2019-20
Commemorative Fellowships

The Del Doherty Commemorative Fellowship

To Gaelle Goumand: Gaelle commenced her study in linguistics in Switzerland, examining the language of community engagement in working with social workers. She is enrolled in a Masters of Social Work at UQ and is interested in social justice and engaging with community groups.

The Betty Patterson Commemorative Fellowship
To Caitlin Power: From working in the Commonwealth Bank Caitlin became interested in retirement savings policy and has commenced study at Cambridge to further her understanding of the impact of gender policy on female financial inequity in retirement.

The Dorothy Davidson Commemorative Fellowship
To Sarah Kilcoyne: Sarah is enrolled in a DPhil at Oxford University. She is combining her experience in both speech pathology and law in examining the legal rights of young people with communication impairment in seeking plastic surgery for aesthetic reasons

The Mary McSweeney Commemorative Fellowship
To Janice Chuang: During her time as a practising dentist in Singapore, Janice became aware of the challenges in treating patients with special needs, such as physical or intellectual disabilities and medically complex conditions. She is enrolled in a three year Doctor of Clinical Dentistry art the University of Queensland and intends to return to Singapore to practise in the public system to focus on special needs dentistry.

2018-19
Commemorative Fellowships

Barbara Williams Commemorative Fellowship

Mercedes McLean completed a Master of Conservation Biology at the University of Queensland in 2019. She grew up on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada and her research examines climate change adaptation focused on collaborative management strategies for marine protected areas from an indigenous community perspective.

Freda Freeman Commemorative Fellowship

Simone Maurer is a world-class flute player and studying for her PhD in music at the University of Melbourne. She is researching how visual bias influences audiences’ emotional perception of musical performance.

Betty Patterson Commemorative Fellowship

Erika Bellingham, an Honours graduate in Linguistics from the University of Queensland, will study for her Phd at the University of Buffalo (NY, USA). This programme involves four years of full-time coursework, followed by 1-3 years to complete her dissertation. She is interested in how speakers draw on their cognitive and linguistic resources to describe events of varying levels of typicality. Events more difficult to verbalise tend to be described less consistently across speakers, and with greater use of predicates (verbs) and more complex syntax.

2017-18

Commemorative Fellowships

Audrey Harrison Commemorative Fellowship

Allanah Hunt holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Central Qld University, excelling in her chosen field of Creative Writing and Literary Studies. She is currently enrolled in a PhD in Creative Writing at Anglia Ruskin University, UK 9formerly the Cambridge School of Art) that involves the production of a work of creative writing in addition to a thesis.  Her focus was the role of affect and the dehumanisation of race and gender through the social lenses of media and politics.

Freda Freeman Commemorative Fellowship

Simone Maurer completed a BMus (Hons) in Flute Performance, followed by a MPhil in Music Studies at the University of Cambridge (UK)She has chosen to combine both musicology and music performance at the University of Melbourne. Her thesis focuses on the impacts of body movements in flute performance, taking a music psychology approach.

2016-17

Commemorative Fellowships

Mary McSweeney Commemorative

Fiona Russo, with an MBA from Southern Cross University and an extensive background in business, is the primary carer and advocate for her profoundly disabled daughter. Aware of the need  for parents to be able to navigate the health, education and social services system, she has enrolled in an interdisciplinary PhD at University of Southern Queensland to address questions of how health professionals can best predict the support needs of carers of children with disabilities to enable them to effectively advocate for their children. This qualitative research will provide an evidence basis for the development of educational tools to enable parent-carers to be the best advocates they can.

Betty Paterson Commemorative

Laya Matindoos is from Iran and has a background an English Teacher and Translator. Her passion is education, but the career paths for women in Academia in Iran are very restricted. Laya is investigating the experiences of migrant women. She is a confirmed PhD  student in the School of Communication and Arts at University of Queensland  to investigate the ways in which Iranian women migrants, both economic migrants and refugees, have experienced their settlement in Australia and how they see themselves included and excluded. She has now conducted a significant number of interviews which she is now analyzing. Her preliminary results indicate a big divide between the ways that economic and humanitarian migrants see each other, and she is considering extending her study to interview some male migrants to see if this translates across genders.

