Heather is a Scientia Research Fellow who has come to the Kirby Institute following a 15-year career in communications, health promotion, and program management across the sexual health and blood-borne virus sector. Her career history includes roles within not-for-profit organisations, a frontline sexual health service, and most recently a five-year leadership role in the NSW Ministry of Health. She received her Bachelor of Media Communications from Charles Sturt University and her Master of Public Health (Social Research) from UNSW, before completing her PhD through the Kirby Institute in 2024. She is also in the first cohort of Australian health promotion practitioners to receive accreditation from the International Union of Health Promotion and Education.
Heather's PhD specialised in optimising annual routine health assessments to increase testing for sexually transmissible infections and HIV in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and included an evaluation of a co-created pilot program that has since been selected as a priority for scale up by the NSW Ministry of Health. Her research interests include social aspects of sexual health; health communication, including application of digital tools for sexual health promotion; accessibility and acceptability of sexual health services, testing modalities, and novel prevention strategies to diverse populations; and the use of technology to optimise public health interventions relating to sexually transmissible infections and blood-borne viruses.
Heather has particular interests in strengths-based approaches, research that centres health equity, and peer-led research models. She is strongly invested in inclusive and accessible knowledge translation and is an Associate Editor of The Lowitja Journal - First Nations Health and Wellbeing.