Professor Jayashri Kulkarni (AM)

Professor Jayashri KULKARNI MBBS MPM PhD FRANZCP FAHMS AM

Director, Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc) Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA

Jayashri Kulkarni (AM) was appointed Professor of Psychiatry at The Alfred and Monash University in 2002. She founded and directs a large psychiatric research group, the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc), which expanded from 25 personnel in 2002 to over 160 staff and students in 2017, covering seven different research streams, and conducting over 100 clinical trials.

Professor Kulkarni graduated from Monash Medical School in Melbourne Australia. She initially worked in emergency medicine and then decided to become a psychiatrist. She became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1989 and was awarded a PhD from Monash University in 1997 for her thesis Women and Psychosis. Professor Kulkarni became a Fellow of the prestigious Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2016.

She has won numerous awards and accolades for her work with mental health patients. Of note, Women’s Mental Health is Professor Kulkarni’s major area of interest and research. She is the current President of the International Association for Women’s Mental Health. In 2015, she founded the Australian Consortium for Women’s Mental Health. She has worked in the field of women’s mental health for 25 years and has improved the quality of care for women with mental illnesses by developing specific treatments that are tailored to suit women’s needs biologically, socially and psychologically. Her work has been published in many national and international peer-reviewed publications. To date, Professor Kulkarni has authored in excess of 200 papers, 23 book chapters and 40 other publications.

As a psychiatrist, Professor Kulkarni has extensive clinical experience in many broad areas of practice. She has also trained in many research areas including psychoneuroendocrinology, clinical trials, psychopharmacology and is currently working in the area of the neuroscience impacts of early life trauma.

Professor Kulkarni is a well-known public speaker and has a great deal of experience with the media. She has been a regular presenter on ABC radio and has contributed to many other talkback radio programs as well as appearing on television programs such as the Insight series on SBS, and ABC 7.30 report. She is also a highly sought-after presenter having been invited to deliver keynote addresses at many international meetings and conferences in Australia and around the world.

 

Dr Leo Chen

Dr Leo Chen
MBBS MPsych FRANZCP AFRACMA Academic Psychiatry Teaching MBBS teaching; Psychopharmacology Group; PhD Candidate
 
Dr Chen is a registered medical practitioner, Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (FRANZCP) and Associate Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Adminstrators (AFRACMA).  He is the Director of Psychiatry Training at Alfred Health and in clinical practice at Alfred health and Epworth Healthcare. 
 
Dr Chen's role at MAPrc combines clinical medical/psychiatric, research and teaching activities.  He is an Investigator on several interventional trials at MAPrc investigating the therapeutic potential of novel pharmacological agents.  He is undertaking a PhD researching improved efficacy and efficiency of TMS in the treatment of depressive disorders. 
 
Dr Chen is actively involved in psychiatry teaching as a lecturer, tutor, examiner and is also engaged in Monash University's Psychiatry Academy responsible for reviewing and developing the university's psychiatry curriculum.  Dr Chen is an accredited reviewer for the RANZCP Scholarly Project and coordinates a RANZCP-accredited Professional Peer Reveiw Group attended by TMS psychiatrists around Melbourne. 
 
 
 

Mr Anthony de Castella

 

Anthony de Castella
Dip App Sci, BA, M App Sci

Anthony de Castella is Research Manager and a Research Fellow at MAPrc. Anthony commenced work with MAPrc in 1994 when the group was based at Dandenong hospital. Anthony originally trained as a general registered nurse, before completing a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology and Psychophysiology. Subsequently, he completed a Masters of Applied Science by research in Psychophysiology at SwinburneUniversity. His thesis examined variations in resting EEG across the menstrual cycle in women with schizophrenia.

Anthony’s research interests include women’s mental health, psychopharmacology, problem gambling and mental illness, and healthy lifestyles for people with schizophrenia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Shalini Arunogiri

Dr Shalini Arunogiri 

MBBS (Hons), PhD, FRANZCP Cert Addiction Psychiatry (Addiction Studies), MPsychiatry

Dr Shalini Arunogiri is Deputy Head of Department, Psychiatry (CCS), Monash University, and a consultant addiction psychiatrist and clinician-researcher.

Shalini’s research interest stemmed from her work with patients and families affected by methamphetamine use. Her PhD focused on methamphetamine psychosis, a particularly damaging consequence of ice use that affects many, and her work shed light on its correlates and risk factors. Shalini’s research program now encompasses methamphetamine use and mental health co-morbidity, women’s health and addiction, and medication treatments for addictive disorders. She is an investigator on the only Melbourne site for three medication trials in addiction (DEBUT- depot buprenorphine for opioid use disorders; LiMA- Lisdexamfetamine for Methamphetamine; and N-ICE, N-Acetylcysteine for ice). Shalini has over 35 peer-reviewed publications and attracted over 1M of research funding to date.

Clinically, Shalini leads a team of over 50 multidisciplinary clinicians in the delivery of face-to-face, telephone and online addiction treatment at Turning Point. Her clinical work is primarily in assessment and treatment of mental health problems co-occurring with addiction. She also mentors and supervises students and clinical staff from a range of disciplines, and is available for supervision of honours, masters and PhD students with aligned interests.

Stigma is a major barrier to care in addiction, and Shalini actively advocates for safe, effective, evidence-based and equitable addiction treatment in Australia. She is currently Chair of the Binational Faculty of Addiction Psychiatry at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), the peak body for psychiatrists in the region, shaping the organisation’s policy and practice responses in addiction. Shalini also holds leadership roles in international organisations, including the International Society of Addiction Medicine (Co-Chair of the Policy and Practice Interest Group).

Shalini is active on social media, and is the current Social Media Editor for the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse and the International Society of Addiction Medicine. She shares her own research, and engages with others’, through her own twitter @SArunogiri. Shalini is also a passionate advocate for minority women in academia and medicine. She is a proud mother of an energetic four -year-old boy.