Staff
NCETA's staff come from a range of health and human service backgrounds, including public health, psychology, sociology, education, medicine, nursing, information management, administration and pharmacy. This page provides further details about individual staff members, including contact details and information on their current projects.
Professor Jacqueline Bowden is Director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA), Flinders University. She is a behavioural scientist who has worked at the interface of research and public health policy for more than twenty years (particularly in tobacco and alcohol control, and more recently other drugs). Jacqueline has a background in both psychology (BA (Hons) and PhD) and public health (MPH).
Jacqueline has held roles in academia, the non-government sector and within government. Prior to her role at NCETA, Jacqueline 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. She has been a key advisor to South Australian Government for 15 years, and she previously managed the implementation of all research and evaluation for all SA Government-funded tobacco control programs (and overarching strategies). She has been a consultant in research and evaluation design, and currently holds an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship to investigate ways to reduce parental supply of alcohol to children. Jacqueline also currently leads a national evaluation of one of Australia’s largest public health campaigns, which aims to raise awareness of the risks of drinking alcohol during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Jacqueline has also received 8 awards and prizes for her research in the past 5 years, and is President of the SA Branch of the Public Health Association of Australia.
Dr Ashlea Bartram is a Research Fellow at NCETA and holds a PhD in Public Health. Her research interests are 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.
Dr Kirrilly Thompson is a cultural anthropologist who explores what different groups of people do, why they think they do what they do and how this insight can be used to develop effective behaviour change interventions. She has 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. Kirrilly has published over 100 book chapters and peer-review articles, co-edited two volumes and co-authored one manuscript. She also communicates science publicly via articles in The Conversation and popular magazines. In 2015, she was one of ABC Radio National’s Top 5 Scientists Under 40.
Sarah Powell joined NCETA late August 2023 as the Operations Manager to contribute to the ongoing success and growth of the organisation. Sarah has been working at Flinders University since Feburary 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.
Victoria Kostadinov (on maternity leave) joined NCETA in 2013, beginning as a Research Officer and moving on to Senior Research Officer in 2019. 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 work at NCETA involves assisting in the development, planning, implementation and delivery of research projects.
Key projects which Victoria has been involved in include a Review of the Social Determinants of Inequities in Alcohol Consumption and Related Harms, and the National Alcohol and Drug Knowledgebase (NADK).
Nathan Harrison is a Senior Research Officer with NCETA, and has been working with the Centre since March 2019. He brings broad research experience from a range of health contexts (particularly those working with people affected by cancer, cardiovascular disease, and alcohol and other drug use), and primarily contributes to NCETA’s current research programs in messaging to reduce parental supply of alcohol to adolescents.
Nathan previously worked as a Behavioural Scientist in the SAHMRI Health Policy Centre, and previously at Flinders University was based in the Behavioural Science group of the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer. Nathan holds a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) degree from the University of Adelaide
Ph: 08 8201 5699 E: nathan.harrison@flinders.edu.au
Christina Norris is a Research Assistant at NCETA with an interest in understanding the social context of health behaviours to support population-level behaviour change. She has been involved in a variety of AOD projects, including her primary focus of reducing parental supply of alcohol to adolescents through health promotion messaging. Christina is committed to contributing high quality public health research with translational impact.
Christina previously worked as a Research Assistant at SAHMRI in the Health Policy Centre and holds a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (Honours) from Flinders University.
Armin Muminovic is a Research Assistant with NCETA and 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. Armin has a passion for research across a broad range of health contexts and is committed to delivering translational research of the highest quality.
Ph: 08 7421 9023
E: armin.muminovic@flinders.edu.au
Roger Nicholas (Consultant) was the Senior Project Manager at NCETA where he was involved in a number of national alcohol and other drug-related projects. He has thirty two years’ experience in working in the alcohol and other drugs field. This includes clinical treatment roles, and 12 years in senior policy roles. He spent 10 years with the Australasian Centre for Policing Research (Australian Federal Police) and 2 years with SA Police (National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund).
Roger holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and has played a key role in national policy development.
His research and policy interests include: methamphetamine, substance use problems among older people, regulatory and law enforcement responses to alcohol-related crime and disorder; and pharmaceutical drug misuse. He has numerous publications in these areas.
Vinita Duraisingam (Consultant) is a registered psychologist and project manager, with over 15 years of experience in drug and alcohol-related research, evaluation and workforce development. She is particularly interested in workforce issues, including employee health and well-being, drug and alcohol use among workers, career development and workforce sustainability.
Vinita has a Master’s in Organisational Psychology from the University of South Australia. Her previous work experience has been in the areas of journalism, public relations and marketing. She is currently located in Perth, Western Australia.
Associate Professor Ken Pidd (Consultant) has been associated with NCETA since 1999. He holds a PhD in psychology which addressed the area of work-related alcohol and other drug (AOD) use of adolescent apprentices and has an ongoing research interest in this area. Ken has produced numerous publications concerning the workplace and AOD use and provides consultancy and advice on this issue to government and non-government organisations, unions, employer groups, and individual employers. His other research and practice interests include training quality and training transfer, and workforce recruitment and retention.
Prior to working with NCETA he worked for a number of years in the construction and mining industries in roles which included an occupational health and safety officer, trainer, and manager of a AOD safety and rehabilitation program for the South Australian Construction Industry.