Our members

Individual members

ARIA is an individual member–based alliance, with a diverse array of members who seek to fulfil ARIA’s goal. Membership is free and time contributed to general member activities is voluntary.

Partner organisations

Become a member

Individuals who have relevant experience can self-nominate using pre-specified criteria found in the expression of interest (EOI) form to join ARIA. The EOIs are assessed by the steering committee on a monthly basis. Please contact the ARIA Secretariat if you have any questions about becoming a member: SCHN-NCIRSGlobal@health.nsw.gov.au

Current members

Kylie Jenkins

Kylie Jenkins is a registered nurse and public health expert who is currently employed as Maternal Newborn Health Technical Advisor with the DFAT-funded Australia’s support to the Fiji health sector project. She has >15 years’ experience in international development, predominantly in the Pacific. She has expertise in immunisation programs, maternal and child health, communicable diseases and disaster management. In her role as Advisor to the DFAT-funded Fiji Health Sector Support Program 2012-2016, she worked closely with the Fiji Ministry of Health to procure and introduce three new vaccines (pneumococcal, rotavirus, and HPV vaccines) through an innovative financing system achieving high coverage. She has vast experience advising and working with governments and UN agencies. She previously worked for UNICEF where she was responsible for overseeing the UNICEF support to the Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) Programs in the Pacific. In addition, Kylie was the founding member of the PIPS Committee that in 2005 led to a collaborative approach to donor funding and technical support for immunisation programs. The committee coordinated 22 Pacific Island Countries and multiple donors, including Australian Aid, NZAID, JICA and SPC. This has led to Kylie having strong connections with the EPI Program Managers across the Pacific Region.

Contact ARIA Secretariat to get in touch with Kylie:

Dr Katarzyna Bolsewicz

Katarzyna Bolsewicz has been involved in co-designing and implementing WHO Tailoring Immunisation Programmes (TIP) across three local health districts (LHDs) in NSW: Central Coast, Hunter New England and Mid-North Coast for the last 2 years. TIP is a strategy developed by WHO (and implemented in many European countries as well as successfully piloted in Maitland, NSW) that uses social sciences and qualitative approaches to understand the demand and supply barriers and enablers to childhood immunisation in areas of low coverage. Findings are then used by local immunisation stakeholders to design localised, appropriate strategies to get more children up to date on their immunisations. Katarzyna has been working closely with immunisation stakeholders in each LHD, including caregivers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, public health units, public health networks, GP practices, child and family health nurses. She is also a research fellow in social science with NCIRS, where she has been working on exploring and addressing communication barriers and enablers related to influenza vaccination experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and health providers working with these communities.

Contact ARIA Secretariat to get in touch with Katarzyna:

Professor Julie Bines

Professor Bines is the Victor and Loti Smorgon Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne and Royal Children’s Hospital. She leads the Enteric Disease Group at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute working to develop an affordable novel rotavirus vaccine, RV3-BB vaccine, aimed at preventing rotavirus disease from birth in infants worldwide. She is Director of the WHO Collaborative Centre for Child Health and the WHO Rotavirus Reference Laboratory for the Western Pacific region that serves to inform and support surveillance activities to understand the global burden of rotavirus gastroenteritis and inform and support countries in decision making for vaccines. Professor Bines leads the Australian Rotavirus Surveillance Network that monitors the impact of rotavirus vaccine introduction in Australia including assessing evidence for potential vaccine escape strains. Professor Bines has served as a consultant to WHO in the areas of vaccine safety, vaccines in enteric disease and the role of vaccines in antimicrobial resistance. She developed the Brighton Collaboration Clinical Case definition for intussusception and the WHO generic protocol for the assessment of post-licensure safety of rotavirus vaccines. She is a member of the ROTA Council working to accelerate the introduction of rotavirus vaccines.

Contact ARIA Secretariat to get in touch with Julie at:

ARIA Secretariat, NCIRS, Kids Research, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, Cnr Hawkesbury Rd & Hainsworth St, Westmead Locked Bag 4001, Westmead NSW 2145 Tel (612) 9845 1433 | Fax (612) 9845 1418 | ABN 53 188 579 090

We acknowledge that the National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance (NCIRS) is on the land of the traditional owners the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Australians, and recognise their culture, history, diversity and their deep connection to the land. Together, through partnership, we aim to move to a place of equity for all. NCIRS also acknowledges and pays respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations from which our research, staff and community are drawn.