Gill Westhorp

Dr. Gill Westhorp is a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Arts and Society and leads the Realist Research Evaluation and Learning Initiative (RREALI). She is also an Adjunct Professor at RMIT University. Her expertise lies in realist research and evaluation methodologies, including co-authoring international standards for realist evaluation and literature reviews. She has led over 70 research projects and provided training in 14 countries. She focuses on developing methods in realist research, with current work exploring epistemology and axiology in evaluation.

Education: PhD from Nottingham Trent University (2008), specializing in developing realist methods for community-based evaluations.

Awards: Fellow of the Australian Evaluation Society (2018), Stanford University Top 2% Most Influential Scientists (2022).

Research Interests: Realist evaluation methodologies, program theory development, and applications in health, social policy, and international development. Recent projects include evaluations of aged care programs, domestic violence initiatives, and child sponsorship communications.

Grants & Projects:

• Evaluation of NT Health Domestic Violence Project (2023–2026)
• Development of Transdisciplinary Research Review for ACIAR (2023–2024)
• Health Justice Australia Evaluation (2022–2024)

Lab/Teams: Leads RREALI, a collaborative initiative advancing realist methodologies globally.