I have an academic background in public health, communications and education. Over the past 20 years I have worked in a range of health related settings in the areas of public health research and teaching, health promotion, communications and media. I hold a balanced position at Torrens University Australia where I am a Senior Public Health Lecturer and Research Fellow. I am also currently Acting Deputy Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development.

I conduct research in the area of public health with a specific focus on children, the social and political determinants of health, health equity, education, and public policy. My research focusses on addressing complex policy issues through cross disciplinary research, specifically public health and political science. Through my research I aim to bring about social change, address equity issues, and contribute to addressing the UN sustainable development goals.

My recent research includes projects in the following areas:

1. Formulation of equity-oriented antimicrobial resistance (AMR) strategies in Australia and Germany – a cross-country comparison of policies and stakeholder perceptions;
2. The extent to which Australian child and youth health and education well-being policies address the social determinants of health and health equity;
3. COVID-19 emergency education policy and learning loss: a comparative study of policies addressing learning loss.

I teach across a range of different topics in the Master of Public Health (MPH) at Torrens University including the social and political determinants of health, health policy and advocacy, qualitative research methods, and Capstone research projects. I am currently subject lead for the Health Policy and Advocacy Course in the MPH. I am also involved in curriculum development and most recently wrote the new Health Policy and Advocacy topic.

In 2021/2022 I was awarded an International Guest Lectureship at Bielefeld University (Germany) which provides the opportunity to develop cross country research projects with members of the Population Medicine and Health Services research team at Bielefeld University and teach into their Global Masters of Public Health course. I travelled to Bielefeld for 6 weeks in January 2022.