Steering Group

Professor Anna Lene Seidler
Universitätsmedizin Rostock, German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ), Germany
University of Sydney, NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre (Affiliate)

Anna Lene Seidler leads the TOPCHILD collaboration. She is a professor at the University Medical Center Rostock, where she holds the chair for Health Equity in Child Health at the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Neurology, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy and at the German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (Rostock/Greifswald site). She is an Honorary Affiliate at the University of Sydney, Australia, an Honorary Principle Research Fellow at University College London, UK, Co-Convenor of the Cochrane Prospective Meta-Analysis Methods Group and Stream 1 Lead of the Translating Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood (EPOCH-Translate) Centre for Research Excellence in Australia. Her research focus is methods and execution of large individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses, predominantly in the field of child and adolescent health. She brings together international studies as a basis for evidence-based prevention and care programs and guidelines, often focusing on adapted approaches for different groups.

Dr Kylie Hunter
University of Sydney, NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, Australia

Kylie Hunter is co-Deputy Chair of the TOPCHILD collaboration. She is a Research Fellow and co-lead of the NextGen Evidence Synthesis Team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. She is also Associate Convenor of the Cochrane Prospective Meta-Analysis Methods Group. Her research centres on advancing evidence synthesis methods to address high-priority health research questions, with a particular focus on individual participant data, prospective meta-analysis, research integrity, and child health. Kylie leads TOPCHILD Project 1, the individual participant data meta-analysis.

Dr Brittany Johnson
Flinders University, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Caring Futures Institute, Australia

Brittany Johnson is co-Deputy Chair of the TOPCHILD Collaboration. She is a Senior Research Fellow in the Caring Futures Institute, at Flinders University, an Early-Mid Career Research Fellow of The Hospital Research Foundation Group and Accredited Practising Dietitian. She is Stream 1 Lead of the Translating Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood (EPOCH-Translate) Centre for Research Excellence in Australia. Her research interests include improving children and families health behaviours by reducing unhealthy food intake, applying behaviour change theory and creating supportive environments where we live, work and play. She has extensive skills in the Behaviour Change Wheel including Behaviour Change Techniques, through training by the University College London Centre for Behaviour Change, which she has used to improve methods and applied in projects related to children’s vegetable and unhealthy food intake, and early obesity prevention interventions. Brittany leads TOPCHILD Project 2, the intervention deconstruction.

Professor Rebecca Golley
Flinders University, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Caring Futures Institute, Australia

Rebecca Golley is Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics, Director of the Caring Futures Institute and Dean of Research for the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University. She is Chief Investigator of the Translating Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood (EPOCH-Translate) Centre for Research Excellence in Australia. She is an internationally recognised research leader in public health nutrition and health services research. Her research program develops, tests and implements public health initiatives to improve children’s diet quality, prevent obesity and support growth, learning and development. It spans the range of settings where children and families live, eat, work, learn and play across health, education and social care systems.

Professor Louise Baur
University of Sydney, Australia
Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, The Children's Hospital at Westmead

Louise Baur is the Professor of Child & Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney. She also has a conjoint position in the Sydney School of Public Health and is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow. In addition, Louise is a consultant paediatrician at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network where she is an active member – and former Head – of Weight Management Services, a multidisciplinary clinical service for children and adolescents with obesity. She is Director of the the Translating Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood (EPOCH-Translate) Centre for Research Excellence in Australia and is Director of the Boden Initiative at the Charles Perkins Centre. She has a special interest in the prevention and management of child and adolescent obesity. Louise has been instrumental in raising the profile of child and adolescent obesity as an issue of clinical and public health importance, in Australia and internationally. Her body of research has helped define management efforts around childhood obesity and improved our understanding of the factors that help prevent obesity in the first few years of life. In 2010 Louise was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) ‘for service to medicine.

Dr Sol Libesman
University of Sydney, NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, Australia

Sol Libesman is a postdoctoral research associate and data scientist for the NextGen Evidence Synthesis Team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. His research background is in psychology where he has led projects that have investigated decision-making and perception. His previous research groups at UNSW and the Australian National University, specialized in schizophrenia, hallucinations and delusional-reasoning. He was worked in the NextGen team since 2019 and his current focus relates to the deployment and optimization of the next generation of evidence synthesis methods including IPD meta analyses and network meta-analyses.

Dr Jonathan Williams
University of Sydney, NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, Australia

Jonathan Williams is a Senior Evidence Analyst for the Evidence Integration team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. He has a key role in managing and reporting for the TOPCHOLD Collaboration. First completing his PhD in Infectious Disease Innate Immunology, he now specialises in data sharing and project management for individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses. He is involved in methods work for IPD meta-analyses, clinical trials reporting in collaboration with the Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) and is involved with improving access to health data through the Sydney Health Partners - NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre Node of the Health Studies Australian National Data Asset (HeSANDA) program.

David Nguyen
University of Sydney, NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, Australia

David Nguyen is an evidence analyst for the NextGen Evidence Synthesis team at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. He completed his Master of Biostatistics as a BCA Star Graduate in 2024, specialising in individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses. Since joining the team he has worked across projects in the areas of paediatrics, neonatology, obstetrics and public health. He has experience in statistical computing, data management and data quality.

Samantha Pryde
Flinders University, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Caring Futures Institute, Australia