Graduation - past ceremonies

Thursday, 23 April 2009 at 5pm

Melbourne Convention and Exhbition Centre

Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences

Stage Party
The Chancellor Mr David Morgan presided assisted by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Lee Astheimer.
The MC was the Director, Division of Student Administration, Ms Fofi Hronopoulos.
The Mace-bearer was Mr Trevor Dean.
The Faculty Representative was Mr Alan Taylor.

Presenters were:
Representing the Dean, Faculty of Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences Professor Jo Graffam.
Chair of the Academic Board, Professor Philomena Leung.

The student Response was delivered by Dr Robyn Ramsden-Waghorne.

Doctoral Degree Recipients

Dr Kara Maree Yeske - Thesis title: "An Examination of Adolescents' Help Seeking Processes: A Longitudinal Study."

Summary
This thesis examined factors that predict adolescents' professional help seeking when experiencing mental health problems over six months. Factors that strongly predicted help seeking included adolescents' ability to recognise that they were experiencing a problem; the type and severity of the problem experienced; and the perceived support from their family.

Dr Aaron Cunningham - Thesis title: "How the Public Perceive Stalking."

Summary
The current study demonstrated that the context and frame placed on behaviour significantly perceptions of whether behaviour was perceived as stalking. It was argued that stalking laws that have strict intent requirements are more robust against misuses of the law brought about by differences in individual's perceptions.

Dr Felicia Judith D'Sylva - Thesis title: "Readiness for Substance Abuse Treatment Amongst Victorian Prisoners."

Summary
The thesis examined treatment readiness in offender rehabilitation. Findings empirically refuted the notion that treatment readiness occurs in sequential progression through stages. Instead the study offered two treatment readiness models based on concurrent states of thought and behaviour. Furthermore, the treatment readiness models were found to be significantly predicted by offenders' cognitive styles and self-efficacy.

Dr Melanie Dianne Bertino - Thesis title: "The Impact of Violent Videogames on Cognition Affect and Personality."

Summary
This research investigated the impact of playing violent videogames. Aggressive or anxious responses were most likely: when the player perceived the violence in the games to be extreme, when the player experienced a heightened sense of becoming 'absorbed' into the game, and during a relatively brief exposure to the game.

Dr Candice Elizabeth Tribe - Thesis title: "Participation, Relational Justice and Social Identity in Cervical Cancer Screening."

Summary
Extending existing health literature by drawing on social and community psychology, this thesis represents the first attempt to explore the conceptualisation of 'participation' in cervical cancer screening. Quantitative and qualitative findings suggested that women's experiences of 'patient participation' and 'voice opportunity' were important and related to various social processes and variables in this health context.

Dr Cathryn Maree Carpenter - Thesis title: "Changing Spaces: Contextualising Outdoor Experiential Programs for Health and Wellbeing."

Summary
Using Giddens' structuration theory to explore marginalised young people's perceptions of a six-week outdoor experiential program, this study uncovers the processes involved in increasing the agency and control the young people have over their future health and wellbeing to enable them to make significant changes in their life styles.

Dr Fiona Mcleod Collier - Thesis title: "Rhntekin 2, A Novel GTPase Effector Involved in Resistance to Apoptosis."

Summary
This thesis describes the discovery, characterization, and function of a new protein, Rhotekin-2. Rhotekin-2 is a signaling protein with a significant role in resistance to cell death in human lymphocytes and provides a potential new target in future treatments of immune diseases such as HIV and leukemia.

Dr Philip Roy Harper - Thesis title: "Adoption of VIDEOoverIP by Deaf People in the Workplace."

Summary
This study explored Deaf employees' adoption of videocommunication-via-the-Internet, allowing sign language use between Deaf people, and between Deaf and hearing people via Video Relay Interpreting service. Major findings including a paradigm shift from text to video communication; and, a divergence from typical adoption theory, with government intervention required to prime the adoption of videocommunication by Deaf people in Australia.

Dr Robyn Ramsden-Waghorne - Thesis title: "The Hope of Education: Somali Families and Social Connection."

Summary
This thesis examines Somali parents' experience of their children's education after settling in Melbourne following the outbreak of civil war in Somalia in 1991. The research found that Somali parents instigate connections with teachers to generate social capital to enhance their children's education.

Dr Kwan Lan Vicky Tsang - Thesis title: "Assessment of Movement Participation for Children with Developmental Coordination Disorders."

Summary
The Caregiver Assessment of Movement Participation was developed to identify children of 5-10 years old for movement participation difficulties in home contexts. Its psychometric properties were investigated including its usefulness as a screening instrument using both classical test theory methods and Rasch analyis. Results confirmed its validity and reliability.

Alfred Deakin Professor

The title of Alfred Deakin Professor was awarded to Professor David Crawford (Head of the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences).

Occasional Address

The Occasional Address was delivered by Ms Fran Thorne, Secretary, Department of Human Services, Victoria.

Fran Thorn was appointed Secretary of the Department of Human Services in March 2007.

As Secretary, she is responsible for a portfolio which encompasses health, community services, housing, aged care, disability and emergency management, with a total budget of $13.1 billion (as at 2008-09), representing approximately 40% of the Victorian State Government outlay, as well as portfolio assests of $21.5 billion.

Between 2005 and early 2007, she was Secretary of the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development. Immediately prior to this role she was with the Department of Sustainability and Environment as Under Secretary, Portfolio Performance. From 2002 to mid 2004 she was a Deputy Secretary of the Policy and Cabinet Group in the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Between 1996-2001, Ms Thorn was a Director of KPMG Consulting Pty Ltd, in Australia and then Hong Kong. Whilst at KPMG, she primarily consulted to the education sector and Government, providing advice on policy implementation, program evaluation strategy, costing and refocusing service delivery and future directions at Government and the funded institutional level.

Prior to joining KPMG, she had 17 years experience in public sector administration, with approximately half of that in post compulsory education and training, where she held senior management roles with major policy development, budget, staffing, program management and strategic planning functions. She has been actively involved in managing implementation of reforms in government service delivery in education and training at a system-wide level and in the management of human resources at a public sector-wide level.