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Gillian Sandra Gould

Professor in Health Equity, Southern Cross University

Gillian Gould is Professor in Health Equity and recently completed an NHMRC Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) Fellow, co-funded by Cancer Institute NSW, at Southern Cross University. She is an active vocationally registered GP with >30 years' experience, and a Tobacco Treatment Specialist.

Her clinical work is at the Coffs Harbour Refugee Health Clinic which she co-founded in 2006. Previously a founding academic at UNSW Faculty of Medicine Rural Clinical School 2002-11, Head of Campus Rural Clinical school, senior research fellow.

Gould is committed to supporting regional research.

Gould’s focus had been to improve tobacco smoking risks for Indigenous Australians. She co-developed, over a decade, multiple innovative strategies to tackle smoking with Aboriginal communities. Gould co-developed and led the first national trial for Indigenous pregnant smokers – SISTAQUIT (Supporting Indigenous Smokers To Assist Quitting) (Global Alliance for Chronic Disease (GACD)/NHMRC).

This intervention was followed by an implementation phase called iSISTAQUIT in 40 health services supported by major funding from the Federal Department of Health. Gould will take iSISTAQUIT to full national scale up in 2023-2026 and explore the translation to Indigenous populations globally. Impressively, Gould leads this key intervention from formative research to national scale in less than 7 years. The intervention aimed at health providers in antenatal care has potential to Close the Gap on Indigenous Smoking and improve the lives of Indigenous children.

Gould is currently collaborating to design multi-behavioural approaches to aid refugees to address smoking, nutrition, alcohol and physical activity.

Gould is also qualified in arts therapy (MA), drama, and media and uses her expertise in both medicine and the arts to excellent effect through innovative media.

Experience

  • –present
    NHMRC Research Fellow and CINSW Research Fellow, Centre for Brain and Mental Health, University of Newcastle