Health experiences

Adam Bourne

Professor Adam Bourne is a Chief Investigator with the Interconnect Health Research Project, contributing to Work Package 2. He plays a key role in leading the survey of health and wellbeing among people with innate variations of sex characteristics.

They bring more than 15 years’ experience in health and wellbeing research among marginalised populations with a particular focus on LGBTIQ+ communities. Adam’s research has had wide-reaching impact on health policy, strategy and service provision all across Australia, and in other parts of the world – particularly in relation to suicidality or mental health, alcohol and other drug use, and family violence among LGBTIQ+ communities.

They are currently Director of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University and oversees a Centre of nearly 50 staff and 20 HDR students who work focusses on health equity, inclusion and human rights. Professor Bourne is Co-Chair of the Victorian LGBTIQ+ Whole of Government Ministerial Taskforce and served on the LGBTIQ+ Health and Wellbeing 10-year Action Plan Expert Advisory Group. He hold a BSc (Hons) and PhD in health psychology.

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn.

Kate Burry

Dr Kate Burry is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow with the Interconnect Health Research project, contributing to Work Packages 2 and 3. She is also an Associate with the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW.

Kate brings over a decade of experience in sexual, domestic and family violence, human rights, and sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice. She has led research on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of sex workers in Luganville, Vanuatu; barriers to sexual and reproductive health services remote communities in Vanuatu; and reproductive abuse and coercion in New Zealand and Australia. Kate’s PhD explored reproductive (in)justice in the Pacific islands and included an empirical study on Cook Islands women’s experiences accessing abortion from their legally restricted context.

Kate has published in bioethics, health and social work journals, and in a book on sexual and reproductive justice.

Kate holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Development Studies from Victoria University of Wellington, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine from the University of New South Wales.   

Connect with Kate on LinkedIn and ORCID.

Morgan Carpenter

Associate Professor Morgan Carpenter is the Chief Investigator – A for the Interconnect Health Research Project, providing lived experience expertise across the Work Packages, and acting as Chair of Work Package 3.

Morgan is an Associate Professor at Sydney Health Ethics, in the University of Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health. He is an internationally recognised expert on human rights and ethics in relation to the treatment of people with innate variations of sex characteristics (also known as intersex variations or differences of sex development). His work focuses on medicine, health policy and social policy.

Morgan is also the Executive Director of InterAction for Health and Human Rights, a charity that promotes the health and human rights of people with innate variations of sex characteristics through advocacy and psychosocial support services. He is also an inaugural member of the Australian Capital Territory’s new Restricted Medical Treatment Assessment Board, and the New South Wales government’s LGBTIQ+ Advisory Council.

Morgan has been contracted to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Australian Capital Territory government and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. He is a reference or advisory group member for the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Bureau of Statistics and New South Wales Health.

Connect with Morgan on LinkedIn, ORCID, and BlueSky.

Bridget Haire

Associate Professor Bridget Haire is a Chief Investigator with the Interconnect Health Research Project, contributing to WP 2 (the population survey work package) and as deputy chair of WP 3 (the bioethics work package).

Bridget is an empirical bioethicist with over a decade’s experience in conducting participatory research on sex, sexuality and gender issues in collaboration with community partners. She lectures in public health ethics at UNSW Sydney, and is an associate of the Australian Human Rights Institute. She has an extensive professional background in the HIV community sector an advocate, journalist and policy analyst, and was the President of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations from 2015-18.

Bridget has authored more than 115 peer reviewed publications and 10 book chapters. She regularly writes for The Conversation

Bridget holds a Master of Bioethics (hons) and PhD from the University of Sydney.

Connect with Bridget on LinkedIn, ORCID, or Research Gate.

Bonnie Hart

Bonnie Hart is a member of Interconnect Health Research’s Project Management Committee, contributes across the project’s Work Packages and governance committees, and is the Lived Experience Lead and Chair of Work Package 1.  

Bonnie is a Research Fellow (Intersex Psychosocial Models of Care) with the University of Southern Queensland, where she is also a PhD candidate. She has published 6 articles and 1 book, primarily on the lived experiences and healthcare and mental health needs of people with innate variations of sex characteristics.

Bonnie is the founding Service Manager of InterLink, the intersex psychosocial support service and is the Deputy Executive Director of InterAction for Health & Human Rights. She is a nationally recognised intersex content expert with 17 years working with the intersex community members as an intersex peer worker, systemic advocate, consultant and mental health worker. Bonnie was an organising signatory of the 2017 Darlington Statement of intersex community consensus and founder of the YellowTick intersex education and inclusion initiative.

