Ann Brassil - Chief Executive Officer
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Ann Brassil is the Chief Executive Officer of Family Planning Australia.
Ann holds an honorary university position of Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. She is a Director of the Family Planning Alliance Australia, a member of the NSW Health NGO Advisory Committee, and Director of the Asia Pacific Alliance for Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights. Prior to joining Family Planning Australia in 2006, Ann was the Director of BreastScreen NSW, the largest breast screening program in Australia, for 10 years. Ann has high-level experience in population health and community- and hospital-based health service governance and management, in Australia and in the international development arena. She has broad experience in clinical services, education, research, advocacy and health service administration.
Ann’s publications cover the topics of population based mammograph screening and breast cancer incidence, termination of pregnancy and cervical screening.
Qualifications: BSC (Psych) Hons; MA (Hons) Clin Psych; MBA; MAICD
Publications: A selection of Ann's publications can be found here.
Jane Estoesta - Director, Research Centre
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Jane Estoesta is the Director of the Family Planning Australia Research Centre. She is responsible for the strategic and operational management of the Research Centre and the coordination of organisational data reporting, monitoring, evaluation, data linkage and research projects and activities. Jane also oversees the functions of the FPNSW Ethics Committee, and is the National Data Manager for the Family Planning Alliance Australia.
Jane has held senior management positions in the NSW health sector since 1997. She was the BreastScreen NSW State Data and Evaluation Manager and managed the BreastScreen NSW State Data Registry from 2000 to 2006, and was an accredited Data Auditor for BreastScreen Australia and BreastScreen New Zealand from 2004 to 2006. Jane has extensive data management and evaluation experience across a wide range of health settings including tertiary teaching hospitals, population health programs and non-government health service organisations.
In 2012 Jane was awarded funding from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing under the Family Planning Grants scheme to manage and develop the first National Reproductive and Sexual Health in Australia report. She also managed the publication of the 2011 Reproductive and sexual health in New South Wales and Australia: differentials, trends, and assessment of data sources funded by the NSW Ministry of Health. In 2013 Jane was awarded further funding from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing under the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Support Grants scheme to manage two FGM projects: Feasibility study for National FGM Data Collection and Scoping and Development of FGM Continuing Professional Development.
Jane’s publications cover the topics of breast screening, contraception, migrant and refugee sexual and reproductive health, termination of pregnancy and domestic violence.
Qualifications: Master in Medical Statistics; Master in Public Administration; Bachelor Science in Chemical Engineering
Publications: A selection of Jane's publications can be found here.
Clare Boerma - Associate Medical Director
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Clare Boerma is the Medical Director at Family Planning Australia, and a General Practitioner. She was previously Associate Medical Director from 2018 to 2022, and a conjoint associate lecturer at the school of Women’s and Children’s Health at UNSW.
Clare has become increasingly engaged in reproductive and sexual health over the years, spreading her time across medical education, research and as a clinician at Family Planning Australia. She enjoys collaborating with interdisciplinary teams and contributing to research to inform optimal medical care.
Qualifications: Bachelor of Medicine; Bachelor of Surgery; Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners; Diploma of Child Health
Publications: A selection of Clare's publications can be found here.
Sally Sweeney - Medical Officer - Research
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Sally Sweeney is a general practitioner with expertise in sexual and reproductive medicine and over 18 years clinical experience. Sally joined Family Planning Australia in 2008 and has been the Medical Coordinator at FPNSW Hunter Clinic since 2016. She is a Clinical Instructor across all Family Planning Australia education courses and joined the Family Planning Australia Research Centre in 2019. Sally is also a Conjoint Senior Lecturer with the School of Medicine & Public Health, University of Newcastle, is an affiliate of Monash University School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine and works in private practice at Elermore Vale General Practice in Newcastle.
Sally has clinical expertise in the areas of Sexually Transmissible Infection (STI) management, Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), Shared Antenatal Care, medical termination of pregnancy and diagnosis and management of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. Current active research interests include cervical screening, fertility knowledge in young people, very early medical abortion and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. Sally is a Chief Investigator on a NHMRC Targeted Cancer Screening research project to support increased participation of people with intellectual disability in the National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP). Sally is passionate about using quality evidence to inform clinical practice.
