Debra Anderson Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Inaugural Research Conference 2017

Debra Anderson

Professor Debra Anderson is Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery Griffith University. She is the Leader and Founder of the Women’s Wellness Research Program. She is located at the Menzies Health Institute. Griffith University. She has a PhD in Social and Preventive Medicine and over twenty-five years’ experience in education and research. Professor Anderson has an extensive record of providing leadership in major administrative, research and managerial roles in the area of global women’s health. Through her exceptional skills in leadership as both a highly skilled and awarded practitioner of nursing as well as a scholar of women's health, she has forged innovative solutions to promote the health of women and girls, partnering with them to manage symptoms of health related conditions and improving their quality of life across the lifespan. Her research focuses on understanding the basis and effects of risk behaviours in women and the interventions to change them; focusing on wellness and healthy behaviours. Her research aims to promote healthy behaviour change in women with and without chronic disease, including midlife women and women cancer survivors, including physical activity, dietary intake, stress management, and smoking cessation; and to develop and test interventions that promote these behaviours. Over the last 15 years she has secured over $4.5 million dollars in funding from peak bodies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council; The Australian Research Council and Cancer Council Queensland. She has managed multisite projects in women’s health across countries and within Australia. She has participated and provided leadership in national and international community affairs in women’s health. She is a member of the Board of the International Council of Women’s Health Issues, was Chair of Women’s Health Queensland, and a member of the Office of the Status of Women. She has a distinguished international reputation as a scholar and leader in the field of midlife and older women's health and is a collaborator on the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. This reputation has been achieved through extensive publication, leadership of the women’s wellness research team, conferences and editorial work, and invited keynote presentations on her women’s health research to academic conferences, including recently in March 2015 and 2016 to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and in 2017 at the World Health Organization.