CV

Skills

R, SQL, Stata

R is my preferred language and I’m proficient with SQL and Stata

Consulting

There are a lot of good questions out there being asked, I like helping figure out how to answer them

Reproducible research

From start to finish I like my make sure my reports are reproducible and as automated as possible

Data cleaning

Who doesn’t like taking some dirty data and giving it a good scrub

Data visualisation

Sure, pictures speak a thousand words, but they might take a thousand lines of code too

Googling

The majority of my R knowledge is self-taught, so I’d say my Google-Fu is pretty good

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy

Completed in 2024 at the University of Melbourne

Thesis title “The Health of Aboriginal Children born in Western Australia in the Context of Out-of-Home Care”

Master of Biostatistics

Completed in 2018 at the University of Melbourne

Included survival analysis, modelling longitudinal and correlated data, and survey design and analysis

Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Completed in 2015 at the University of Western Australia

Double major in psychology, minor in anthropology

Employment

Biostatistician, Data Manager, Research Fellow

  • Yardhura Walani, Australian National University
    • October 2024 – Present

My time is spent mostly on the Mayi Kuwayu Study, The National Study of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing. The first thing I did was take the lead on finishing the study’s operational manual. In doing this, I converted the existing Word draft into a HTML document using Quarto, making the manual more user-friendly, improving the interface, and making the maintenance of documentation easier.

I’m also working on building a data management pipeline in R, using targets to manage the structure and evaluation of the pipeline, pointblank and testthat for unit testing and data validation, renv to manage package dependencies across user systems, and having the different stages of data cleaning and management feed into a user manual, data dictionary, and survey data quality report, all using R and Quarto to automate the majority of their generation.

Quantitative Social Scientist, Research Fellow

  • Centre for Indigenous Policy Research, Australian National University
    • October 2023 – October 2024

In my short time at CIPR I worked on two major reports. For the first, I examined social and emotional wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youth in the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). This was done by starting with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theory of social and emotional wellbeing and using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to map data items in LSIC to different domains of social and emotional wellbeing.

The second was a technical report commissioned by the Productivity Commission and Coalition of Peaks, where my co-authors and I proposed a more statistically rigorous method for measuring progress toward Closing the Gap targets. The report covered improvements in measuring progress, recommendations for increasing the quality, frequency, and relevance of data collected for these measures, and guidelines on how to communicate probabilistic statements from statistical models in easy to understand ways.

PhD Candidate

  • Indigenous Health and Epidemiology Group, University of Melbourne
    • March 2020 – June 2024

Throughout my PhD I translated findings from Aboriginal-led qualitative research and community reference group conversations into questions I could address using linked administrative datasets. This included how contacts by child protective services are clustered within sibling groups, the prevalence and cumulative incidence of mental and neurodevelopmental health conditions, and estimating the effect of placement in out-of-home care on rates of potentially preventable hospitalisations.

I used a variety of statistical methods, including descriptive statistics, various regression models, survival analysis, and matching methods. All of my research was written in R and RMarkdown, where I created a reproducible pipeline from data cleaning through to multiple journal articles and my final thesis.

Biostatistician

  • Deakin University
    • August 2022 – October 2023
  • Grampians Health
    • September 2021 – October 2023

In these two biostatistician roles I acted as the sole statistical expert in clinical research and academic settings. Across these roles I provided study design and statistical oversight for a randomised trials, including sample size calculations, developing statistical analysis plans and randomisation schemes, advising on technical challenges arising, and analysing trial data. I also developed educational materials and delivered seminars for clinicians on the topic of good research practices.

Research assistant

  • Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne
    • September 2019 – January 2023

As part of the International and Immigrant Health Group I provided data and statistical support to the research team. Major achievements included the development of a REDCap database and provision of on-site research training for local staff for an evaluation of a dietary and lifestyle intervention in a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, and a systematic review of type 2 diabetes in resettled refugee and asylum seeker populations.

