Meet the StoutLab Team

Julie Stout launched the Huntington’s Disease Network of Australia in 2020, after receiving an Investigator Grant from the Australian Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council. Julie is committed to unifying efforts aimed at ensuring the best quality of life, care and treatments for every person in Australia affected by Huntington’s disease.  

She is a Professor in the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University.  Julie is the Chair of the Scientific Oversight Committee of the global Enroll-HD study of HD, which has over 20,000 participants worldwide. Julie led the development of the HD-CAB, a cognitive assessment tool for clinical trials. She led the cognitive component of the international Track-HD studies, Predict-HD and several clinical trials. Since 2017 Julie has been a director of Zindametrix, which facilitates cognitive assessment in Huntington’s trials.  

Aside from working at Monash University and Zindametrix, Julie spends her time with family and friends in Australia, talking to family in the US on Zoom, travelling (when allowed!), cycling, studying Italian, and trying (unsuccessfully) to learn to play guitar. 

Yifat is an HD researcher and neuropsychologist at Monash University. Her research focuses on cognition and the relationship to the brain and the gut in HD. She is driven to find new avenues to improve quality of life for people with HD, such as those related to the gut.

Yifat completed a clinical Master’s degree in neuropsychology and PhD at The University of Melbourne. From there she undertook post-doctoral training and worked as a clinical neuropsychologist at Tel Aviv University and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel, her country of origin. She joined Monash School of Psychological Sciences in 2014 to train in HD research. Currently, she is a Huntington’s Disease Society of America Research Fellow.

Outside of work, Yifat enjoys reading non-scientific literature in her native language Hebrew, she practices yoga, and goes for long walks with her two German shepherd dogs.

Kelly Atkins has been a member of the StoutLab since beginning her Clinical Neuropsychology doctorate in 2016. Over the course of her doctorate Kelly sought to understand how the neuropsychiatric symptoms of HD, in particular changes in motivation (known as apathy), affect people with HD and their families. Since completing her doctorate, Kelly works as a researcher in the StoutLab and is a registrar Clinical Neuropsychologist. She is passionate about empowering HD families across Australia to access the services that they need and ensuring that these services meet the needs of the HD community.  

Outside of Kelly’s role at Monash University, Kelly is an enthusiastic, albeit amateur tennis player! More recently she has started training to compete in triathlons and when time permits she enjoys travelling and all things outdoors. 

Cory Wasser has been a member of the StoutLab since 2014, completing his bachelor of honours and then going on to complete his doctorate in Clinical Neuropsychology. In his doctorate, Cory was focused on investigating how the gut and the brain are linked in HD. Cory works as a researcher in the StoutLab and is also a Clinical Neuropsychology Registrar. He is passionate about helping to advance the scope of HD research in Australia and also in ensuring that the needs of the HD community are met. 

Outside of research, Cory loves watching and playing footy and basketball, and loves spending time with his family, friends and new mini-dachshund puppy.

Kian Davoodi is the data master.  He is a successful Microsoft Azure certified Data Scientist and Database Developer with over 15 years of experience in system and database design, data management, analysis and modelling. He has developed data collection and transformation applications and systems, with his great knowledge of statistics, mathematics and machine learning algorithm. He has been with StoutLab for the past seven years and is also a part of the core team at Zindametrix, the company which facilitates cognitive assessment in Huntington’s trials. Kian is very passionate about data, what we can achieve with it, and how we can help in people’s lives with it. 

He loves his family here in Australia and his bigger family in Iran, likes weekend picnics with friends, listening to music while driving, and watching late night movies when everyone else is asleep. 

Hiba Bilal is a Clinical Neuropsychology PhD student at Monash University, and is completing her doctoral project in the StoutLab. As part of her research, Hiba is investigating the experience of depression in people with Huntington’s disease and the factors linked to depression in this population. Outside of her PhD, Hiba has been involved in additional studies investigating neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington’s disease and Friedreich’s ataxia. On a more personal level, Hiba loves being out in nature and spends her weekends going on long walks or drives to scenic areas (when lockdown permits!). She also enjoys travelling and is determined to visit Turkey as soon as the borders open!

Emily Fitzgerald is a student researcher at Monash University, who is currently completing her third year of the Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Neuropsychology. Prior to her post-graduate studies, Emily worked as a clinical research assistant at St Vincent’s Hospital (Melbourne) within the Department of Anesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine.  Here, she worked for a number of years on several projects investigating the impact of anesthesia on cognition and dementia.  As part of her current research, Emily examines sleep quality and circadian timing in Huntington’s disease and their impact on cognitive functioning.  

Outside of research, Emily loves playing outdoor soccer, travelling to regional Victoria, listening to true crime podcasts and cuddling her border collie and golden retriever. 

With a BA and post-graduate qualifications in psychology, Alison O’Regan has worked in the field of HD research for more than 13 years. She has experience in the implementation of cognitive assessments into several international, multi-site observational and clinical trial studies. 

She currently works with international pharma/biotech companies, clinical research organisations and Australian clinical sites to make participation in HD clinical trials possible for eligible Australians. Alison coordinates and provides support to these Australian sites and hopes to see even greater participation in HD clinical trials across Australia in the future. 

Outside of work, Alison enjoys attending AFL and BBL cricket matches with her family, as well as watching her own children play sports. She loves relaxing at home with her dog Stella, reading biographies about inspirational people and the challenge of completing 1000 piece puzzles! 

Audrey Hulme joined the StoutLab team in February 2021 to coordinate the HDNA project. Originally from South Africa, where she completed a BCom (Honours) degree and gained over 15 years of experience in managing organisational transformation projects, Audrey has always been drawn to human development causes.

When not driving her two children to their endless activities, Audrey spends her free time outdoors and being active with her friends and family or reading a good book.

Foruhar Moayeri is an experienced clinician and health economist. He has longstanding collaboration with national and international organisations as an outcome and health policy analyst. Driven by his knowledge of econometrics and epidemiology, he has accomplished publications based on panel data, spatial analysis, and development of long-term projection models. In addition to his passion for research, he has been involved in academic teaching in medicine, epidemiology, and health economics.

As part of the HDNA, Foruhar is contributing to national HD data linkage, prevalence and burden of disease projects.