FASD Hub Australia Awards 2020

This prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award was established by the FASD Research Australia Centre of Research Excellence and was first presented at the 2^nd Australasian FASD Conference in 2018. It was intended to recognise and celebrate a person who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to the field of FASD and/or alcohol use in pregnancy on a local, national or international level.

The winner of the Sue Miers Lifetime Achievement Award 2020 is Professor Carol Bower, an internationally recognised public health researcher who has spent almost her entire research career working in birth defects and aiming to improve maternal and child health. 

Professor Bower has qualifications in medicine, epidemiology and public health. Commencing her research career in 1980, for the past 20 years Carol has led a team of multidisciplinary researchers in studies on alcohol in pregnancy and FASD, successfully collaborating with relevant state, national and international colleagues and organisations and consumer and community members.

The 2020 Community Award is sponsored by Sue Miers AM and recognises the voluntary achievements and contributions from someone in the broader community to people living with FASD, their families and support networks. 

The winner of the 2020 Community Award is Neroli Endacott, who has worked hard to raise awareness of FASD, support parents and carers, and promote promising and best practices for interventions and management.

Neroli was a founding member of the Board of NOFASD Australia and founder of the national helpline. She has has cared for over 100 children providing dedicated, patient and caring parenting. When she realised that health professionals did not understand FASD, she personally visited practices in her local area delivering some of the earliest alcohol and pregnancy advice flyers ever developed in Australia. She also conducted schools' education on alcohol and pregnancy - again a pioneer in FASD awareness raising in Australia. For 30 years she has continued her mission and inspired many on the way.

The winner of the 2020 Mid-Career Researcher Award is Dr Kerryn Bagley, a researcher and lecturer in Social Work, Social Policy and Rural Health at La Trobe University Australia.

Dr Bagley's role has provided her with a platform to inform graduate social workers about FASD and the challenges families face over the life course. She is also known for her research into health and human service sector responses to FASD, which stems from her extensive practice experience in child and adolescent mental health services with families affected by FASD.

Kerryn has been engaged in FASD practice and research since 2008, and undertook her FASD diagnostic team training and evidence-based intervention training in the USA and Canada. Her research has highlighted why a social work response to FASD is needed and explores social work frameworks and models that underpin current FASD-informed practice, and is informed from her time working in Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Together with colleagues from these countries she has made submissions to many national inquires. She was the inaugural co-chair of the Australian and New Zealand FASD clinical network and currently chairs the Victorian FASD Special Interest Group.

The winner of the 2020 Early Career Researcher Award is Dr Natasha Reid, a researcher with a vision to raise awareness within society about FASD to prevent future children being affected.

For those affected, Dr Reid's research aims to contribute to further evolving, implementing and evaluating effective assessment, diagnostic and intervention approaches, ensuring that children and families can have access to the appropriate services they need. In just over 3 years since obtaining her PhD (2017) she has published more than 25 papers, been involved in health professional training and caregiver workshops with more than 300 participants and been involved in many community awareness events.  

Natasha is already recognised as a leader in the field, is the current co-chair of the Australian and New Zealand FASD Clinical Network and a member of the Organising and Scientific Committee for the 2020 FASD conference. She is passionate about training a broad range of students and health professionals, and supervising Master and PhD students.