ProfessorTrish Livingston

Deakin Distinguished Professor Trish Livingston is the Director of Special Projects in the Faculty of Health. Her key research focus is on the development and implementation of clinical and community-based interventions, programs, policy initiatives and guidelines to improve health delivery and outcomes for people affected by cancer and their carers. Her studies have demonstrated gaps in service delivery, and she and her teams have developed recommendations, changes in clinical and community practice, and policy initiatives to improve consumer access to health services.

Despite working part-time from 1997-2012, and having an administrative load in her role as Associate Dean (Research) from 2012 to 2021, Professor Livingston has generated over $27 million in successful grant applications including MRFF, NHMRC (as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator), ARC (Principal Investigator), Department of Health and VicHealth grants; published over 200 publications in refereed journals and contributed to over 180 presentations at international, national and local conferences. Her publications have been cited across 84 countries worldwide. 

Professor Livingston is currently the Co-Principal Investigator (PI) on a MRFF grant (2023-7) undertaking a randomised controlled trial to support people with upper GI cancers and their carers. She is also co-lead of Deakin’s Centre of Excellence in Carer Research Translation and Impact, which was established in 2023, with a significant contribution from state government funding. She was the PI on a NHMRC Partnership grant (2020-4, $1.5M) investigating the impact of a mindfulness program on fear of cancer recurrence among survivors of cancer. She was the PI on a NHMRC Partnership grant (2015-9; $765,000), investigating smartphone technology for people living with cancer, and PI on a multi-state, multi-centre NHMRC-funded randomised controlled trial (2014-8; $542,000) investigating carer burden among carers of cancer patients. She led a multi-centre randomised controlled trial with funding from ARC and Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia investigating the impact of a 12-week exercise program among men with prostate cancer; led the evaluation of a Department of Health survivorship program at Barwon Health and the Western region of Victoria, and is a co-investigator on other externally funded projects.

Her research incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methodologies across both clinical and community settings. Each role required
academic leadership, innovation, and motivation skills to develop and manage the projects and associated budgets, advanced interpersonal and
problem-solving skills, and extensive collaboration to ensure their successful completion within the specified time frames. These programs of research have enabled her to build capacity by successfully training Honours and HDR students, mentoring academic staff, research assistants, and casual staff. She has supervised 20 Higher Degree and Honours students.

Prof Livingston chairs several Medical Research Future Fund and NHMRC Grant Assessment Committees. She is a panel member for the Premier's Award for Health & Medical Research, HCF and Cancer Council Victoria's Cancer-In-Aid Schemes and is a member of the State Government's Cancer Advisory Committee.