Professor Jane Pirkis is the Director of the Centre for Mental Health in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne.  She currently holds a National Health and Medical Council Senior Research Fellowship.  She prides herself on conducting research that is useful to policy-makers and practitioners.  Her research is conducted within a population health framework, and involves epidemiological studies of risk and protective factors for mental illness and suicide, as well as evaluations of large-scale mental health and suicide prevention initiatives.