professional interest in developmental disability. Mary initiated, designed and implemented a process for recording of Personal Health Records for people with developmental disability. Mary coordinates the clinical activities of the CDDHV, including Registrar training.
Mary has developed 2 significant products: The Personal Health Record (PHR) is available for free, please contact the CDDHV to place an order, or you can make your own by downloading the PHR pages from our web site.
Mary's book 'Forever Baby' is based on the actual diary entries of a mother coping with the tragic loss of her profoundly disabled daughter, Jenny. Read more about this book
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Director of Research / Occupational therapist
Dr Rachael McDonald
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Senior Lecturer and Consultant Psychiatrist
Dr Jenny Torr (MBBS, Mmed – Psychiatry, FRANZCP, member Faculty Psychiatry of Old Age)
Jenny's interests include mood disorders, behavioural phenotypes and psychiatric disorders and dementia in older people with developmental disability. Jenny plays a key role in promoting programs that address issues relating to psychiatric disorder in persons with developmental disability.
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Primary Health Care Research Education and Development Fellow
Dr Patricia (Sandra) Macgibbon (MBBS)
Dr Sandra Macgibbon is a general practitioner who has worked for 20 years in country Victoria. She commenced working at CDDHV in 2005 and is currently seeing patients referred to the CDDHV. She works one day per week at the CDDHV and continues general practice in the country the rest of the week. Sandra is working on a research project titled: "Developing a health screening tool for adults with developmental disability and testing the ease of use by General Practitioners."
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Masters Student / Research Assistant
Ms Sheridan Forster (MBiomedSc (part 1) GradDip SpecEd, B Speech Pathology)
Sheridan is a speech pathologist working as a research assistant at the Centre. Her areas of interest include complex communication needs and people with profound intellectual disability. Sheridan completed her Masters in Biomedical Science (Part 1) in 2006 under the supervision of Dr. Teresa Iacono. She is now enrolled in Masters of Philosophy (Research). Sheridan's research is exploring interactions between disability support workers and people with profound intellectual disability.
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Masters Student
Susheel Singh (MPhil Student)
Susheel is a speech pathologist from the National University of Malaysia(UKM). She has experience working with children with developmental disability such as autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and language impairment. Currently she is enrolled in Master of Philosophy (Research) at the Centre under the supervision of A/Professor Teresa Iacono and Dr.Kylie Gray. In her research she will examine interaction patterns of children with cerebral palsy.
Psychiatrist
Dr Jean Graham, (MBBS (Hons), FRACGP, DRACOG, Grad Dip Mental Health Sciences, FRANZCP, MPM)
Dr Jean Graham is a psychiatrist as well as having had extensive experience in general practice. Her presence on the team has increased our ability to assist members of the community. She has added valuable expertise to assisting general practitioners manage complex presentations She has been involved in research into depression in people with and intellectual disability and is developing an interest in the management of people with autism.
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Human Relations Counsellor/Consultant and Lecturer
Dr Judi Moyle (PhD, MSW, BSW).
Judi is a social worker with 25 years of counselling and community development experience with people with developmental disabilities and their families in rural and metropolitan Victoria. She has a particular interest in children and adolescents with challenging behaviours associated with autism and other developmental disabilities. Judi’s role at CDDHV is as a Human Relations Counsellor/Consultant and as a Lecturer. Other interests include improving the services for children with developmental disabilities in Malaysia, in particular through the improvement of content on developmental disabilities in undergraduate medical curricula. Judi’s PhD was awarded for her research entitled ‘Undergraduate Training in Developmental Disabilities of Malaysian Medical Practitioners.’
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Administration
Caroline Menara (BAppSci (Health Promotion))
Caroline works part time and provides administrative support for the CDDHV. Caroline has worked for Monash since 1993 and has had valuable experience in organising undergraduate and postgraduate education activities.
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
Administrative Assistant
Deanne de Kretser
Telephone: +61 3 9902 4467
