The Doherty Directorate

Leading infectious diseases expert Professor Sharon Lewin is the inaugural Director of the Doherty Institute. Sharon is an internationally renowned researcher in HIV cure and an infectious diseases physician. She leads a large, multi-disciplinary research team at the Doherty Institute that focuses on understanding why HIV persists on treatment and developing clinical trials aimed at ultimately finding a cure for HIV infection. She has published over 200 publications and has been continually funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) since 1993. She is an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow and also receives grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the Wellcome Trust. She was local co-chair for the International AIDS Conference that was held in Melbourne in July 2014 (AIDS2014), which was the largest health conference ever hosted in Australia attracting 14,000 participants. She is a founding member of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, a member of the NHMRC Council and Chair of the Health Translation Advisory Committee of the NHMRC. She was named Melburnian of the Year in 2014.

For over 15 years, Andrea Fischer has worked in the development and implementation of public health programs in the Asia-Pacific region.  After graduating from the Australian National University in Population Health and Epidemiology, she completed a Masters of Public Health at Monash University. Andrea’s first international assignment was in India working on primary health care activities in Andhra Pradesh.  Following this, she specialised in HIV prevention working in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, primarily for the Burnet Institute. Prior to her role at the Doherty Institute, Andrea was the Executive Officer for AIDS 2014 held in Melbourne in July 2014. As Executive Officer at the Doherty Institute, Andrea leads the Directorate team and is responsible for the development of the identity and strategic programs across the organisation. 

Dr Jasminka Sterjovski is Research Manager for the Doherty Directorate. Jasminka completed her undergraduate studies in Biomedical Science at Monash University followed by Honours at the Burnet Institute in 2002 in the area of HIV transcriptional regulation. She continued to work in HIV molecular virology for the following 11 years, completing her PhD thesis on HIV entry in 2008, followed by a successful postdoctoral, during which she established research collaborations that led to a successful National Health and Medical Research Council Development grant and a provisional patent. From 2012, she moved into the field of project management and then research management for the Department of Infectious Diseases. Jasminka has experience in grant applications and administration for local governmental and philanthropic funding bodies, as well as international funding agencies such as National Institutes of Health in the USA, American Foundation for AIDS Research, and the Wellcome Trust.

Rebecca Elliott is the Communications Manager for the Doherty Directorate and has more than 10 years’ of experience working in marketing and communications across a diverse range of industries. Rebecca graduated from a Bachelor of Arts (Public Relations) with Distinction at RMIT University in 2003 before moving to London to work for a specialist travel public relations agency. In her most recent role, Rebecca was the Communications Manager for the Melbourne Convention Bureau, responsible for bidding for and securing major international conferences and other business events for the state of Victoria. As part of her role, Rebecca was on the Melbourne Planning Group for AIDS 2014.