Connect with Bonnie on LinkedIn and ORCID.

Martin Holt

Professor Martin Holt is a Chief Investigator in the Interconnect Health Project, contributing to survey design and qualitative research in WP 2.

He has over 20 years’ experience conducting mixed methods research with marginalised populations. His primary areas of research are HIV prevention and sexual health. He is a Professor in the Centre for Social Research in Health, and the Associate Dean, Research Quality and Culture, in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, UNSW Sydney. He is the author of over 190 journal articles and over 110 reports for community organisations and governments. He holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Birmingham, UK.

You can connect with Martin on Bluesky.

Ashleigh Lin

Professor Ashleigh Lin is a Chief Investigator with the Interconnect Health Research Project, the Deputy Chair of Work Package 2, and a member of the Project Management Committee.

Ashleigh is a youth mental health researcher conducting research on the mental health and wellbeing of marginalised young people. She is a Principal Senior Research Fellow at the School of Population and Global Health at The University of Western Australia, and an NHMRC Investigator Fellow. Ashleigh has previously held NHMRC Early Career and Career Development Fellowships.

In 2024, Ashleigh was awarded the UWA Vice Challenor’s Mid-Career Research Award. In 2023, she was awarded the Minister’s Award at the West Australian Mental Health Awards, which recognises someone who has displayed best practice at every level in the mental health sector and proven to hold an all-round skill set to benefit the outcomes of people living with mental health challenges in the community.

Ashleigh has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and has written 3 book chapters. She holds a BSc (Psychology) with Honours (2024) and Masters of Clinical Neuropsychology and PhD (2011) from the University of Melbourne.

Connect with Ashleigh on ORCID and Google Scholar.

Julie Mooney-Somers

Associate Professor Julie Mooney-Somers is a Chief Investigator contributing to Work Package 2.

Julie is an Associate Professor in Qualitative Research in Health at Sydney Health Ethics (School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney), and a visiting fellow at the Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values (University of Wollongong).

Julie uses her academic resources to understand and advance the health of socially disadvantaged people and communities. Engagement with LGBTIQ and First Nation peoples profoundly shaped her approach to academia. She is committed to working ethically with communities to undertake meaningful research that produces knowledge for advocacy, health promotion, and service design and delivery.

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn and ORCID.

Christy E. Newman

Professor Christy E. Newman (they/them) is a Chief Investigator with the Interconnect Health Research Project, contributing to Work Package 2.

Christy is a Professor at the Centre for Social Research in Health, and Deputy Dean Research for the faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture at UNSW Sydney. They are a qualitative sociologist with more than two decades of experience in collaborative, community-partnered social research on health, with a particular focus on sexual and reproductive health, and inclusive approaches to health system reform.

Christy is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Rights (2^nd ed), the Elgar Encyclopedia of Queer Studies, and Social Perspectives on Trans Health, in addition to more than 150 other peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Christy has a PhD in interdisciplinary studies in health, sexuality, and culture from UNSW and a BA(Hons) in communication and cultural studies from Murdoch University, where they were awarded a University Medal in Arts. They were also awarded the Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research from the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2010, and the Mid-Career Interdisciplinary Achiever Award from the Australasian Sexual Health Alliance in 2017.

Connect with Christy on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Ingrid Rowlands

Dr Ingrid Rowlands contributes to the Interconnect Health project as a Lived Experience Lead, Chief Investigator, and Chair of Work Package 2.

She is currently a Senior Research Officer at QIMR Berghofer, and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Queensland’s School of Public Health.

Ingrid has over 15 years’ experience in the management and analysis of complex data from large-scale cohort and case-control studies. Her research primarily focuses on women’s reproductive health across the life course, with expertise in the psychosocial aspects of adverse health conditions including miscarriage, infertility, endometriosis, and gynaecological cancer.

Ingrid has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Queensland, with her doctoral work examined women’s adjustment to miscarriage using data from more than 14,000 young women participating in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health.

Connect with Ingrid on ORCID.

Penelope Strauss

Dr Penelope Strauss is a Chief Investigator contributing to Work Package 2.

Penelope is currently a Research Fellow in Youth Suicide Prevention at The Kids Research Institute Australia, and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the School of Population and Global Health, Population and Public Health at the University of Western Australia. She recently led the Trans Pathways project, which is the largest study conducted on the mental health of trans and gender diverse young people in Australia. Her current research aims to decrease rates of suicidality among high risk groups of young people in Australia with a current focus on LGBTQA+ young people and homeless young people.

Penelope holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Western Australia and a PhD.

Connect with Penelope on LinkedIn and ORCID.