October – November 2025 Highlights
Associate Professor Fiona McKay recognised for delivering on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger in The Australian’s 2026 Research Magazine.
In her recent research she has investigated hunger in Australian families with children, the relationship between food insecurity and family violence, and the response of the Australian welfare system to those who need food assistance.
Deakin University has been listed in The Australian 2026 Research Magazine as one of the top five Australian universities whose research is providing the most support towards achieving key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
- Read more about Deakin’s feature in The Australian 2026 Research Magazine https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/deakin-named-top-five-australian-universities-contributing-qcxic
- Read more about Associate Professor Fiona McKay’s research https://experts.deakin.edu.au/7390-fiona-mckay
- Read The Australian’s 2026 Research Magazine https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=00fbbd62-7bcb-464e-b421-7fb0c013a29c
Launching Health Voices Victoria – Stronger together
On Tues 18 November, the Health Consumers Centre successfully held an in-person event titled Stronger together: Honouring the past and looking forward. The well attended event of over 100 participants, celebrated 40 years of community and consumer engagement in health across Victoria, launched their first Strategic Plan and ceremoniously revealed their new name: Health Voices Victoria. The support, energy and passion in the room was genuinely touching.
Here is a link to the Strategic Plan 2025 – 2030: https://iht.deakin.edu.au/project/health-voices-victorias-strategic-plan/
At the event, the team shared a very special song. It was created by their Strategy Co-design team with the expert guidance of internationally renowned music therapist Emma O’Brien. In just two hours, Emma coaxed this song out of the group. Ironically, they had only just landed on the name Health Voices Victoria, and there they were, already using those voices to create something original together. The chorus captured everything we had been working towards and everything we hoped to express through our strategic plan and at our launch.
We hope you enjoy it: Better Together Song Karaoke – Health Voices Victoria
Join us for Stronger Together (Online event)
If you loved what you saw at the in-person event and want to know more, or if you were unable to join us on the night, we welcome you to join us for our online event. This is another opportunity to reflect on our shared history, look ahead to what is next, and hear from some of the incredible co-designers who have contributed to our Strategic Plan.
Date: Wednesday 10 December 2025
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm (AEDT)
Location: Online
Register: https://stronger-together-online.eventbrite.com.au
INFORMAS Decade2 Meeting in Mexico
Several GLOBE researchers, including Prof Gary Sacks, Dr Tailane Scapin and Dr Clara Gomez Donoso, attended a week-long international meeting in Cuernavaca, Mexico from 10-14 November. The meeting was dedicated to strategic planning for INFORMAS – an international network focused on enabling healthy food environments, co-founded by Prof Sacks in 2012 and now active in 70+ countries. Over 40 food policy researchers, advocates, youth ambassadors, donors and international policy makers – representing all regions of the world – convened in beautiful Cuernavaca to develop plans for INFORMAS for the next decade. Several of the participants described the meeting as the “best week of their professional lives” – testament to the strong science, passion and goodwill amongst the network. Other GLOBE researchers, including Prof Kathryn Backholer, Prof Adrian Cameron, Dr Erica Reeve and Dr Ben Wood, are active members of INFORMAS.
Congratulations to:
- A/Prof Deb Kerr as part of a Western Health team were awarded the ‘Best Solution for Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work’ award at the National Safety Council of Australia Foundation Annual National Safety Awards of Excellence 2025.
A/Prof Deb Kerr is third from the right. - Adyya Gupta was awarded the 2025 PHAA’s Food and Nutrition Special Interest Group (FANSIG) award for outstanding contributions to public health nutrition (Category: Early Career).
- Birye Dessalegn Mekonnen, a PhD associate member in the School of Nursing & Midwifery, supervised by Professor Linda Sweet and Dr Vidanka Vasilevski, awarded the Best International Student PhD Presentation at the recently held School of Nursing and Midwifery Research Week “Barriers and facilitators to engage with the maternity continuum of care”
- Nicky Hewitt, a PhD associate member in the School of Nursing & Midwifery, supervised by Deakin Distinguished Professors Julie Considine AO, Judy Currey and Dr Muyiwa Omonaiye awarded the Best Domestic Student PhD Presentation at the same event “Nurse Managers’ leadership in an Australian health service”
- Hutchinson, A. M., Petrovich, T., Orellana, L., Bucknall, T., Lomas, J., Botha, T., Vouliotis, A., Lai, J., Mekonnen, A. awarded a Geelong Community Foundation (Joy Buckland Estate) grant of $100,000, led by QPS, titled “Training Needs Analysis for Continuous Quality Improvement to Build Capacity and Capability of the Aged Care Workforce”
- Three Institute members’ artworks are featured in the current Deakin Gallery Face to Face: Revisited Exhibition. at the Deakin Burwood Campus. The exhibition opened on 27 October and will be on show until 12 December.
– Trudy Campbell from QPS and GLOBE exhibited her work titled ‘New house and land packages (Victorian grassland earless dragon series)‘. Trudy works as the admin officer for GLOBE and STICKE systems thinking, and as the Communications Officer for QPS.
– Dr Kerry Rigby from QPS exhibited her sculpture titled ‘Sea orb nest’. Dr Rigby’s work and research focuses on the care of older people, aged care workplace learning systems, and change champions. She is also a sessional academic with Deakin University’s Lifelong Learning Program.
– Michelle Jeavons, Communications Coordinator for the Institute, exhibited her work titled ‘Finding Deakin’.
A/Prof Deb Kerr is third from the right.
Visiting Academic
Professor Boyd Swinburn, Professor of Population Nutrition and Global Health at the University of Auckland and Honorary Professor, Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE), Deakin University, visited Melbourne on 28 October 2025. GLOBE and the Systems Thinking stream generously welcomed Institute members to their meeting to share in Professor Swinburn’s latest research lecture.
Recent Conference presentations
- Prof Tony LaMontagne has just returned from an overseas trip including public lecture presentations in Copenhagen, Washington DC, and Toronto on “The role of research in the evolution of the MATES in Constructionworkplace suicide prevention program.” Recording from US presentation available at https://youtu.be/XPpz-h1Bm6U.
- Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD) conference
A group of IHT members presented at the annual APSAD Scientific Conference held on 9 -12 November at the International Convention Centre, Sydney. PhD student Bianca Whiteside presented data from her PhD (Deakin supervisors Matthew Dunn and Fiona McKay). Matthew Dunn facilitated a symposium, with talks from myself, Alessandro Crocetti (GLOBE), and collaborators from La Trobe; the symposium was on alcohol and social media, and had around 50 people attend.
Go back to the December 25 Newsletter
