Dr Debra Turner

Dr Debbie Turner is the General Manager of the Western Australian Health Translation Network (WAHTN), a role formed from the merger of her previous positions as WAHTN Chief Operating Officer (2018–2024) and WAHTN Acting Executive Director (2023). She leads the WAHTN on behalf of the Board and the Partner Organisations, which are comprised of 21 diverse organisations across the WA health research sector, including state government, universities, medical research institutes and health service providers.

Debbie brings over three decades of experience in medical research and public sector leadership. Prior to WAHTN, she held senior roles within the WA Department of Health, including Director of the Offices of the Chief Medical Officer and Assistant Director General of Clinical Services and Research, and the Disability sector. Her research career of 20+years focused on respiratory health, particularly asthma, inflammatory lung disease, viral respiratory infections, and the effects of environmental irritants on lung growth and development. Debbie has a BSc(Hons) and PhD from The University of Western Australia and undertook 4 years of postdoctoral studies at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She has published widely, led successful research teams, and secured competitive grant funding.

In addition to her research experience, Debbie is recognised for her expertise in health policy, strategic planning, and executive management. She works with an array of stakeholders across the health and medical research sector, represents WAHTN on the Australian Health Research Alliance Council, and contributes to the sector through numerous board, committee, and advisory roles at local and national levels.

Dr Jason Lenzo

Ms Lauren White

Lauren is the Business Support Manager at WAHTN and is responsible for the business operations and day to day management of the WAHTN office. This includes coordinating the strategic planning process and managing the implementation of activities across WAHTN’s partners and stakeholders.

Lauren’s broad experience has been gained from previous roles across a range of organisations in which she provided high level executive support.

This included not-for-profit organisations in Sydney, at the University of Sydney Law School and within a number of divisions at The University of Western Australia.

Lead, Consumer and Community Involvement Program (CCIProgram)

Deb Langridge has worked in the public health and prevention space at all levels of government – Federal, State and Local – and not for profit sectors to contribute to the health and well-being of communities. Debra has always worked connecting institutions, organisations, government, and community with both a well-being focus and partnerships, and was a representative on the WA Sustainable Health Review with this in mind. She has been recently appointed to the NHMRC’s Research Committee, together with the NHMRC-MRFF Consumer Advisory Group for the 2024 – 2027 triennium.

Deb’s role directing the Consumer and Community Involvement Program (CCIProgram) as a platform of the Western Australia Health Translation Network (WAHTN) is to connect researchers in WA Universities, Medical Research Institutes, Government, Health Service Providers and Funders with people with lived experience to support and encourage best practice research. This internationally recognised Program collaborates to support all twenty one partners of the WAHTN.

Her involvement in the Executive Group developing and guiding WA’s first Mental Health Research Framework 2024 – 2028 ensured the lived experience of people with mental health challenges formed the Framework’s foundation, and incorporated partnerships and collaborations across the WA research sector. As the Chair of the Australian Health Research Alliance (AHRA) Consumer and Community Involvement (CCI) Advisory Committee, Deb ensures that conversations at a national level are relevant and inclusive of the best practice work that is involving people in research being conducted in institutions and health care providers both nationally and in WA. She is also Chair of the WAHTN WA CCI Community of Practice that brings together colleagues, institutions and organisations across the state supporting the involvement of lived experience in research, in an environment of partnership and collaboration.

Deb has a personal lived experience of multiple disease conditions, is passionate about ensuring research translation can impact policy, practice, and the wellbeing of communities, and enjoys bringing people together to make a difference.

Professor Chris Reid 

Director, Clinical Trial Enabling Platform – WA (CTEP-WA)

Chris is a cardiovascular epidemiologist with appointments as Research Professor in both the School of Public Health at Curtin University in Perth and the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University in Melbourne. He is Director of the Monash Centre of Cardiovascular Research and Education in Therapeutics and the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Cardiovascular Outcomes Improvement (2016-2020).

He holds a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellowship in addition to being the Chief Investigator on an NHMRC Program Grant (2016-2020) focusing on cardiovascular disease prevention. His major research interests include clinical outcome registries, randomised controlled trials, and epidemiological cohort studies.