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Interested in collaborating with the Drapac Centre? Contact us at drapac@deakin.edu.au
The Damion Drapac Centre
Deakin is honoured to partner with the Drapac family to advance socially inclusive health professions education to improve healthcare for generations to come.
Advancing equity in health professional education
The late Deakin graduate Dr Damion Drapac was a passionate advocate for addressing health care inequity, particularly in under-represented communities. To ensure his legacy lives on Deakin is honoured to partner with the Drapac family to build a transformational program of socially accountable health professions education. Their extraordinary gift to the Deakin School of Medicine honour and uphold the spirit and values Damion embodied.
Remembering Damion
A proud graduate of Deakin School of Medicine, Dr Damion Drapac was a gifted, committed and deeply compassionate clinician, whose desire to be a doctor came from his humility and his goal to be of service to others. Damion was also a talented cyclist, who at the time of his death was poised to compete in elite cycling while working full-time as a doctor.
Through the Damion Drapac Centre and Scholarships, established to honour his memory, Damion will be remembered and celebrated, and will continue to transform many lives.
The Damion Drapac Centre for Equity in Health Professions Education
Access to health care across Australia is uneven. Marginalised communities continue to experience significantly higher rates of chronic disease and mortality, while the demand for more health professionals who understand the needs of these communities is urgent and growing.
Situated within the Deakin School of Medicine, The Damion Drapac Centre for Equity in Health Professions Education undertakes a wide-reaching body of work shifting the way that health professionals are trained, with the goal being a workforce that is better equipped to meet the needs of the communities they will serve; in particular, rural, Indigenous, marginalised and other under-served community groups.
The Centre's key goals include:
- Management of the Drapac Scholars and Access Fund programs, and advocacy for and development of further financial supports for health professions students. This goal seeks to reduce the risk of course attrition, lack of progression or wellbeing challenges as a result of financial precarity.
- Coordinate programs of outreach to prospective students, with a focus on underrepresented or otherwise marginalised groups, and coordinate programs of community engagement with a view to promoting a diverse and representative future health professions workforce. This goal aims to measurably increase aspiration and preparedness among rural and underrepresented students and provide data to inform course and sector policy.
- Research, strategy, professional development and advocacy to support health professions programs and educators to deliver more inclusive health professions education. This goal aims to produce impactful change in policy and practice which improves the experiences, retention and career longevity of underrepresented or otherwise marginalised students.
This is all made possible by the Drapac family's remarkable gift – an unparalleled commitment to the University and the communities we serve. A gift and vision that will change the course of many lives and honour the memory of their beloved son, brother and Deakin alumnus – Dr Damion Drapac.
Supporting socially inclusive medical education
Damion's father, Michael Drapac, and Professor Gary Rogers, Dean of Deakin School of Medicine, explain why The Damion Drapac Centre and Scholarships are such an extraordinary opportunity for Deakin and the diverse communities we serve.
There are a lot of really bright students unable to realise their dream of becoming a doctor because of financial hardship or other barriers. These scholarships will help them overcome those barriers and produce graduate doctors with the same enthusiasm to give back to their communities as Damion had. When I see the shine in them, I will see my son.
Damion's father
The Damion Drapac Scholars
The Damion Drapac Scholarship for Vocational Doctors and Damion Drapac Access Fund support those in greatest need, who demonstrate a deep commitment to improving the lives of others as future doctors. The program will build an exceptional alumni cohort, each carrying Damion's name and spirit as they begin their promising new medical careers – as Damion Drapac Scholars.
Damion Drapac Scholarship for Vocational Doctors
The flagship scholarship program at the heart of the Damion Drapac Centre for Equity in Health Education’s ethos, this award covers the full duration of a Deakin medical degree, transforming the lives of students from under-represented populations who possess a true calling to become a doctor, but for whom financial pressures would otherwise be an insurmountable barrier.
To register your interest or to receive further information on the scholarship, please email som-selection@deakin.edu.au.
Damion Drapac Access Fund
This small, flexible fund provides support when medical students are in need of extra support beyond what the University would generally provide, due to personal or financial circumstances. Support will be tailored to the specific needs of the student in question, and is allocated at the Program Director’s discretion. Examples of circumstances where students have previously received support include unexpected medical costs, support to transition to a new clinical learning site, or support for childcare costs during rescheduled assessments.
If you’re a medical student facing financial hardship, you can apply for financial assistance here. In some circumstances, students may not have all of the information required to support their application. If this applies to you, please contact student central, explaining that you are a medical student seeking support from the Drapac Access Fund.
Outreach and community engagement
The Drapac Centre’s outreach and community engagement work is designed to address persistent inequities in access to health professions education for rural, regional, and underrepresented students. Evidence consistently shows that aspiration, preparedness, and confidence to pursue medicine and health careers are shaped well before formal application stages. The Centre therefore adopts a longitudinal, relationship based outreach model, providing multiple points of contact across secondary schooling and beyond. This approach positions the Centre not only as a pathway provider, but as a trusted partner to schools, communities, and prospective students across Deakin’s rural footprint.
Our pathways model is built on the principles that early exposure to career options builds aspiration, and repeated engagement and relationship building establishes preparedness and confidence. Our model provides prospective students with multiple points of contact with the program throughout their pathway journey, designed to build a coherent and comprehensive offering across time and our geographic footprint, enabling navigational support. These outreach activities also form the basis of a developing strategy for data gathering through documenting the perspectives of community members and prospective students each time they encounter members of the outreach team.
Supporting equitable and inclusive health professions education
The Drapac Centre provides national leadership in advancing equitable and inclusive health professions education through integrated programs of research, translation, and implementation. This work addresses systemic barriers affecting underrepresented students, informs institutional policy and practice, and contributes directly to national guidelines and professional development frameworks across the sector. Through strategic partnerships with researchers, educators, professional bodies and student organisations, the Centre’s work is shaping how health professions education responds to diversity, disability, and neurodivergence.
A key element of the Centre’s work provides an evidence base to inform more inclusive course design, admissions pathways, and student support policy across health professions education. By capturing the complex realities of students’ lives beyond the classroom, the work reframes how institutions understand learning, wellbeing, and participation, particularly for students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Key partner organisation
Disability Inclusive Health Professions Education Alliance ANZ (DIHPEA).
Recent publications
- Validity for whom? Unpacking assessment validity from an inclusion perspective
- “You have so much to offer as a health professional”: Neurodivergent Students’ Experiences of Recognition, Disclosure, and Accommodation in Australian Health Professions Education
- Barriers Before Entry: Opportunities for Improving Pre-Admission Guidance for Disabled Medical School Applicants in Australia and New Zealand
- Stories of resilience and determination: A pilot study of extrinsic factors influencing medical student learning and wellbeing
- Health Professions Educators Preparedness for Inclusive Education: The HEPIE study
- Navigating neurodivergence: A scoping review to guide health professions educators
Give today for their tomorrow
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