Olaf Werder

A graduate in marketing/management from the Universität Dortmund, Germany, in advertising from the University of Illinois, and in Mass Communication from the University of Florida, Olaf Werder holds a lectureship in strategic and health communication at the Media and Communications Department of the University of Sydney after having held positions at the University of Florida and the University of New Mexico. Prior to his academic appointment, he has worked in the communication industry on the media and agency side in two countries for about ten years.

He is an affiliated researcher at the Charles Perkins Centre, where he leads a research group on health humanities research. He is also a research network member on infectious disease prevention (SIBRN) and sits on the advisory board of the International Health Humanities Network.

His current research interests are centred social ecological modelling of message responses, community-based participation research (CBPR), analysis of socio-cultural understanding of health in population and media. His work focuses on identifying pathways through which context, partnerships, and interventions lead to specific system changes and health outcomes with an emphasis on collaborative approaches.