Our Researchers

Professor Coffin is a prominent Aboriginal researcher with research expertise in cultural security, education and research across a diverse range of interests including chronic diseases, nutrition, contextualising bullying, and health promotion. She holds a Bachelor of Education, a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (with distinction) and a PhD with an award in excellence. Professor Coffin has a keen interest in Aboriginal languages and ways of learning and combines her education and cultural learnings to deliver outstanding translation of research into practice. She is highly regarded by her peers as being creative and innovative around some of the particularly controversial and complex areas in Aboriginal health and education.

An accredited Equine Psychotherapy Practitioner Professor Coffin established the Yawardani Jan-ga (meaning ‘horses helping’ in Yawuru language) based in Broome, with hubs in Derby and Halls Creek. First of its kind in the Kimberley, Australia and the world, Yawardani Jan-ga responds to community concerns over youth social and emotional wellbeing, and community requests for a strengths-based research program to build healthy coping skills among Aboriginal youth. Yawardani Jan-ga supports the social, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing of young Aboriginal Australians through the delivery of a culturally secure Equine Assisted Learning program owned, developed, and implemented by community members, delivered across the Kimberley. Equine Assisted Learning is grounded in a strengths based approach, with a focus on developing social and emotional skills such as self-regulation, positive social behaviours, persistence, and coping ability.

Dr Walker is committed to Aboriginal community engagement and empowerment for positive social change. She is involved on several research projects focused on improving Aboriginal mental health and social and emotional wellbeing outcomes in maternal health and early childhood development and supporting resilience and wellbeing in young people. She has extensive experience in qualitative, community based participatory action and mixed methods research approaches with a focus decolonising and empowering Indigenous research methods and methodologies. She has co-authored several seminal publications with the Ngangk Yira team and with Professor Pat Dudgeon’s Transforming Indigenous Health and Wellbeing team at the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, University of Western Australia and the School of Population and Global Health. Roz has been involved in research, evaluation, policy reform, education and training with Aboriginal communities and Community Controlled organisations and Government and non-Government agencies for over thirty five years. She has extensive experience working with organisations and community groups to identify problems and develop solutions and advocate to improve maternal, child and adolescent health, mental health and social and emotional wellbeing at individual, organisational and community levels as well as promoting system level change and individual and organisational cultural competence and cultural security.

Jayne is a nurse practitioner, midwife, child health nurse and researcher, and since 2014 has led the Baby Coming You Ready? Project at Ngangk Yira. Conceptualised as part of her PhD project - Kalykool Moort - Jayne has worked closely with the Aboriginal community over a long time to bring about a highly innovative, culturally safe and game changing screening and assessment process focussed on Aboriginal women’s perinatal mental health.

Throughout her career, Jayne has worked alongside women in prison and women and their families in their own communities in Australia, Africa and Vanuatu. In her role at Ngangk Yira she is building an exceptional team of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal colleagues to take Baby Coming You Ready? into the Western Australian health system. The eventual goal is for BCYR to be used nationally.