Sharon Dudley-Brown currently has a joint appointment as an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University, in the Schools of Medicine & Nursing, Baltimore, MD, and is Co-Director of the Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Program in Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Johns Hopkins.  She sees patients and conducts research on patients with inflammatory bowel disease.  Sharon has held several academic appointments, both nationally and internationally, and has worked as a Nurse Practitioner at several institutions over the past 23 years. She has published several peer-reviewed papers and abstracts in the fields of nursing, inflammatory bowel disease and ulcerative colitis, and is currently a member of three editorial boards, including Gastroenterology Nursing Journal, where she is the newly appointed on-line editor. In addition, Sharon is a member of five professional societies, including the Society of Gastrointestinal Nurses and Associates (SGNA), and the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), where she serves as the only non-physician provider on the Education and Training Committee. 

She received her BSN from the University of Rochester, her Master’s of Science in Nursing at the Virginia Commonwealth University, and her PhD in Nursing Research from the University of Maryland.

Dr Jane Millichamp is a Registered Psychologist who works in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Dunedin Medical School. She is convenor of the “Communicating in Challenging Situations” module in 4th year Medicine and teaches medical students from years 2 through to 5. Jane has many years of clinical experience in healthcare settings, having worked first in Australia and then in Canada where she was recruited to establish a new provincial acquired brain injury program. For nearly a decade, she headed this in-patient program as Clinical Manager and also held an appointment at McMaster University, teaching clinical interviewing skills to medical students.  Jane has an enduring interest in communication issues and has written a number of research publications on topics such as teaching consultation skills to healthcare professionals, anxiety disorders, and family violence. She has also been involved in private practice with children and adolescents who have  psychological and social difficulties.      

John Reynolds is an Associate Professor in Health Sciences and Neuroscience in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago. His research team studies the functioning of brain areas which are affected in neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases and stroke. John graduated from the University of Otago with a Medical degree in 1994, practiced medicine in Whangarei and then returned to Otago to undertake a PhD in Neuroscience, supported by the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand. John’s research work is focussed on understanding mechanisms of dysfunction in brain disorders that may be amenable to new treatments. He was the first New Zealand recipient of an international Brain Research Young Investigator Award (2004), and has received a University of Otago Early Career Award for Distinction in Research in 2005 and a National Tertiary Teaching Award in 2008. He chairs the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand.

Since being appointed to the University of Otago Christchurch Centre for Postgraduate Nursing Studies in 2006, Dr Lisa Whitehead has made an outstanding contribution to nursing research, locally and nationally.

Director of the Centre since 2009, Dr Whitehead’s research interests include supportive care in cancer, assessment and management of fatigue in chronic illness; self-management of long-term conditions; and computer-mediated research. Since being awarded her PhD from the University of Liverpool in 2004, Dr Whitehead has maintained a steady publication record. She has been the principal applicant or co-investigator on over 20 research studies.

In addition to developing and maintaining her own research profile, Dr Whitehead has engaged in research capability and capacity building in nursing, including contributing to the establishment of three research groups at the centre and setting up a research mentoring scheme.

Dr Whitehead has convened and lectured on University papers since 1997, with a focus on research methods, long-term condition management and medical sociology. She supervises nursing Master of Health Sciences and PhD students, as well as serving as internal and external examiner for Masters Theses and PhD dissertations.

Dr Whitehead is also the director of the national TEC-funded Strategy to Advance Research in Nursing and Allied Health (STAR), a three-year research-capability-building initiative, attracting funding of $2.7 million. She has been recognised with the 2008 Early Career Award for distinction in research and the 2009 Invited Fellow of the College of Nursing (NZ) for demonstration of professional excellence and leadership in nursing.