Professor Jacqueline Bowden is the Director of NCETA. She is a behavioural scientist who has worked at the interface of research and public health policy for more than 20 years (particularly in tobacco and alcohol control, and more recently other drugs). Jacquie has a background in both psychology (BA (Hons) and PhD) and public health (MPH). Jacquie has held roles in academia, the non-government sector and within government. Prior to her role at NCETA, Jacquie was Deputy Director of the Health Policy Centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute for 7 years, and Externally Funded Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide. 

Professor James Smith is an applied social health researcher with 20+ years experience working in rural and remote health policy, practice, and research contexts in SA and the NT, with a particular focus on improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and education outcomes. Professor Smith is recognised nationally and globally for his expertise in both health promotion and men's health.

Christina Norris is a Research Officer at NCETA. She holds a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (Honours) from Flinders University and has interest in understanding the social context of health behaviours to support population-level behaviour change. Her PhD proposal is about how imagery on alcohol products affects purchasing, consumption and perceptions of healthiness. Christina previously worked as a Research Assistant at SAHMRI in the Health Policy Centre.

Dr Ashlea Bartram is a Senior Research Fellow at NCETA. She holds a PhD in Public Health with research interests in health behaviours and behaviour change, with her PhD thesis focused on how people negotiate the social consequences of stopping or reducing their alcohol consumption. Prior to joining NCETA, Ashlea worked as a Behavioural Scientist at the SAHMRI Health Policy Centre, focusing on research and evaluation projects related to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Ashlea has also previously worked in research roles at the Centre for Workplace Excellence at the University of South Australia and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

Victoria Kostadinov joined NCETA in 2013, beginning as a Research Officer and moving on to Research Fellow in 2024.  She holds a Masters Degree in Organisational Psychology and Human Factors from the University of Adelaide. Victoria’s primary research interests lie in the social determinants of alcohol and drug use, and particularly the role of the workplace.  Her PhD is focussed on very high-risk drinking in the general population: comparing men and women.

Professor Richard Edwards is the Head of Public Health of the College of Medicine & Public Health. He is internationally recognised public health practitioner and researcher with a particular focus on tobacco control and achieving the smoking epidemic 'endgame'. His main research interests are in tobacco use epidemiology and tobacco control policy, particularly research to help achieve an end to significant tobacco use. He is co-principal investigator on the New Zealand arm of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Evaluation project and President Elect of the Oceania branch of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT).

Professor Marita Hefler leads a program of work to inform tobacco endgame through paradigm shifting tobacco control policies such as reducing the commercial availability of cigarettes. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the BMJ specialist journal Tobacco Control, and co-founder and co-chair of Project Sunset, an international coalition focused on research and advocacy for phasing out sales of cigarettes. Marita's tobacco control research experience spans a wide range of topics, including social marketing and use of social media, health warning labels, smoke free prisons, youth smoking prevention, tobacco use among people living with mental illness, socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, participatory community programs to reduce smoking among First Nations peoples, and tobacco industry monitoring. 

Dr Joshua Trigg is an early career nationally recognised researcher in public health, tobacco and vaping control. He works extensively with community representative, non-profit, and health specific groups to improve public health, understand influences on health risk, and to support public health policy. He works with priority populations to address their health concerns, including adolescent and young adults, people living with mental health conditions, people with cancer diagnoses, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community groups. 

Professor Billie Bonevski is a Behavioural Scientist, Director of the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI), Dean of Research, and Matthew Flinders Professor of Public Health, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University. Based on a range of different bibliometric performance platforms Prof Bonevski is globally recognised as a leader in tobacco control research. Using Web of Science data, she was one of only two Australians named in the World’s Top 20 Smoking Cessation researchers in 2022.  ccording to SciVal she is ranked #3 in Australia, and according to Expertscape, in the top 0.01% of 35,653 PubMed Smoking Cessation authors worldwide.

Professor Natalie Walker has a background in epidemiology and public health. Her primary area of interest is the conduct of large phase III, pragmatic community-based, clinical trials that have a strong equity focus, and inform clinical practice and policy. She works across fields, but has the most depth in identifying effective, safe and acceptable smoking cessation interventions (e.g cytisine and varenicline). She has published on youth uptake of e-cigarettes, and is an investigator on a vaping cessation survey and trial. She has emerging research interests in alcohol harm reduction, cannabis harm reduction, and methamphetamine and heart health. She is a member and fellow of the international Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT), and was former Dean of SRNT-University. She was recipient of the 2023 University of Auckland Research Excellence Award in recognition of the addiction research she has led.

Dr Kirrilly Thompson is a Senior Research Fellow with NCETA. She is a cultural anthropologist with a particular interest in how psychological, social and cultural dimensions of risk inform decision-making. Kirrilly is a qualitative and mixed-methods research specialist, having led research and consultancy projects of national significance over the past 15 years. In 2015, Kirrilly was one of ABC Radio National’s Top 5 Scientists Under 40.

Gianluca (Luca) Di Censo joined NCETA as a Research Fellow in August 2024. Luca completed his PhD at the University of Adelaide, researching sports betting marketing’s impact on youth. Passionate about addressing societal issues, he values the challenge of making a positive impact. His work focuses on societal substance use, particularly the psychosocial factors and young people’s perceptions of alcohol.

Sarah Powell commenced in August 2023 as the Operations Manager at NCETA. Sarah has been working at Flinders University since early 2022 as a Project Manager within the Caring Futures Institute. She has years of project and business management experience working across various sectors in not for profit, small and large organisations.

Md Abdul Ahad is a Research Assistant with NCETA. His academic and researcher expertise is in child protection and drug abuse research. Ahad completed his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Masters in Rural Sociology at Sylhet Agricultural University, Bangladesh. In 2023, he completed a PhD degree in Child abuse and neglect from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University. His PhD project is primarily focusing on the prevalence and impact of maltreatment of children. 

Armin Muminovic is a Research Assistant with NCETA. He holds a Bachelor of Health and Medical Sciences (Honours) from the University of Adelaide, along with a Graduate Certificate in Public Health from Flinders University. His research focuses primarily on public health policy and AOD workforce education.

Stefano Zaccagnini commenced his PhD research in May 2024 on high risk drinking among men. He has completed a Bachelor of Criminology (Hons) with a research background in cyberdeviancy and autistic traits at Adelaide University.

Nathan Harrison is working on an implementation science PhD focused on cancer risk reduction through lung cancer screening, smoking and stigma. He has a background in behavioural science.

Gene Mercer commenced his PhD in criminology in 2023, focusing on evaluating South Australia's Police Drug Diversion Initiative. He has worked within Government for the past decade developing, implementing and evaluating social policy / interventions and holds a Bachelor of Behavioural Science, majoring in Criminology. 

Joanna Caruso is focussing her PhD research on the evaluation of ‘every moment matters’ national awareness campaign on alcohol and pregnancy. She works within the Health Policy Centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), located in Adelaide, Australia.