Qualifications: Bachelor of Science (Medical Science); Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery; Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
Publications: A selection of Sally's publications can be found here.
Kevin McGeechan - Consultant Statistician
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Associate Professor Kevin McGeechan is a consultant statistician for Family Planning Australia.
Kevin has worked in a variety of private sector and government positions, including as a Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, and analysing general practice data with the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) study and then with the General Practice Research Network (GPRN). He joined Family Planning Australia as a consultant statistician in 2011.
Qualifications: PhD; Master in Biostatistics; Graduate Certificate in Pharmaeconomics; Graduate Diploma in Public Health; BSC (Hons)
Publications: A selection of Kevin's publications can be found here.
Jessica Botfield - Senior Research Officer
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Jessica Botfield is a Senior Research Officer at Family Planning Australia, and a Research Fellow at the SPHERE National Health Medical and Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Sexual Health and Reproductive Health for Women in Primary Care. She is also a Registered Nurse.
Jessica is a qualitative and mixed method researcher with experience working in academic, NGO and clinical settings. Her research interests focus primarily on sexual and reproductive health and rights (relating particularly to postpartum contraception, unintended pregnancy and abortion), nurse- and midwifery-led models of care, and health service research and evaluation.
Qualifications: PhD; Master of Public Health; Master of International Public Health; Bachelor of Nursing
Publications: A selection of Jessica's publications can be found here.
Yan Cheng - Senior Research Officer
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Yan (Wendy) Cheng is a Senior Research Officer at Family Planning Australia.
Yan completed her PhD in Epidemiology and Health Statistics in 2007 in Fudan University, China. Prior to starting her role at Family Planning Australia in 2015, Yan worked as a Research Associate and Associate Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Social Science Research on Reproductive Health, Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research (SIPPR), World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Research in Human Reproduction from 2007 to 2015 and was nominated as a Master's Supervisor at School of Public Health, Fudan University in 2015.
During that period, she received research grants from WHO/HRP, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNESCO and local governments for adolescent sexual and reproductive health research. Yan has over 60 peer-reviewed publications in the field of reproductive health.
Qualifications: PhD; Bachelor of Medicine
Publications: A selection of Yan's publications can be found here.
Gianna Robbers - Research Officer/Ethics Executive Officer
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Gianna Robbers is a Research and Publication Officer with the Family Planning Australia Research Centre.
She has experience with research in public health, sexual and reproductive health and rights, refugee and migrant health, gender-based violence (GBV) and reproductive cancer prevention. Her skills lie in qualitative and quantitative data analysis, health system analysis and project evaluation. She has a particular interest in bridging the gap between global health, international development and evidence-based research to progress and advance the sustainable development goals in a meaningful way.
She has published research articles about evidence-based GBV prevention measures for female and child refugees, cervical cancer screening in Indonesia and maternal and child health issues across Africa, South America, Pacific and Southeast Asia.
Qualifications: Bachelor of Applied Sciences (RMIT University); Master of Public Health (University of Melbourne)
Publications: A selection of Gianna's publications can be found here.
Catherine Bernasconi - Data Officer
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Catherine Bernasconi is a Data Officer at the Family Planning Australia Research Centre. Catherine holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Sydney. Her previous roles have included technical and research roles within the University of New South Wales, School of Medical Sciences, and as education consultant for Cotton Australia. She has co-authored several publications in the area of fetal cardiovascular and renal development.
At Family Planning Australia, Catherine is responsible for the provision of data and the management of data systems in the areas of health promotion, education and clinical services, contributing to regular and specialist reports as well as organisational planning.
Qualifications: Bachelor of Science in Agriculture; Certificate in Information Technology
Natalie Cousins – Research Nurse
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Natalie is a Registered Nurse who has worked in reproductive and sexual health care for the past 10 years. She joined Family Planning Australia in 2013 and has roles in clinical care, clinical research, telephone referral and information service, and has experience in the role of Acting Continuous Quality Assurance Nurse.
Natalie has worked as a Research Nurse for the past 12 months, including the Efficacy of Very Early Medical Abortion (VEMA) – a randomised controlled non-inferiority trial, views and experiences of young migrant and refugee women regarding the contraceptive implant and follow up of the Compass study. Her interests are in supporting decision making around pregnancy choices and contraception choices.
Qualifications: Bachelor of Nursing