Meet the Team

Professor David Preen

Professor David Preen is the Chair in Public Health at the School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia (UWA). He was the Director of the UWA Centre for Health Services Research from 2006-2016 and holds an honorary appointment at Swansea University (UK). Professor Preen has an established international reputation as a leader in the application of epidemiological methods to linked data research and has been involved with conducting public health and health services research using whole population linked administrative health and social sector data for almost 20 years to study areas including:

• Cancer services delivery
• Pharmaco-epidemiology
• Health service utilization
• Chronic disease management
• Health of disadvantaged populations
• Social determinants of health. 

He is at the forefront of methodological advances using linked administrative health data, having held Chair and advisory roles for >30 international and national boards and committees including:

• The Data Linkage Australia Advisory Board
• NHMRC Research Committee
• NHMRC Australian Health Ethics Committee
• ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation executive committee
• NSW Sax Institute Board
• Cancer Council WA Research Grants Advisory Committee
• Department of Health Data Linkage Research Advisory Committee.

At Brightwater, David chairs the Research Governance Sub-Committee, provides research leadership and strategic advice to the Brightwater Research Centre and mentorship and capacity building to the research team.

Associate Professor Elissa Burton

Harken-Brightwater Fellow

PhD, MBus (Research), GradDip, BSc (Hons)

Dr Elissa Burton is an Associate Professor at Curtin University in Western Australia. Elissa’s research focuses on helping older adults to live independently at home for as long as they choose, through healthy ageing strategies. Much of Elissa’s work has been with older adults who receive home care services, reablement or restorative care, promoting physical activity, preventing falls, and encouraging healthy older adults to participate more in strength and balance training. More recently her work has been in fall prevention for people living with mild cognitive impairment, which was part of her successful NHMRC Investigator Grant. She also works with people living with young onset dementia, their carers and people living with older age dementia and their carers.  She is the Co-Domain Lead for the Dementia and Ageing Domain at Curtin University’s enAble Institute, a Fellow of the Australasian Association of Gerontology (AAG) and a member of their National Board.

At Brightwater, Elissa creates and drives research programs to advance research in brain health and healthy ageing, with a focus on Young Onset Dementia. She also aims to build capacity of the research team and increase the profile of Brightwater’s Research Centre.

Dr Alyce Russell

Senior Research Officer, Brightwater Research Centre

PhD, MSc, BSc, MBiostat (Candidate)

Alyce is a medical scientist with over a decade of experience in both academia and industry, specialising in biostatistics, bioinformatics and data analysis in the public health domain. She has had numerous roles in research, statistical consultation, data management, teaching and supervision. 

Prior to joining Brightwater, her research focus spanned the topics of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiometabolic disorders, subclinical health status and healthy ageing, with several high-impact publications. Alyce’s PhD thesis was a thorough investigation of how the genome, transcriptome and cellular environment effects immunoglobulin G N-glycosylation in participants from the Busselton Health Ageing Study. It highlighted the underlying biology of subclinical and clinical health in this ageing population and received the 2019 ECU School of Medical and Health Sciences Research Award as the highest quality thesis for her year.

While her career focus has been primarily in health and medical research, Alyce has provided key statistical and data analytic skills to several other industries, including psychology, agriculture, food science, transport and environment.

At Brightwater, Alyce supports the Brightwater Research Centre across multiple disciplines to check and prepare datasets, perform statistical analyses and provide detailed reports of project findings. She is also leading the WASABI project assessing the response and functional outcomes of people with an acquired brain injury undertaking neurorehabilitation.

Rachel Singer

Senior Research Officer, Brightwater Research Centre

MA, BSc

Rachel is an accomplished health researcher with over 15 years of experience in both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Her work focuses on improving outcomes for individuals with acquired brain injuries, with a particular interest in stroke and concussion recovery.

She has contributed to a number of high-impact, multidisciplinary projects, including the AUS-mTBI Clinical Trial at Curtin University, which explored recovery following concussion, and the evaluation of a novel upper limb rehabilitation program for stroke survivors in collaboration with the South Metropolitan Health Service and Edith Cowan University.

Prior to these roles, Rachel worked with the School of Surgery at the University of Western Australia, contributing to research in the Cancer and Palliative Care Research and Evaluation Unit. 

Rachel has co-authored several publications in leading journals, including Brain Injury and Australian Health Review, and has recently presented findings at the Australasian Neurotrauma Symposium (2024) and Symposium of Western Australian Neuroscience (2023).

With a passion for advancing evidence-based clinical practices, Rachel continues to contribute to impactful research that aims to improve health outcomes for individuals throughout their rehabilitation journey. 

Having first collaborated with the Brightwater Research Centre in 2015, Rachel is excited to rejoin the team and contribute to impactful, evidence-based research that will benefit the clients, families, and staff within the Brightwater community.

Stephanie Ukich

Clinician Researcher, Senior Speech Pathologist

Bachelor of Speech Pathology

Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Speech Pathology from Edith Cowan University and has extensive experience providing Speech Pathology services in the community disability sector. She has supported adults living with communication and swallowing impairments, with a strong focus on promoting safe, enjoyable mealtimes. Stephanie is passionate about ensuring access to safe and appropriate texture-modified meals, supporting participation in mealtimes whilst enhancing the overall dining experience, and reducing the risks associated with dysphagia. She is deeply committed to advocating for high-quality, enjoyable, nourishing meals that meet each client's individual needs and preferences.

As a clinician-researcher, Stephanie coordinates the 3D Food Printing Project — a collaboration between Brightwater Care Group and Edith Cowan University’s Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute. This project focuses on developing innovative 3D food printing technologies to create appealing, nutrient-dense meals for aged care residents who require texture-modified diets, aiming to improve both food intake and the mealtime experience.

Dr Wendy Simpson

Senior Research Officer

PhD, MSocSc(Research), GradCertPH, BSocSc(CommtySt)

Wendy is a qualitative researcher and evaluator with a passion for program evaluation and social research that translates evidence into practice. Wendy studied for over 15 years at Edith Cowan University, completing a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in Community Studies, a Graduate Certificate of Public Health, a Masters by Research and finally a PhD in 2021.  Wendy’s PhD thesis focused on the experiences of siblings of people with intellectual disability to understand how family characteristics and childhood experiences influence sibling relationships and decision-making across the life span.

Prior to commencing at the Brightwater Research Centre in 2024, Wendy worked in senior positions for over 18 years within not-for-profit organisations in the aged care, disability and community sector. In addition, Wendy has held research and evaluation roles across the not-for-profit, academia and state government sectors. After completing her PhD, Wendy worked as a post-doctoral research fellow and is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of WA and at Edith Cowan University.

Wendy hopes to contribute to the already impressive research conducted at Brightwater and use her experience to encourage a culture of evaluation to develop and maintain the high-quality evidence-based programs and services that Brightwater offers.