Our governance process has been designed to facilitate involvement from Consumers, Researchers and Donors. The process is guided by our expert Steering Group which is made up of world leaders in cerebral palsy research. Researchers interested in joining a research cluster in their area of interest/expertise are warmly encouraged to contact us.
IMPACT for CP Steering Group
Nadia Badawi
Professor Nadia Badawi is the Medical Director of The Grace Centre for Newborn Care at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the Macquarie Group Foundation Chair of Cerebral Palsy at Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute.
Professor Badawi is internationally recognised for her research in the outcomes of neonatal intensive care, neurodevelopmental outcomes following major cardiac and non-cardiac surgery, neonatal encephalopathy and cerebral palsy. Together with colleagues she works on the Australian Cerebral Palsy Register, the largest whole-country cerebral palsy register in the world.
James A. Blackman
Dr. Blackman received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Ohio State University, completed pediatrics residency at the University of Michigan and Fellowship in Developmental/Behavioral Pediatrics at Harvard University (Children’s Hospital, Boston). He attained a Master’s Degree in Public Health at San Diego State University. His research and practice have focused on causes, outcomes, and treatments of early brain injury. He is a past president of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine and a former Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Queensland (Australia) Royal Children’s Hospital. He is currently Medical Director of the Cerebral Palsy International Research Foundation.
Jan Brunstrom-Hernandez
Jan Brunstrom-Hernandez M.D. is a pediatric neurologist and Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. She is the founder and Director of the Pediatric Neurology Cerebral Palsy Center medical director of the Carol and Paul Hatfield Cerebral Palsy Sports Rehabilitation Program at SLCH.
In addition to clinical care for patients with CP, Dr. Brunstrom is involved in and directs clinical research to better understand and define the complex phenotypes of cerebral palsy and to test current and novel treatments.
Linda S de Vries
Linda S de Vries is Professor in Neonatal Neurology at the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She trained as a paediatrician and subsequently specialised in neonatology and paediatric neurology. She has an interest in early prediction of neurodevelopmental outcome, using an integrated approach. She has been involved in many long-term follow-up studies of both preterm and full-term infants, has an interest in brain plasticity and is involved in a functional MRI study in children with perinatal stroke.
Donna Ferriero
Donna Ferriero, MD is Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Physician-in-Chief of the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Dr. Ferriero is Director of the Neonatal Brain Disorder Laboratories and co-director of the Newborn Brain Research Institute at UCSF. Her laboratory has been critical in defining the role of oxidative stress during hypoxia-ischemia and the relationship of selectively vulnerable populations of neural cells during maturation-dependent injury.
Sarah McIntyre
Sarah is the Star Scientific Senior Research Fellow at Cerebral Palsy Alliance responsible for running the NSW/ACT CP Register. She is currently researching aetiological pathways to cerebral palsy for infants born at term, with the long term aim of identifying opportunities for prevention. Her other research interests include aetiology and prevention of neonatal encephalopathy, developing systems for accelerating research findings and the uptake of evidence based interventions.
Cathy Morgan
Cathy Morgan is a Research Fellow at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute involved in coordinating the development of IMPACT for CP. Cathy is a physiotherapist by background and is undertaking doctoral research is in the area of early detection and motor learning interventions for infants at high risk of cerebral palsy and is the recipient of an NHMRC doctoral scholarship for this project.
Iona Novak
Professor Iona Novak is Head of Research at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, University of Notre Dame Australia. She oversees the research activities of Institute and supports the Australian Cerebral Palsy Register. Iona is a Fulbright Scholar and her background is in occupational therapy with research interests in evidence-based practice; home programs; and neuroprotection.
Karen Walker
Clinical Associate Professor Karen Walker is a Clinical Research Fellow in Grace Centre for Newborn Care at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and a Senior Research Fellow with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute. She completed her PhD in 2011 researching outcomes of infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units with her thesis entitled “Neurodevelopmental outcome at one year of age of infants who have undergone early major cardiac or non-cardiac surgery”.