Fran McInerney

Professor Fran McInerney is a registered nurse and health sociologist, completing her PhD in Public Health at La Trobe University in 2005, in which she explored print media representations of voluntary assisted dying. She has been Professor of Dementia Studies and Education at the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre since 2014. Prior to this she held joint clinical professorial appointments at the Australian Catholic University from 2007. Fran has previously sat on the boards of Alzheimer’s Australia Victoria and Palliative Care Australia. Fran co-developed and coordinates the Wicking Centre’s Understanding Dementia Massive Open Online Course ((UDMOOC); mooc.utas.edu.au). Her clinical practice in aged care, palliative care, and dementia care spans more than 30 years. She has engaged in education and applied research in areas including teaching aged care facilities, advance care planning, dementia palliation, media representations of health, illness, and death, and dementia knowledge and literacy over that time, publishing and presenting extensively in these fields.