Chair

Jillian brings an expansive career’s worth of expertise in alcohol and drug research, policy and service development. She began her career as an Academic Researcher in Psychology at the University of Strathclyde, completing her PhD before undertaking a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Psychiatry and Pharmacology with the National Institutes of Health in the USA. Her research focused on predictors of alcohol and drug use and treatment outcomes as well as developing and evaluating digital and in-person interventions for substance use and mental health, particularly among justice-involved populations.

Her career has since spanned leadership roles around the world. In New Zealand, Jillian served as Principal Advisor at the Department of Corrections, where she led national alcohol and drug strategy. She later joined the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in Switzerland, developing education, research and policy initiatives focused on liver health and HCV elimination. Today, she is Head of Insights at MDPI, an open access publisher, where she champions open science and translating of science into practice and policy.

Across her career, Jillian has published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers, developed widely used screening and intervention tools and authored government reports and needs assessments. She joined the Board of Murray’s Initiative in 2023 and became Chair in 2025, proud to contribute to the organisation’s holistic approach to prevention, treatment and support.