Find a supervisor
If you're interested in doing a master's or doctorate degree with the School of Health and Social Development, a good place to start is finding a supervisor. Check your research focus against the interests listed here and get more information from each supervisor's profile.Health promotion and public health
Melbourne Burwood Campus
Alfred Deakin Professor Rob Carter
Health economics, assessing cost effectiveness, health promotion and illness prevention.
Alfred Deakin Professor David Crawford
Obesity prevention and behavioural epidemiology of food/exercise.
Alfred Deakin Professor Anna Timperio
Obesity prevention, promoting child and adolescent physical activity, physical activity measurement; the behavioural epidemiology of weight control; and evaluation of health promotion and public health interventions.
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Alfred Deakin Professor Catherine Bennett
Infectious disease epidemiology, communicable disease control, disease surveillance, population-based research, randomised controlled trials.
Professor Tony LaMontagne
Social determinants of health, applied epidemiology and intervention research in occupational health and safety.
Professor Anna Peeters
Epidemiology and equity in public health, obesity monitoring and prevention, socio-economic inequalities in health, and healthy ageing.
Professor Ann Taket
Health policy, services planning and education, accessibility and equity, domestic violence.
Dr Lisa Hanna
E-health and the use of new information and communication technologies in primary care, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of survey instruments, ethnicity and health/health literacy, particularly in relation to cardiovascular disease.
Associate Professor Liliana Orellana
Biostatistician – cancer prevention and surveillance, palliative care, HIV epidemiology and treatment, nutrition and eating disorders in children and adolescents.
Associate Professor Samantha Thomas
Gambling; determinants of gambling harm, and public health advocacy; gambling attitudes and behaviours; and messaging.
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Dr Fiona Andrews
Understanding how families manage their children's health care – influences and interactions.
Dr Lisa Barnett
Development, implementation, evaluation and follow-up of physical activity interventions in children and adolescents, actual and perceived fundamental movement skill ability in children and physical activity behaviour, correlates of fundamental movement skill.
Dr Adrian Cameron
Food environments – monitoring and interventions, creating healthier supermarkets, socioeconomic position/disadvantage, infant food environments, obesity prevention.
Dr Claire Henderson-Wilson
Mixed methods research on links between housing and health, families and health and the human health benefits of contact with nature.
Dr Justin Lawson
Contact with nature, eco-health, health and sustainability, environmental health, spirituality/religion and nature/environment, climate change and health, alternative technology and transport, biodiversity and conservation.
Dr Fiona McKay
Public health, health promotion, health equity, refugee and asylum seeker issues and policy.
Dr Mohammadreza Mohebbi
Biostatistician – environmental epidemiology, health related impacts of climate change, and spatial disease mapping.
Dr Gary Sacks
Policies for obesity prevention, the influence of the food industry, economic evaluation of interventions to improve the healthiness of food environments.
Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus
Professor Steve Allender
Burden of disease and obesity prevention, emerging burden of chronic disease in developing countries, the development and understanding of community based approaches to chronic disease prevention.
Dr Matthew Dunn
Monitoring illicit drug markets, body image in men, harms related to substance use, exercise, sport and physical activity.
Occupational therapy
Professor Karen Stagnitti
Expertise in pretend play of children and adolescents, interested in play-based curriculum, play assessment and play intervention.
Dr Genevieve Pepin
Occupational therapy practice, research, and education in mental health, eating disorders prevention and treatment, carers support.
Social work
Geelong Waterfront Campus
Professor Beth Crisp
Social exclusion, religion and spirituality, evidence-based practice, international social work, social work education.
Dr Russell Shuttleworth
Disability and chronic illness related research on issues such as sexuality, gender, leadership, access to health care contexts and speech impairment.
Dr Sophie Goldingay
Institutionalised populations such as prisoners and people with psychiatric disabilities, analysing social practices and power relations, approaches in social service provision.
Dr Selma Macfarlane
Critical social work, social work education, mental health, social inequality, and ageing.
Child play therapy
Geelong Waterfront Campus
Dr Judi Parson
Professional play therapy practice, paediatric and medical play therapy, rights of the child, and play therapy with vulnerable populations.
Disability
Melbourne Burwood Campus
Professor Susan Balandin
Adults with lifelong disability and communication.
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Professor Jane McGillivray
Mental health and wellbeing of people with intellectual disability and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
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Geelong Waterfront Campus
Professor Joe Graffam
Disability services: policy development and program delivery; organisational behaviour; psychiatric disabilities and community integration.
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Dr Russell Shuttleworth
Disability and chronic illness related research on issues such as sexuality, gender, leadership, access to health care contexts and speech impairment.
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