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Dr

Cindy Needham

Research Fellow

Faculty of Health/School of Health and Social Development/Institute for Health Transformation

Orcid identifier0000-0002-4572-6820
  • Research Fellow
    Faculty of Health/School of Health and Social Development/Institute for Health Transformation
  • +61 3 522 73198 (Work)
  • Geelong Waterfront Campus, 1 Gheringhap Street Geelong, Victoria 3220

BIO

Dr Needham transitioned into academia from local government with extensive experience in public health policy and planning and is currently a Research Fellow at Deakin University. Her work focuses on the food retail environment and how access and availability to food retail can influence health. Dr Needham’s work emphasises knowledge translation including providing evidence that can support the development of policies to support healthier food retail environments; and supporting local governments, health services and local public health units to implement systems thinking techniques to inform Municipal Public Health Wellbeing Plans and health service delivery. The development of the Australian Food Retail Outlet Monitoring tool was led by Dr Needham, and is an online platform is utilised by researchers, key decision and policy makers and is housed in the Australian Food Environment Dashboard.

Dr Needham is also the Co-Design Lead for a $9m MRFF funded project DELIVER (Delivering Enhanced heaLthcare at home through optImising Virtual tools for oldEr people in Rural and regional Australia) which being delivered across the Institute for Health Transformation.

Recently Dr Needham has taken on the role of Co-convener for the Nourish Network Local Government Interest Group for 2023 – a collaborative group containing both internal and external Deakin stakeholders to the Nourish Network programme of work. Dr Needham is an Associate member of IHT and REFRESH; and is a researcher in the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre.

DEAKIN UNIVERSITY CURRENT APPOINTMENT

  • Research Fellow
    Deakin University, School of Health and Social Development

DEGREES

  • Doctor of Philosophy
    Deakin University
  • Master of Health Promotion
    Deakin University

FIELDS OF RESEARCH (2020)

  • Health services and systems
  • Nutrition and dietetics
  • Clinical sciences
  • Policy and administration
  • Public health

AREA/FACULTY

  • Faculty of Health

DEPARTMENT/SCHOOL/INSTITUTE

  • School of Health and Social Development

STRATEGIC RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CENTRE

  • Institute for Health Transformation