Tilini Gunatillake commenced her journey as a Research Fellow with our new ECCO team in June this year.
She obtained her Doctorate from the University of Melbourne in 2016 under the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Her PhD project investigated potential causes of pregnancy complications with an aim to identifying viable treatment options for these diseases. On completion of her PhD, she worked at Western Health as an Ethics and Governance Submission Officer, supporting researchers and sponsors with the implementation of innovative clinical trials at the hospital. More recently, she was a Research Fellow at the First 1000 Days Australia team at the University of Melbourne, where she was helped design a strategy to strengthen and improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. It was here that she found her calling. Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities was something she was deeply passionate about.
This led her to join St Vincent’s Health Australia in June this year as a researcher. Under the leadership of Prof. Gail Garvey, her role involves assisting in the development and implementation of an Aboriginal health research strategy across the entire organisation. The rest of the week she spends with the ECCO team. This sees her engaging with the local Aboriginal community to build partnerships with Aboriginal peoples and organisations. She aims to privilege Aboriginal voices as ECCO works towards developing a better approach to providing access to evidence-based OA care that improves health outcomes for Aboriginal people.