I hope you have found some time over the summer break to recharge and I am looking forward to hearing about your plans for 2024. I am excited at what we can achieve together, and with our partners, this year. We have a number of exciting projects in progress, and due to commence in 2024, along with many PhD students who studied with us in 2023.
We continue to experience major disruption, across the health sector and the education sector, as well as significant pressure from global conflicts and the politics of misinformation. There are no panaceas but I enter this year as determined as ever to support you to do work that is focused on improving health and wellbeing for all. I heard a beautiful interview this week with Ronit Zimmer, the CEO of Rozana, a health diplomacy NGO working in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Her view is that humanity has no borders and the work of building peace to provide good healthcare is always worthwhile.
This year I am keen to continue to focus on how we deliver, capture and communicate the impact of our research. I also plan to continue our work exploring how to best support you, our researchers, in more sustainable work and wellbeing. To progress our strategic thinking the IHT Executive Committee will be meeting in mid-February to commence our planning for the year. Thank-you all for the time you took last year to complete our members’ survey, which is a key part of the information informing our strategic refresh. I look forward to continuing to hear your ideas on our strategic priorities and actions.
Welcome also to some new members of the Institute’s backbone. We welcome Dr Aneta Stefanidis as the new Lead, Research Funding and Performance. You can find out more about Aneta later in the newsletter – we are lucky to have such an accomplished person in the role to build on Merran’s legacy. Please reach out to Aneta for any of your research related queries. We also welcome two new Advisory Board members, Alison Coughlan, CEO of the Health Issues Centre, and Peter Breadon, Health Program Director at the Grattan Institute.
This year we will continue with our face to face events and I look forward to seeing you at our Morning Teas, Wed 6 March at Burwood and Tues 30 April at Geelong, and at the All Members Days (Thurs 28 March is the first one for 2024).
A warm welcome to our latest IHT members
- Lysha Lee, PhD Student, QPS
- Solomon Amadasun, PhD Student, DoH
- Fiona Mitchell, PhD Student, GLOBE
Alfred Deakin Professor Anna Peeters, AM, CF, BSc(Hons), PhD, GAICD
Director, Institute for Health Transformation Professor of Epidemiology and Equity in Public Health, Deakin University