Dorothy Davidson Commemorative

Sarah Kilcoyne has upgraded her M. St in Legal Research to a D Phil at the University of Oxford to continue her research on young people with communication impairments and their capacities to participate in restorative justice processes. Sarah gained a Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours) from the Flinders University of South Australia in 2004 and subsequently worked as a Speech Pathologist in education and health sectors in South Australia, Queensland and the United Kingdom.  During her clinical practice she became aware of the prevalence of juveniles with communication impairment in the justice system and subsequently completed a B Laws (Honours). Sarah was admitted as a Solicitor in Queensland in 2011. Sarah subsequently completed a Masters of Laws (Health) (QUT) with special interests in children with communication impairment and their ability to access their legal rights in the criminal justice and child protection systems.

2015-16

Freda Bage 3-year Fellowship

Phillipa (Pip) Coore has undergraduate degrees in Journalism and Communication (UQ) and Law (QUT). She came to study law after the death of her beloved grandfather resulted in significant legal proceedings concerning his will that impacted the entire family. At that time she recognised the gross inadequacy of laws in Australia protecting the rights of the Elderly, and carers of the Elderly. She has maintained her passion for change in this area has already spent time as a visiting scholar at the Oxford Institute of Population Aging in order to educate herself on the key sociological and demographic issues associated with the growth of ageing populations in developed societies. This led her to embark on a Masters in Law at Oxford University which she is now converting into a D.Phil at Oxford. Pip intends to return to Australia to redress the legal vacuums in Elder law that she has identified through her doctoral studies and to leverage her expertise to effect legislative change.

Commemorative Fellowships

Dorothy Davidson Commemorative Award

Sarah Kilcoyne is a clinical speech pathologist (B Speech Path Flinders University, SA) and a lawyer (Bachelor of Laws, Charles Darwin University, Master of Laws (Health), QUT). She is currently working in the UK as a speech pathologist at the Oxford Craniofacial Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, having been recruited from Australia. Sarah has had a longstanding interest in the plight of juvenile offenders with communication disorders in the legal system, recognising the disadvantages that emerge for young people facing police interview and court proceedings when they additionally have a communication disorder.

In order to advance her capacity to advocate for change in this area, she has been accepted into a Master of Law at Oxford University to address the question: “Does Australia’s Youth Justice Conferencing Legislation facilitated restorative justice for juvenile offenders with communication impairments” Sarah plans to convert this into a PhD before returning to Australia to develop best practice for speech pathology in the legal sector.

Betty Patterson Commemorative Award

Laya Matindoost is from Iran and enrolled in a PhD in the school of Communication and Arts at the University of Queensland to investigate the ways in which Iranian women migrants, both economic migrants and refugees, have experienced their settlement in Australia and now they see themselves included and excluded. After completion she plans to continue in academia and to become a spokesperson for issues facing migrant women especially refugee women in Australia.

Louisa Penfold, originally from Victoria (BA in Media and Communication from Swinburne University), came to Queensland to undertake the Masters in Museum Studies at the University of Queensland. Her passion is the engagement and learning of very young children in art through museum visits. She has been accepted at the Tate Modern Museum, London as a PhD candidate to investigate the current and possible future intersections between children, artists, and curators in the design of learning environments for young audiences.

2014-15

3-year Fellowships

Julie Hennegan is a UQ graduate in Psychology.  She completed an MSc in Evidence Based Social Intervention at Oxford University and received a three-year Freda Bage Fellowship to help fund her PhD research on the relationship between menstruation management practices and school attendance in Uganda.

April Hastwell holds a QUT Bachelor of Applied Science and studied for her PhD at the ARC Centre of Integrative Research with the help of a three-year Molly Butz-Olsen Fellowship. This research examined ways that soybeans can be used as a companion crop to sugarcane to improve soils associated with that agricultural industry.  She is committed to a career as a research scientist in the pursuit of food security.

Commemorative Fellowships

Mary McSweeney Commemorative

Morgan Rubanov graduated in Science at Stonehill College (Massachusetts) and completed a Masters of Conservation Biology at UQ.

Audrey Harrison Commemorative

Humya Bristy is a graduate in Business Administration from the University of Dhaka, intending to become a Finance academic in Bangladesh. For her PhD at QUT she studied the relationships between financial development, the exchange rate regime and exchange rate volatility.

Freda Freeman Commemorative

Ella Gunn, a graduate in Law from QUT worked as a solicitor before commencing a Masters programme in Refugee and Forced Migration studies at Oxford University. She anticipated these studies will help her progress into Immigration law and towards changing perceptions towards asylum seekers in the Australian community.

Margaret Mittelhauser Commemorative

Jennifer Setchell, a Physiotherapy graduate of Curtin University (WA) studied for her PhD in Psychology at UQ. Her research into weight stigma in health care delivery, initially focussed on physiotherapy but equally applicable to other health encounters has been published and recognised internationally.

Post-doctoral Research Fellowship

In 2015, the Fellowships Fund jointly funded with the University of Queensland a post-doctoral Fellowship awarded to Dr Leanne Saksewski. Leanne, a graduate in Occupational Therapy from UQ is particularly interested in improving motor function in children with cerebral palsy.

2013-14

Freda Bage 3-year Fellowship

Hila Dafny received Magna Cum Laude for a Bachelor of Nursing from Hebrew University, Jerusalem and also has a Masters in Public Health from the same institution. She has just started a PhD at the University of Southern Queensland. While working as an ICU nurse in Jerusalem, Hila became aware of levels of verbal and physical violence that are directed at nurses by both patients and visitors. This experience has led her to develop a PhD study of how violence towards nurses affects their ability to interact with patients, visitors and colleagues. Despite worldwide recognition of violence against nurses, there has been little research in the Australian context. Hila’s mixed-methods study thus has the potential to influence workplace practice for nurses and raise public awareness of this issue. Hila plans to use this study as a basis for directly influencing public health policy and to develop an academic career.

Molly Budtz-Olsen 3-year Fellowship

Levon Blue has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo, Canada and an MA in Training and Development from Griffith University. She is currently enrolled in a PhD at the School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University. Through her history in financial services and as a consultant on managing financial resources, Levon has become a passionate advocate for better practices in Financial Literacy Education (FLE). Her thesis critically examines the role of FLE in a First Nation Community in Ontario Canada (of which she is a member) to explore the ways in which culture may influence financial decision making, and how an understanding of this may lead to better practices in FLE in general. Levon’s aim is to give back to her own community in an area in which she is both passionate and knowledgeable, to develop the field of FLE, and to influence policymakers, especially in developing Financial Literacy strategies for Indigenous peoples more generally.

Commemorative Fellowships

Hillary Nye is a J.S.D. candidate at New York University School of Law, where she also received her LL.M. in legal theory, in 2011. She gained her LL.B in 2008 and B.A. in 2009, with majors in philosophy and political science, from the University of Queensland. Hillary works primarily at the intersection of the disciplines of philosophy and law. In particular, she is interested in methodological questions about the way in which we put forward and defend positions in legal philosophy. Her work questions the dominant place of conceptual analysis in answering jurisprudential questions, and draws on philosophical pragmatism for new ways to approach the core questions in the field. Her doctoral project uses this critical methodological approach to explore the connection between the Rule of Law, autonomy, and law. Her work has been funded by NYU, as well as the Institute for Humane Studies, which twice awarded her a Humane Studies Fellowship.

Jacqueline Murdoch is a junior doctor who has worked most recently in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. She has a BSc/BA (2004) and MBBS (Hons.) (2010) from the University of Queensland and is currently undertaking a Master of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Jacqueline is enrolled in the Health and Social Behaviour concentration and is particularly interested in community women’s health interventions and gender-based violence prevention. Her achievements at UQ include being awarded the Ben Adsett Memorial Prize for Community Health and the Eric W Peet Memorial Prize for Medical Ethics. She intends to return to Australia to complete general practice and public health training and to combine a clinical and academic/policy career.

Nisha Yadev – The potential to use one’s knowledge for improvement and benefit of community, country and individual is the greatest significance of Education. My educational aspirations consist of PhD in Pharmaceutics under guidance of the international researchers of the University of Queensland. On the other hand, my career vision is to one day be able to deliver a contribution towards improving global public health. I was among the top 5% students of my university during my bachelors however I topped my university for scoring the highest in my masters. I have a number of seminar, conferences and publications to my credit. After my masters, I started working as a Research Executive in Research and Development organization involved in the development of novel drug delivery systems. This desire and determination aroused my interest in the ongoing research work at the University of Queensland.

Uzma Sehrish has Mathematics degrees from the University of Punjab, Lahore and Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University, Quetta, Pakistan, where she lectured in Mathematics from 2006-2011. Since 2011 she has completed a coursework MSc at QUT and is enrolled in a Masters of Applied Science (Research), which she plans to articulate to a PhD. Her research is at the interface of Mathematics and Biological Sciences and involves the mathematical modelling of growth factor delivery to cutaneous wounds. Her work thus aims to provide theoretical insights into the design of a drug delivery system to improve wound healing. On completion of her studies at QUT, Uzma plans to return to a University position in her home province, Balochistan, which is particularly deprived of tertiary educators.

Natalie Elms has a Bachelor of Business (Accountancy) from RMIT. After a number of years working in the international corporate sector, Natalie returned to study and is currently enrolled in an MA(Research) in Business at QUT, studying selection processes for corporate board membership. She has been accepted into a PhD program at the same institution to continue her research into behavioural corporate governance through a qualitative study of the barriers to women’s participation on corporate boards. A PhD in this area will not only provide evidence for why women’s participation on corporate boards is so marginal, but also will enable Natalie to switch fully into an academic career.

2012-13

Commemorative Fellowships

Morenikeji Akinlotan

Morenikeji is a BSc Mathematics graduate from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma from the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences which attracts academically excellent students. She is enrolled in PhD in the Science and Engineering Faculty of QUT commencing in 2013. Her proposed research integrates mathematical modeling and epidemiology with the aim of improving understanding of the immune response to infections of Chlamydia Trachomatis.  Morenikeji intends to return to Nigeria to apply her research outcomes both in informing public health policy and identifying risk factors for preventative medicine.

Caitlin Goss

Caitlin is BA(Hons)/LLB(Hons) graduate of UQ who is currently completing her DPhil at Oxford University. She is researching the implementation of interim constitutions in countries during the peace-building process after conflict. This area of modern constitution-making has received little academic attention and her research will be highly regarded. She aims to work in an advisory legal capacity to bodies such as the UN supporting states in constitution building before returning to academia in Australia. Her outstanding academic record resulted in the award of a 2009 Rhodes Scholarship (Queensland) which fully funded the first three years of her MPhil/DPhil studies and now just covers tuition for the remaining time.

Jennifer Fox

Jennifer is a graduate of both UQ (B Commerce, 1979 & PGCert Nursing, 2011) as well as QUT (B Nursing, 2009). She recently converted from a MSc to PhD (QUT) and is researching the processes and practices around the transition to palliative care for people living with metastatic melanoma. Her studies to date have identified a significant gap in practice relating to this specific but common and aggressive form of cancer. Her studies examine the transition to palliative care from the perspectives of both the patients and the medical practitioners. Jennifer’s personal journey catalysed her career change and provide her with unique experience and passion to succeed evidenced in her excellent academic record.

Onanong Thippimol

Onanong is graduate of Thammasat University (Thailand) and is currently enrolled in a PhD at UQ studying the implementation of Shariah law in Indonesia. She is a skilled linguist which enables her to access government records in Indonesia and ultimately in Holland. Her research will provide valuable understanding in the processes of implementation fo Syariah law in the Thai context but also more widely in the context of Islamic law across the South East Asia region. Onanong is already a high regarded academic at one of Thailand’s leading Universities and this research will enhance her expertise and status as an expert in Indonesian history and Islamic law.

Anne Whittingham

Anne, a 2012 Freda Freeman Commemorative Fellowship recipient and a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, she commenced an MPhil in Cultural Studies at UQ in 2012. Anne has a very strong academic record, strong linguistic skills and a background in Japanese literary studies and gender perspectives. She recently successfully converted to a PhD program which researching the appeal of ‘boy’s love manga’ to female readers through analysis of graphic & semantic representations of dynamic relationships. The role of this form of manga in portraying themes related to sexuality has significance in social constructs.  Anne intends pursuing an academic career.