Christine Heyes LaBond

Dr. Christine Heyes LaBond serves as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University's National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health within the Department of Health Economics, Wellbeing and Society. With active research projects extending through 2025, she contributes to ANU's mission of improving population health through interdisciplinary collaboration. Her work bridges academic research with practical public health applications addressing contemporary challenges in Australian and global health systems.

• BA, McGill University
• MA, Michigan State University
• PhD, Michigan State University

Dr. LaBond's research program centers on the intersection of work, health, and social determinants across the lifespan. Her expertise spans aging workforce dynamics, mental health impacts of environmental disasters, and gender disparities in occupational health. She employs mixed-methods approaches to investigate how structural factors like housing conditions, work hour cultures, and emergency preparedness affect population health outcomes, with particular attention to vulnerable groups including young adults, mature workers, and rural communities.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a cohesive research trajectory focused on health system responses to contemporary crises. Her work consistently examines how environmental disasters (bushfires), pandemics (COVID-19), and structural workplace issues impact mental and physical health across different demographic groups. Methodologically, she blends qualitative insights with quantitative health economics approaches, particularly evident in her development of the DIRECT Checklist for discrete choice experiments in health research.

Dr. LaBond actively collaborates across multiple significant research initiatives addressing pressing public health challenges:

• Injury Prevention and Return to Work in the Ageing Workforce (2025-2026)
• Triple Wins: work hour cultures for health, safety and gender equality in construction (2022-2025)
• Digging Deeper: effects of COVID-19 on social connectedness and mental health (2020-2021)
• Strengthening primary care midwives' emergency preparedness in rural settings
• Timor-Leste Bacteria, Enteropathy and Nutrition research program

Her research team collaborations span multiple institutions and include partnerships with health services, government agencies, and international organizations focused on translating evidence into health policy improvements.