Our team

Co-Director
Professor Benjamin Howden is Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance and the Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections theme at the Doherty Institute, Director of the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory and Medical Director of Doherty Applied Microbial Genomics.  He has an extensive program of work in public health research and regional capacity building and training in laboratory diagnosis and surveillance, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance and pathogen genomics for public health. Prof Howden’s current international programs include Director of the WHO Regional Reference Laboratory for Vaccine Preventable Invasive Bacterial Diseases, Fleming Fund programs in Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan, Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) funded COMBAT-AMR program, support for laboratory strengthening and development of pathogen genomics capacity and capability across the Asia-Pacific region.
View profile

Co-Director
Professor Kirsty Buising is an infectious diseases physician working for the Victoria Infectious Diseases Service and Medical director of medical services at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is theme leader for antimicrobial resistance at the Doherty Institute and Deputy director of the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship. Kirsty serves on advisory groups at state, national and international  levels in the areas of antimicrobial stewardship and healthcare associated infection.
View profile

Program Manager
Chantel Lin is Program Manager for Antimicrobial Resistance at the Doherty Institute, supports activities in pathogen genomics, and manages the WHO Collaborating Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance. She is responsible for Doherty Institute’s program of work in antimicrobial resistance, including a portfolio of public health, international health, and translational research projects, and regional capacity building and training programs, coordination of collaborative partnerships and public health networks, and contribution to the Institute’s strategic initiatives across her work areas. Chantel provides project management oversight for a number of projects across the Asia-Pacific region, including the Fleming Fund and COMBAT-AMR programs.
View profile

Dr Susan Ballard is the Principal Scientist of the Melbourne Diagnostic Unit, Public Health Laboratory, Doherty Institute, as well as a Molecular Microbiologist with research interests in the genomics of antimicrobial resistance and healthcare associated infections.  As Principal Scientist Susan provides support to the Director in meeting MDU’s scientific, operational and strategic objectives in the diagnosis and surveillance of communicable diseases. This includes resourcing of staff, identifying operational needs and the review of scientific processes and procedures. A key component of the role is to oversee the implementation of genomics as the main platform for service delivery within MDU PHL.
View profile

Dr. Sarah Baines is an early career researcher specialising in microbiology and genomics, as applied to understanding the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). For her PhD, she investigated the population and functional genomics of drug-resistant lineages of Staphylococcus aureus. She continues to research S. aureus populations dynamics, more recently expanding to other bacterial pathogens of public health interest to explore complex mechanisms of AMR and how genomics-guided approaches can be utilised to improve detection and surveillance of AMR. Since 2019, she has also taken on a mentoring role as part of the Fleming Fund Fellowship program; a £265 million UK aid program supporting 24 low- and middle-income countries across Africa and Asia to tackle antimicrobial resistance. In this role, mentoring 13 fellows in the areas of human health laboratory and quality management, and bioinformatics, from Bhutan, Nepal, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Pakistan. 

Dr Norelle Sherry is a clinical microbiologist and infectious diseases physician with a special interest in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), covering antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods, genomic sequencing and analysis, and AMR surveillance systems for public health and hospital infection control. She is completing a PhD studying integrated genomic AMR surveillance, and has contributed to WHO guidance documents and activities including AMR surveillance and outbreak management for WPRO. She has published widely on various aspects of AMR in clinical and public health setting across multiple species, and is a member of the Australian EUCAST advisory committee, Australian Group for Antimicrobial Resistance Gram negative resistance advisory committee, and Communicable Diseases Genomics Network (Australia) Expert Reference Group on AMR.
View profile

Professor Karin Thursky is the Director of the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship, the Deputy Head of Infectious Diseases at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and the Director of the Guidance Group at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Professor Thursky is an infectious diseases physician and clinician-researcher whose research spans paediatric and adult medicine, immunocompromised patients, primary and secondary healthcare, and veterinary antimicrobial stewardship.
View profile

Dr Rod James is a Clinical Microbiologist at the Melbourne Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory (MDU PHL) and the Director of Clinical Services at the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship (NCAS), based at the Doherty Institute, Melbourne. He has been involved with Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Stewardship research for the past ten years, with a major interest in implementation of programs in regional and remote Australian facilities and in Low to Middle Income Countries within the Asia Pacific region. He is currently the technical implementation lead for the Fleming Fund Country Grant Technical Assistance Project in Bhutan, and providing mentorship to Fleming Fund Fellows in Bhutan, Nepal, Timor-Leste, and Papua New Guinea.

