Flora Tzelepis

Associate Professor Flora Tzelepis is a prominent researcher at the University of Newcastle's School of Medicine and Public Health, specializing in health behavior interventions. With over 120 peer-reviewed publications, her work focuses on developing and evaluating scalable interventions to address health risk behaviors in priority populations, particularly in rural and remote settings.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD from the University of Newcastle
• Bachelor of Science (Psychology)(Honours) from the University of Newcastle

Professor Tzelepis's research expertise centers on smoking cessation interventions, particularly examining the effectiveness of real-time video counseling compared to traditional methods for residents in regional and remote areas. Her work also investigates organizational change interventions in drug and alcohol treatment settings, quality of patient-centered cancer care, and interventions targeting multiple health risk behaviors including smoking, alcohol, nutrition, and physical activity. She has pioneered research on proactive recruitment strategies for evidence-based interventions targeting cancer risk behaviors.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on rural and remote healthcare delivery, with particular emphasis on smoking cessation through innovative telehealth approaches. She has conducted numerous cluster randomized trials and systematic reviews examining behavioral interventions across multiple health domains, with a growing interest in implementation science to bridge the gap between research and practice.

Professor Tzelepis has received significant recognition for her work:

• University of Newcastle's Research Higher Degree Excellence Award for the Faculty of Health and Medicine
• NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (2019-2022)
• Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellowship (2016-2018)
• National Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2014-2015)
• Leukaemia Foundation of Australia/Cure Cancer Australia Postdoctoral Fellowship (2011-2013)

She has successfully secured competitive funding from major organizations including NHMRC, Cancer Institute NSW, and the National Heart Foundation. Her research has led to significant contributions in developing evidence-based interventions for smoking cessation and multiple health behavior change, particularly in underserved populations. Professor Tzelepis has also contributed to medical education, teaching communication skills to 4th-year medical students and evaluation methods to postgraduate students.