Team members

Professor Susan Paxton is the Director of the Children' Body Image Development Study (CBIS). Professor Paxton's research has concentrated on understanding risk factors for the development of body image and eating disorders, and the evaluation of prevention and treatment interventions for these problems.

Professor Paxton has been a member of the National Ministerial Body Image Advisory Group, a member of the Victorian State Ministerial Advisory Committee on Body Image and Ministerial Advisory Committee for Eating Disorders. She is past President of the Australian and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders, and past President of the Academy of Eating Disorders. She is also a Director of the Butterfly Foundation and co-chair of the Prevention and Early Intervention Steering Committee of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration.

Professor Eleanor Wertheim

Professor Eleanor Wertheim is a co-investigator on the CBIS project. Eleanor's interest in the area of eating disorders, disordered eating, and body concerns in adolescents and women has been supported by ARC, Beyond Blue, Heart Foundation and Australian Rotary Health Research grants. Her research has examined risk factors for the development of body image and disordered eating, prevention and treatment programs, and body image changes over the course of pregnancy and the post-partum period, as well as mothers' and children's body image and approaches to food.

Professor Wertheim is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and has been the recipient of several national awards for excellence in teaching. In addition to her body image interests, she also conducts research promoting cooperative conflict resolution processes and respect for cultural diversity, including in schools and with UN staff and diplomats.

Ms Karen Gregg joined the CBIS team in 2012 to work as Project Manager. Karen began her professional career as a generalist Primary teacher followed by various positions in Educational sales and training. She returned to tertiary study completing a Post Graduate in Psychological Studies at Victoria University. In 2007 she completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours in Psychology) at The University of Melbourne and was subsequently employed there as a Research Assistant throughout 2008 to July 2009. During this time she conducted three consecutive ARC grant allocated studies on children's routes to understanding of addition and subtraction. Prior to joining The Children's Body Image Development Study she worked as a Research Assistant for The Conquer Headaches Program at Monash University with the MaTCH study.

Dr Stephanie Damiano

Dr Stephanie Damiano is a research assistant on the Child Body Image Development Study and is mainly involved in the analysis of the valuable data provided by participants. Stephanie has a strong interest in the factors associated with the development and maintenance of eating disorders and hopes to continue research in this area once completing her PhD. In her PhD Stephanie investigated the nature of anorexia nervosa as in occurs in adolescent females, with a specific focus on typologies and maladaptive thought processes.

Ms Siân McLean is a research coordinator within the Body Image and Eating Disorder Research group at La Trobe University, and is involved in a number of projects, including CBIS. Siân's research interests focus on identifying and understanding factors that contribute to increased risk for developing body dissatisfaction and on evaluating school-based interventions to prevent the onset of body image concerns and eating disorders in early teenagers. Siân is also undertaking a PhD where she will focus on the ways in which young people can protect themselves against the potentially detrimental effects of media images on body image, and will also explore in more depth the particular aspects of prevention programs that are most helpful for teenagers.