  • Centre for Health Policy, University of Melbourne
    • April 2018 – January 2022

I supported Emeritus Professor Lesleyanne Hawthorne in the examination of skilled migration to Australia. My work revolved around sourcing data, understanding its complexities, and summarising it to capture quantitative trends in skilled migration to Australia. ABS data products, including the census, were used, as well as administrative data from the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, and the Occupational English Test. We also collaborated with Canadian colleagues to produce a comparison between Australia and Canada’s migration programmes.

  • Melbourne Institute, University of Melbourne
    • May 2019 – February 2020

In this short-term role I prepared the final wave of the Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life survey for release. This involved data cleaning, consistency checking, and updating the user manual to reflect changes to the survey, a process which was technical and required great attention to detail. I was also the data custodian, managing the secure transfer of data for research purposes. This role was challenging as I inherited a great deal of code with minimal documentation, however I spent the time to understand how it worked, added the necessary updates, and wrote my own documentation for future reference.

Volunteering

Wearer of many hats

  • Statistical Society of Australia
    • December 2018 – Present

Since joining the SSA back in 2018 I have taken on many different voluntary roles, including:

  • Secretary and then President of the Victorian and Tasmanian Branch
  • Coordinator of the 2021 Early Career and Student Statisticians Conference
  • Committee member and Secretary of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) committee
  • Committee member of the Reconciliation Action Plan committee
  • Mentor in the SSA’s Mentoring Program

Across these roles I coordinated strategic planning, managed teams, maintained relationships with external organisations, surveyed and reported on EDI in the Australian statistics profession, and wrote EDI recommendations for the Society.

Research supervision

Fourth-year psychology honours research: Madeley, B. Intentions and preferences of adults with diabetes toward seeking psychological support.

Fourth-year psychology honours research: Chhatiawala, A. Differences in coping self-efficacy between adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and the association with emotional-well-being.

Master of Medicine research project: Haussegger, Z. Sleep and Mental Health in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Young People: A retrospective data analysis.

Master of Medicine research project: Moffroid, H. ‘Next Generation Youth Well-being Study:’ The importance of cultural connectedness for Aboriginal adolescent health and wellbeing.

Awards

T-shirt design competition winner — Australian Statistical Conference — December 2023

President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics — Statistical Society of Australia — August 2022

T-shirt design competition winner — Statistical Society of Australia — February 2021

Memberships and Accreditations

Public Health Association Australia — 2024 – Present

International Society of Non-Binary Scientists — 2021 – Present

International Population Data Linkage Network — 2020 – Present

Accredited Graduate Statistician, Statistical Society of Australia — 2018 – 2026

Statistical Society of Australia — 2017 – Present

Professional Development

Workshops

Aug 2024 — Spatial Analysis in R — Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Incorporated

Jun 2024 — Working Smarter with Targets presented by Miles McBain — Statistical Society of Australia

Nov 2021 — A Crash Course in SQL — Statistical Society of Australia

Jul 2021 — AMSI Winter School for Statistical Data Science — Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute

Dec 2020 — Data wrangling with R — Statistical Society of Australia

Nov 2020 — Data visualisation with R — Statistical Society of Australia

Oct 2020 — Semiparametric regression in R — Statistical Society of Australia

Conferences

Dec 2023 — Attendee — Australian Statistical Conference and Australian Conference on Teaching Statistics

Oct 2023 — Attendee — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mathematics Alliance Conference

Sep 2022 — Presenter — International Population Data Linkage Network Conference

Dec 2021 — Attendee — 9th SNAICC Annual Conference

Jul 2021 — Presenter — The Early Career and Student Statisticians Conference

Nov 2020 — Attendee — International Population Data Linkage Network Conference

Oct 2018 — Presenter — International Metropolis Conference

Aug 2018 — Attendee — Joint International Society for Clinical Biostatistics and Australian Statistical Conference

Jul 2018 — Attendee — useR! Conference Brisbane