Executive profile

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Vice-President

Professor John Catford
MA MSc MB BChir DM DCH FFPH FRCP FAFPHM FIPAA FAICD

John Catford commenced in June 2011 as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic) at Deakin University.  He has university-wide responsibilities for “Advancing flexible, engaged, e-rich learning and the student experience that builds the capacity of Deakin graduates for life and the workplace of the future”.  He is the standing deputy to the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jane den Hollander, and holds the foundation Chair of Health Development at Deakin University.

John trained in medicine at Cambridge University, paediatrics at the London Hospital, public health medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and received his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Southampton.  From 2002-2011 he was the inaugural Dean of the Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences and subsequently Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Health at Deakin University.  The Faculty comprises 5 Schools distributed over 4 Campuses and 12 health service sites with more than 1,100 staff, and qualifies 1500 health professionals per annum from 19 disciplines.

John Catford’s current portfolio Academic Development Deakin comprises “super-connected, resource-effective teams of leaders, innovators and service-providers distributed across all campuses”.  Specific responsibilities include academic programs and integrity, learning futures, academic staff development and appointments, information and communication technology, Desire 2 Learn, library and academic support services, student services and residences, business development and operations, Deakin at Your Doorstep, quality improvement systems, higher education research, strategic intelligence and planning, equity and diversity, and indigenous education. 

John is currently the Chair of the Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria; Chair of the Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS), Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health Promotion International published by Oxford University Press, and Board Director of Research Australia, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (Vic Health) and GMHBA Health Insurance, and Governor of the Windermere Foundation and the Epworth Foundation.

John instigated and led the development of the Deakin Medical School which is the third medical school in Victoria and the first one in southern Australia focused on rectifying the medical workforce shortages in rural and regional Australia.  The new Deakin Medical School was formally opened on 1 May 2008 by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, with the Victorian Premier, John Brumby, Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, and Victorian Minister of Health, Daniel Andrews.  Some of his recent innovations have been the Deakin Institute for Health Research, the West Victoria Academic Health College, the National Centre for Farmer Health, and the Victorian Centre for Rural Emergency Medicine.

Over the past twenty years Professor Catford has had extensive experience in the planning, management, and evaluation of health services, both nationally and internationally.  From 1998-2002 he was the Chief Health/Medical Officer and Executive Director of Public Health for the State Government of Victoria.  State wide responsibilities included disease prevention and control, national health priorities, drugs services, medical research and workforce development.  He was the Government’s principal spokesperson for a range of health related issues including communicable diseases, bio-terrorism, environmental health, health promotion, and food safety.  During this period he was a Member of the Council and Executive Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the State/Territory Governments’ appointed Director on the Australian and New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA).

Following clinical practice in paediatrics and public health medicine, John was appointed in 1984 as the first Professor of Health Promotion in Europe, Director of the Heartbeat Wales programme, and subsequently became Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion and Education, and Chief Executive of the Health Promotion Authority for Wales based in Cardiff, UK.  During 1994 and 1995 he worked for the World Health Organisation as Health Policy and Public Health Adviser to Ministers of Health in Central and Eastern Europe.  From 1995–1998 John Catford was Professor of Health Strategies at Deakin University and Director of Health Strategies Deakin, Centre for Health in Development. 

John has a wealth of experience and insights into the science of the delivery of health services from policy, program and research perspectives.  His research expertise encompasses health services research, health care evaluation, health promotion, chronic disease prevention, health workforce development, and child and youth health.  He continues as an investigator on major research programs focusing on diabetes prevention and management.  He has published widely with more than 500 publications, and was co-author of the WHO’s Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986, the Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World in 2005 and the recent Nairobi Call to Action for Closing the Implementation Gap in Health Promotion in 2009. 

Previous roles (2006-2011) included:

• Chair of Council of Victorian Health Deans;
• Chair of Kinect Australia (incorporating VicFit in Victoria);
• Chair of the Vision 2020 Initiative;
• Chair of the Research and Evaluation Committee for the Victorian Government’s Life Program;
• Medical Vice-President of the National Heart Foundation Victorian Division;
• Co-Chair of the National Centre for Farmer Health;
• Chair of the Greater Green Triangle University Department of Rural Health;
• Board Director of Diabetes Australia (Victoria);
• Member of the Victorian WorkSafe Advisory Committee for the WorkHealth Program;
• Member of the AHMAC Expert Advisory Committee on Population Health;
• Member of the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer’s Expert Advisory Panel on Clinical and Health Policy;
• Member of Universities Australia Clinical Placement Advisory Group;
• Member of the Education Liaison Committee, Department of Human Services, Victorian Government
• Member of the Project Steering Committee of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) - Healthy Communities Initiative
• Member of the National Obesity Taskforce and Chair of its Scientific Advisory Committee;
• Member of the Victorian Government’s Biomedical Research External Advisory Panel.

John is an Australian citizen and is registered with the Medical Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria.  He has been awarded Fellowships of the Royal College of Physicians of London, UK Faculty of Public Health, Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, Institute of Public Administration Australia, and Australian Institute of Company Directors.  He is married with four children.

Contact Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
Telephone: +61 3 9244 6738
Email: dvca@deakin.edu.au