About
Dr. Manjula Marella is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. She is affiliated with the Nossal Institute for Global Health and holds expertise in disability inclusion research, qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and psychometric analysis for developing client-reported outcome measures. Her work emphasizes disability-inclusive development, health equity, and rehabilitation services in low- and middle-income countries.
Dr. Marella earned a Bachelor of Science in Optometry from India and completed her PhD in Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne (2011). Her doctoral research focused on evaluating community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programs. She has led large-scale disability surveys, including the Rapid Assessment of Disability (RAD), and contributed to global initiatives like the UNICEF/Washington Group Child Functioning Module.
Her research interests span disability data systems, inclusive education, healthcare accessibility, and post-disaster disability inclusion. Recent studies include analyzing midwives’ capacity for disability-inclusive maternity care, integrating rehabilitation into healthcare systems, and assessing disability impacts in Fiji and Laos.
Dr. Marella coordinates the Master of Public Health’s Disability and International Development subject and supervises graduate students. She reviews for journals like Disability and Rehabilitation and serves on the Editorial Advisory Panel of the Journal of South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment.
Her work highlights critical barriers to disability inclusion in healthcare, education, and disaster response, with a focus on actionable solutions for equitable systems. She has advised on disability-inclusive policies in Asia-Pacific and supported education system reforms to better identify and support students with disabilities.
