With researchers from Atoifi Adventist Hospital, East Kwaio community and Australian institutions and organisations, the Atoifi Health Research Group has a variety of public health research skills and experience. These include community engagement, epidemiology, parasitology, social science research, health promotion, medical science research and cultural anthropology. Formally led by Late Emeritas Professor Rick Speare (Tropical Health Solutions), Australian researchers supporting the Atoifi Health Research Group come from James Cook University and Hunter New England Health. Dr David Akin, anthropologist from the University of Michigan, USA and Dr Michael Marks, Specialist Registrar in Infectious Diseases from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are is also supporting community-led research projects.
Professor Speare's Legacy Continues to Inspire
On Sunday 5 June, 2016 Emeritus Professor Rick Speare, our Group Leader and dear friend, was tragically killed in a car accident.
One of Rick’s great passions was to understand and improve the health of people, and animals, in the Pacific. For almost a decade, Rick has worked to establish and support the Atoifi Health Research Group in Solomon Islands. We will be forever grateful for the vision, leadership and encouragement Rick has shown each of us. The Rick Speare Memorial Fund has been established to help continue the research capacity strengthening work in Solomon Islands.
To donate to the Rick Speare Memorial Fund, that will help fund research capacity strengthening work in Solomon Islands, please click on the Donate tab above, or visit: https://alumni.jcu.edu.au/rspearememorialfund
Humpress Harrington is the Head, Pacific Adventist University Atoifi Campus. Humpress was Lead Investigator of the WHO-TDR Research capacity strengthening project in 2014 and is an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, James Cook University. Humpress has a variety of health research experience, including leading research about soil-transmitted helminths and lymphatic filariasis. Humpress has led and co-authored a number of publications and has reported research at national and international conferences. 
Rowena Asugeni is the Director of Nursing at Atoifi Adventist Hospital and an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, James Cook University. In 2013, Rowena completed her Master of Leadership and Development at Pacific Adventist University, Papua New Guinea. Rowena has a variety of research experience, including reorienting tuberculosis services in East Kwaio to suit local cultural norms, hospital responses to HIV and health service delivery. Rowena has co-authored a number of publications and reported research at national and international conferences.
Relmah Timothy-Harrington is a nurse, midwife and Lecturer of Nursing at Pacific Adventist University (Atoifi campus), Malaita, Solomon Islands. 
Mr Hillary Toloka is a Registered Nurse from East Kwaio who originally trained at the Atoifi College of Nursing. Hillary completed his degree in Nursing and went on to work in both in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Hillary has recently returned to Atoifi Hospital and is now working as the Hospital Research Nurse. Hillary is involved in a number of research projects and was the Chairman of the Organising Committee for the inaugural Health Research Workshop, held at Atoifi in March 2015. 
Esau Kekeubata is a cultural broker, health worker and researcher from East Kwaio, Malaita, Solomon Islands. Esau became involved in health research in 2000 while working as a health worker in the mountainous interior of East Kwaio. 
Tommy Esau is from East Kwaio, Malaita, Solomon Islands and holds a Bachelor of Education (English and geography) from Pacific Adventist University, PNG. Tommy is currently working as a Research Worker with the Atoifi Health Research Group, having joined in 2014 to provide research support and cultural knowledge for the Soil-transmitted Helmiths project (2014) and the IUCN Biodiversity project (2014-15).
Dr David MacLaren is an Australian public health researcher who has worked and conducted research across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. 
Dr Peter Massey is a Clinical Nurse Consultant and Program Manager in Health Protection based in Tamworth, NSW, Australia. Peter is of English descent and grew up in Sydney, on Gweagal land of the Tharawa nation. He and his wife moved northwest to Gamillaroi country in 1984 and have lived and worked in this part of rural New South Wales since then.
Dr Michelle Redman-MacLaren is an Australian public health researcher with a social work/community development background who has worked in rural, remote and international settings for over 20 years. Michelle is passionate about working in the Pacific, especially with women. For her PhD research, Michelle worked with women in Papua New Guinea to explore HIV prevention options. 
Dr Richard Bradbury has diagnostic pathology background with a PhD in Pathology (Microbiology). Richard is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Laboratory Sciences at Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Qld Australia.
Dr David Akin is an American anthropologist and Managing Editor of the journal Comparative Studies in Society and History based at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he also teaches. David has been spent over six years living with inland Kwaio people since 1979. His publications include studies of spirits, ancestral taboos, politics, currencies and exchange, dispute management, suicide, art, educational development, anthropological data repatriation, and colonial history. He recently published Colonialism, Maasina Rule, and the Origins of Malaitan Kastom (University of Hawai`i Press, 2013), and is writing another book about changing women’s ancestral taboos in Kwaio. He is working with Kwaio people to establish the community-run Kwaio Archive, and is participating in an IUCN-funded biodiversity project.
Dr Michael Marks is a specialist registrar in infectious diseases and general medicine and a clinical research fellow on the LSHTM/Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD scheme. Hailing from England, Michael has spent a lot of time in Solomon Islands. His research focuses on treating and eliminating yaws in the Solomon Islands, including work on disease mapping and the evaluation of diagnostic tests.