Ron is a senior pharmacist and project officer at the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship (NCAS) and the Royal Melbourne Hospital's Guidance Group. He is a subject matter expert on digital antimicrobial stewardship decision support and antimicrobial auditing platform projects developed by the organisations and is currently advancing his research in harnessing AI technologies to enable automated antimicrobial prescribing auditing in the primary care setting with The University of Melbourne. Ron is also an AMU/C clinical mentor for Fleming Fund Clinical Fellows in Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste, and provides antimicrobial stewardship education to clinicians in the Western Pacific through the COMBAT-AMR program.

Dr Susan Luu is a pharmacist with extensive experience in antimicrobial stewardship, eHealth, and pharmacy management. She has a keen interest in international health and pharmaceutical policy development. Susan is a consultant antimicrobial stewardship pharmacist at the Doherty Institute. She recently returned to Australia after serving a 3-year mission in Viet Nam for the World Health Organization. Her role was to support the government of Viet Nam to implement their National Action Plan on AMR and provide advice on national policies to improve access to safe, affordable and quality assured medicines. Susan is also a seasoned mix-methods researcher with prior experience as a NH&MRC research fellow.

Associate Professor Leon Worth is an infectious diseases physician and clinical researcher. He provides medical lead to infection prevention departments in two major teaching hospitals. He actively implements and validates healthcare infection surveillance strategies across Victorian hospitals, and as a national leader in infection prevention, he is engaged in establishing standardised frameworks for equitable reporting of key healthcare associated infections.

Donna is an Infection Control Consultant at the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory and the Victorian Department of Health, Communicable Diseases where she provides infection prevention and control (IPC) advice to non-acute healthcare facilities and other community-based practices. She has contributed to the development and implementation of several guidelines regarding the management of AMR organisms, including the WHO guidance document “Responding to outbreaks of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens in health-care facilities: guidance for the Western Pacific region”. Other activities she is closely involved in within the Asia Pacific region include capacity building with IPC teams in low- and middle-income countries.

Dr Noleen Bennett is a Senior Infection Control Consultant at VICNISS and within the Guidance Group in partnership with the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship.
View profile

Courtney is an infectious diseases epidemiologist with a particular focus on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the use of pathogen genomics in public health practice. Courtney has a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology (University of Melbourne) and completed the Master of Applied Epidemiology, Australia’s field epidemiology training program, placed with the Victorian Department of Health and the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory. Courtney’s recent work is focussed on the genomic surveillance of COVID-19, and the development of public health surveillance and response programs for pathogens with critical antimicrobial resistance. Through the Fleming Fund Fellowship scheme Courtney mentors AMR surveillance fellows in Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Bhutan, Timor Leste and Pakistan, and she has been involved in the development of several local, national and international documents on both AMR surveillance and public health pathogen genomics.

Dr Patiyan Andersson is a Genomic Epidemiologist at the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory, at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. His background is as research laboratory scientist in molecular genetics and genomics complemented by training in field epidemiology.  He works with the application of pathogen genomics in public health. The work ranges from development of governance frameworks and implementation, to conducting and reporting genomic epidemiological analyses, to the translational research underpinning these activities. His current work includes SARS-CoV-2, hospital acquired infections, foodborne and vaccine preventable diseases.

Kylie Hui is a scientist with a distinguished career in bacteriology and a particular focus on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). Her expertise stems from extensive experience in clinical microbiology laboratories, where she honed her skills in bacterial identification and characterization. This strong foundation now informs her work in increasing capacity within laboratories in low- and middle-income countries.

Kylie leverages her knowledge and passion to mentor fellows from Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan in human health laboratory practices through the Fleming Fund Fellowships. She is also a trainer for COMBAT-AMR program, a DFAT initiative dedicated to combating antimicrobial resistance in the pacific region.

Jessie Hu is Project Officer for Antimicrobial Resistance at the Doherty Institute. She supports the coordination of activities, collaborative partnerships, and stakeholder relationships across the WHO Collaborating Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance, including international capacity building and training programs such as the COMBAT-AMR program funded by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, as well as other programs of work addressing clinical governance, infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship

Dr Meghana Kulkarni is Project Officer for the Fleming Fund Fellowships. Meghana has an undergraduate degree in dentistry, and a master’s degree in biomedical and health sciences from Monash University. Meghana is involved extensively in the management and coordination of the Fellowships, which facilitates training and capacity building across five countries in the Asia-Pacific region - Bhutan, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Pakistan.

Rahul is a Marketing Communications Officer at the Doherty Institute, supporting antimicrobial resistance and genomics programs, and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance.