Steering Group Membership

Amber Bates

Parent of an extremely premature infant, AUS

Amber is an experienced Community Advocate and parent of a child born extremely preterm. She is passionate about co-design and the consumer voice in every aspect of research.

Louise Pallot

Ex-premature infant, AUS

Louise was born at 24 weeks gestation 31 years ago. Surfactant wasn't quite available when Louise was born, resulting in a scarred and underdeveloped larynx, due to multiple intubations and extubations.

Louise has a keen interest and passion in research of extremely premature infants and hopes to be able to help other families affected by premature birth by contributing to research to help alter outcomes and increase survival statistics in this population.

Olivia Ray

Ex-premature infant, UK

Olivia was born at 25 weeks' gestation at the neonatal intensive care unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Olivia is therefore extremely passionate about neonatal medicine and extreme prematurity. Her personal story, and admiration for the team that cared for Olivia when she was born, was her motivation to study Medicine. Olivia is currently a fourth-year medical student at Leicester University, UK.

Patricia Shanti Santhanadass

Parent of an extremely premature infant, UK

Patricia is a parent of preterm twins. Patricia heads the Psychology department in a private school in Oxford and has been in the teaching field for the past 25 years.

Patricia volunteers as a parent helper with the Support for the Sick Newborn and their Parents (SSNAP) charity at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, where she has also been involved in other research projects within the unit.

Dr Stacey Peart

Neonatologist, PSP Project Lead, Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne AUS

Dr Stacey Peart is a neonatologist, based in Melbourne, Australia, and currently undertaking a PhD focussing on under-represented cohorts in neonatal clinical trials.

Dr Rosemary Boland

Neonatal Nurse Researcher, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, University of Melbourne, AUS

Dr Rose Boland is a postdoctoral research fellow with a specialty research focus on care and outcomes of babies born <28 weeks' gestation, particularly in non-tertiary hospitals. Rose publishes her research in peer reviewed journals and presents research findings at national and international conferences.

Rose uses social media channels (Twitter and LinkedIn) to raise awareness and to generate discussion about key findings from her published research. In areas where perinatal care could be improved, Rose will voice an evidence-based opinion on matters she is passionate about.

Prof Christopher Gale

Neonatologist and Clinical Researcher, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Imperial College London, UK

Prof Christopher Gale is a neonatal doctor based at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and researcher at Imperial College London. Chris's research focuses on improving the health and outcomes of babies that require neonatal care and on preventing and treating necrotising enterocolitis.

Prof Samantha Johnson

Professor of Child Development, University of Leicester, UK

Prof Samantha Johnson is a Professor of Child Development in the Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester. Samantha has a programme of research focused on understanding and improving developmental, psychological and educational outcomes for children born preterm. Samantha has contributed to the development of clinical guidelines for follow up care, including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline for the developmental follow-up of children and young people born preterm and the European Foundation for Care of Newborn Infants Standards of Care for high-risk newborns.

Prof Marian Knight

Professor of Maternal and Child Population Health, University of Oxford, UK

Marian Knight is Professor of Maternal and Child Population Health at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK. She is a public health physician and applied health researcher whose research focuses on the care and prevention of severe complications of pregnancy and early life and addressing disparities in outcomes for women and babies from different population groups.

A/Prof Brett Manley

Neonatologist and Clinical Researcher, Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne AUS

A/Prof Brett Manley is a Neonatologist and Clinical Researcher at The Royal Women's Hospital and The University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia. His research aims to improve outcomes for preterm and sick newborn infants. He has led or been part of multiple large, randomised controlled trials in this field.

Dr Trisha Prentice

Neonatologist and Bioethicist. Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne AUS

Dr Trisha Prentice's research interests focus on end-of-life decision-making and moral distress including in the extremely preterm population. Trisha has contributed to Safer Care Victoria Guidelines regarding management of the extremely preterm newborn. Trisha's work seeks to understand the dynamics of decision-making within the neonatal intensive care unit in order to best support all involved.

Prof Charles Roehr

Neonatologist and Clinical Researcher, Southmead Hospital, Bristol University, University of Oxford, UK

Prof Charles Roehr is a Neonatologist and clinical researcher in perinatal medicine. He has a special interest in fetal-to-neonatal transition and newborn stabilisation. He is a Professor for Neonatology at Bristol University and Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Oxford. As Clinical Director, he co-leads the Clinical Trials Unit at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford, UK.

Prof David Tingay

Neonatologist and Respiratory Physiologist, Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne AUS

A/Prof David Tingay is a clinical neonatologist and respiratory physiologist at the Melbourne Children's Campus (Melbourne, AUS) whose work aims at improving the respiratory outcomes of newborn infants. David currently leads the Murdoch Children's Research Institute Neonatal Research Program that aims to develop new neonatal critical care respiratory support strategies. David is a member of projects to define evidence-based guidelines on neonatal Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), chest imaging and Paediatric COVID-19 therapies, and lead investigator of the international POLAR Trial of PEEP strategies to support the preterm lung at birth and EPICENTRE neonatal COVID-19 registry.

Dr Clare Whitehead

Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist, Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne AUS

Dr Clare Whitehead is a Consultant Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist at the Royal Women Hospital and Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is Co-Chair of the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand (PSANZ) IMPACT Network Executive and Co-PI on development of an Adaptive Platform Trial (APT) to optimise outcomes for babies born preterm. Her major research interests are in improving prediction and prevention of adverse pregnancy outcomes including preterm birth, pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction.

Ms Laura Galletta

Clinical Trial Manager, PSP Project Coordinator, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, AUS

Ms Laura Galletta is a Senior Clinical Trial Manager based within the Melbourne Children's Trial Centre (MCTC), at the Murdoch Children's Research Centre (MCRI), Melbourne Australia.

Laura commenced her career in medical research, working for 12 years in oncology research with a focus on ovarian cancer genomics and genetics, before moving into the clinical trials landscape in 2012.

Since this time, Laura has developed and managed a portfolio of both local and international large-scale investigator-initiated clinical trials (IITs) and is currently the International Clinical Trial Manager for the POLAR Trial – a large-scale global trial comparing two commonly used respiratory strategies that both use gentle pressure to open the lungs immediately after birth.

Ms Pollyanna Hardy

Director NPEU Clinical Trials Unit, University of Oxford, UK

Dr Pollyanna Hardy is the Director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit Clinical Trials Unit (NPEU CTU). As a Clinical Trialist she has extensive experience in the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs), with a keen interest in complex design methodology. She has previously worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, NPEU CTU and Birmingham CTU. Her interests lie in the field of RCTs in obstetrics and neonatology.

Ms Kayleigh Stanbury

NPEU Clinical Trials Unit – Head of Operations, University of Oxford, UK

Ms Kayleigh Stanbury is the Head of Operation at the NPEU Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), University of Oxford. Kayleigh leads and manages the team of trial management staff and oversees collaborations to help shape how the CTU portfolio is managed, delivered and developed.

Ms Suzannah Kinsella

Senior JLA Advisor and Chair of the Steering Group

Suzannah is an Adviser to the James Lind Alliance (JLA) and has taken over from Katherine Cowan as chair of the Most Premature Babies Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) Steering Group.