CERC Team

Professor Joanne Porter

Director

Joanne is the Director of the Collaborative Evaluation & Research Centre (CERC). She leads a multidisciplinary team of researchers and evaluators, over a wide range of projects working with industry partners, government departments, local government, organisations, agencies and community groups to shift thinking in evaluation research by empowering communities to grow through evidence-based innovation.

Joanne is an experienced emergency nurse having worked in metropolitan, rural and remote emergency care centres. Joanne is a Fellow with the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia (CENA) and is a board member on the Victorian branch of CENA. She brings with her a career of clinical, research and leadership expertise.

Dr Megan Simic

Research Fellow

Megan completed her PhD in 2024 with her project titled: "The lived experience of emergency department nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic". Prior to this, Megan completed with Distinction a Bachelor of Nursing at Federation University in 2016.

Megan has a range of clinical nursing experience in areas such as oncology, intensive care, emergency and women’s health, ensuring a diverse skill set. Megan has gained comprehensive research experience throughout her work with CERC, where she assists in grant writing, report writing, project management and publishing academic literature.

Luis Antonio T. Hualda

Research Fellow

Luis is a researcher with international experience in the areas of agriculture development, poverty reduction in rural communities, food security, and gender in agriculture. In his research activities, he has been part of multi-disciplinary teams that employed both quantitative and qualitative methods using a systems approach. He has educational backgrounds in community development and urban and regional planning.

Prior to joining CERC, he held research and teaching positions at the University of the Philippines and was involved in action research projects that aimed to improve efficiencies of agribusiness systems involving rural farmers. Luis also had experience working for an international organisation in developing policies to create an enabling environment for agriculture to address food insecurity in parts of South and Southeast Asia.

Dr Daria Soldatenko

Research Fellow

Daria is an experienced researcher who holds two PhDs. She has 12 years of research experience across tourism, education, and ecology. She completed her first PhD in tourism in Russia in 2013 and graduated with her second PhD in Australia in 2022. Daria’s main research interests are regional tourism development, tourism motivational factors, and culture.

Daria has worked as a Research Associate and Assistant, both in Russia and Australia. She has strong quantitative, research, statistical and data interpretation skills. Her main publications, including the monograph and papers in peer-reviewed journals, can be found in her Google Scholar account here. Being a member of CERC, Daria is very passionate about doing research and strives to contribute further to local and international communities.

Dr Anju Sreeram

Research Fellow

Dr Anju Sreeram has joined the CERC team on secondment from the Institute of Health and Wellbeing for 2025.

An experienced academic and clinician, Anju completed her PhD at Federation University in 2022 with a project titled "An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Consumer-led Educational Program about Stigma in Mental Illness and Recovery Attitudes among Mental Health Nurses."

Anju brings extensive expertise in mental health nursing, with a strong background in clinical practice, mental health research, and mixed-methods study design.

Having published widely in high-impact journals, Anju has presented her work at both national and international conferences.

Kaye Borgelt

Research Associate

Kaye has many years of experience working in health information and executive roles in Victorian public rural and remote health services. She has also spent time working with partners in developing Pacific Island countries to improve health information and data sharing, most recently assisting with the roll-out of a digital health system in Nauru.

Kaye holds a Master of Health Science majoring in Health Information, assisting CERC within project data management and analysis, report writing and editing. Kaye brings a wealth of knowledge regarding health and health systems globally.

Jodie Parkinson

Research Project Coordinator

Jodie commenced working at the Mt Helen Campus of Federation University in 2012 and has gained extensive specialist administration skills in research administration, finance and project coordination.

Having worked across a wide range of departments and research centres, Jodie has developed excellent working relationships with many of the researchers, external stakeholders and partner institutions within the University community.

Jodie assists CERC and its members to navigate external research funding processes, management of project timelines and administration of internal and external communications.

Contact

To engage CERC's evaluation services, collaborate with us or ask about our research, please get in touch via the Contact page.