NEWS
Congratulations
Dr Bridie Mulholland, Assistant Professor, First Nations Health in our Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine!
🏆 Bridie was awarded the First Nations STEM Award in the 2025 Queensland Women in STEM Prize, one of just three prizes recognised at the awards. The Queensland Women in STEM Prize recognises and rewards the extraordinary women who exemplify innovation, leadership, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge and discovery.
Dr Bridie Mulholland is a proud Jingili woman, cellular bone and cancer biologist, and Assistant Professor at Bond University, leading the transformative reforms to embed First Nations perspective into health sciences and medicine.
Congratulations
Kalinda Griffiths has just been appointed as a Director on ‘Science and Technology Australia’
Kalinda Griffiths has just been appointed as a Director on ‘Science and Technology Australia’
Dr Kalinda Griffiths - Scientia Fellow
Centre for Big Data Research, University of New South Wales.
An Aboriginal women born of Yawuru, Indonesian and Welsh heritage, Kalinda Griffiths' interest in health stemmed from witnessing the preventable illness and disease experienced by her immediate and extended family. At 17, her career began in Indigenous health research with a laboratory traineeship. She gained experience predominantly on the Diabetes and Related conditions in the Urban Indigenous Darwin study, the largest and most comprehensive dataset on diabetes-related conditions in urban Indigenous populations. It was during this work that she acquired a keen interest in driving solutions through the use of data. She then completed an undergraduate degree in biomedical science and a master's degree in public health before undertaking a year of specialised training in cancer epidemiology. She graduated from her PhD in
cancer epidemiology at the University of Sydney in December, 2017. Kalinda is currently Scientia Fellow at the Centre for Big Data Research, UNSW and holds honorary fellowships at Menzies School of Health Research and University of Sydney. As an epidemiologist, her interest is in empirically addressing complex health disparities in populations through existing data. Her research currently addresses issues of quality and the utilisation of 'big' data pertaining to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Her areas of focus include Indigenous identification and the right for all people to be counted in the data, evidence-based approaches to Indigenous data governance as well as the measurement of health disparities, with a particular focus on cancer treatment and outcomes. She also holds a
number or different roles including Deputy Editor of the Health Promotion Journal of Australia. Kalinda's work shows us issues and considerations required when using data to describe disparities, as well as the critical role that data plays in directing health equity solutions in Australia and around the globe.
Dr Kalinda Griffiths is a Superstar of STEM.
Best Abstract prize
Professor Jaqui Hughes and Sian Graham took out the Best Abstract prize at this year’s Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology conference
Their research was recognised with the Rural Science Award, celebrating work that strengthens kidney health outcomes for rural and remote communities.
Australian Mental Health Prize
Professor Pat Dudgeon has been honoured with an Australian Mental Health Prize
Since its foundation by UNSW Sydney in 2016, the Prize has honoured advocates, clinicians, researchers, peer workers and community leaders who have changed lives and shaped national conversation. The winners announced Wednesday were Professor Dudgeon, Australia's first Aboriginal psychologist whose leadership has redefined Indigenous mental health, and Professor Brian Burdekin AO, a global human-rights pioneer who reframed mental illness as a human-rights issue. Born and raised in Darwin and descended from the Bardi people of the Kimberley, Professor Dudgeon is a national leader in Indigenous mental health and suicide prevention. She has dedicated her career to embedding cultural, strengths-based and lived experience perspectives into mental health policy, research, and practice.
Professor Dudgeon told National Indigenous Times it was important to recognise the good work people are doing - "whether it's at the leadership level or the community level". "This award has a really good history; we have had people recognised such as Joe Williams, Megan Krakouer, Helen Mitroy and Donna Stanley, a whole range of people," she said. "It's a strength, we have a diversity of people it's not just the academics, there's a good mix of community people and policy leaders as well being recognised... in the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing space." Professor Dudgeon said there were many people and organisations doing great work in mental health deserving of recognition, including her colleagues.
Dr Kalinda Griffiths - Scientia Fellow
Professor Jaqui Hughes
Professor Pat Dudgeon
OCHRe HIGHLIGHTS
