I am a public health physician and conjoint associate professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle. My main experience is in health protection issues - communicable diseases and environmental health. I am director of www.flutracking.net - a national online survey of 100,000 participants every Monday morning in winter to track influenza-like illness and now tracking COVID in Australia, NZ, Hong Kong, and Argentina.
I have limited global health experience - investigating an outbreak of cholera in the Gaza Strip in 1994 as part of a team from the US CDC and more recently teaching public health surveillance in Bhutan.
I was course coordinator for Buddhist and other Contemplative Traditions at the University of Newcastle. I have a great interest in the underlying philosophy of public health and the exploration of eastern concepts of interdependence in developing such a philosophy, to this end I have been piloting a program of Contemplative Practice in Public Health for public health practitioners