03 Apr 2014
Since leaving Irrawang High school in 2003 as Dux of year 12 and with a University of Newcastle Academic Excellence Scholarship, Dr Jamie Bryant has gone on to complete two degrees. She completed her first, a Bachelor of Psychology awarded with First Class Honors, in 2007. Identifying research as her passion in her fourth year of her undergraduate degree, she was awarded the Faculty of Science and IT Medal for top honours graduates, the W H Ward Prize for best thesis in Applied Psychology and the University of Newcastle Chancellor's award for Research Excellence. She then went on to continue her research training by completing a PhD in Behavioural Science in Relation to Medicine in 2011. Her post graduate research examined the feasibility and acceptability of social and community service organisations providing their clients with smoking cessation support. Since graduating in 2011, Dr Bryant has taken up a role as a Post-Doctoral Research fellow at the Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour at the University of Newcastle. Her current research includes projects examining ways of decreasing anxiety and depression among patients diagnosed with haematological cancers and their care givers, strategies to improve the care provided to patients receiving medical oncology services, and ways to improve treatment outcomes for individuals with alcohol dependence. She has a particular interest in reducing the gap between scientific knowledge and the health care provided to patients, and has recently returned from a training workshop in St Louis, Missouri