Joanne Dono

Dr. Joanne Dono is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the University of Adelaide's School of Psychology within the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. She serves as Deputy Director at the Health Policy Centre, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), and holds a Cancer Council Early Career Research Fellowship. Her interdisciplinary work bridges psychology and public health with a focus on population-level behavior change interventions.

Dr. Dono's research centers on social psychology, health communication, and public health approaches to behavior change, with specific expertise in preventing chronic health conditions associated with over-consumption of ultra-processed foods and drinks. Her work spans tobacco control, dietary risk communication, and smoking cessation strategies, particularly for vulnerable populations including surgical patients. She has pioneered research on warning labels for sugar-sweetened beverages and developed innovative approaches to framing dietary risks related to ultra-processed foods.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on translating research into policy impact, with significant contributions to tobacco control evaluation, dietary risk communication, and public health responses to emerging challenges like vaping and the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Dono's work consistently emphasizes evidence-based approaches to population health interventions.

Scientific Recognition:

• Cancer Council Early Career Research Fellow

Dr. Dono has designed, implemented, and managed numerous research and evaluation studies in Tobacco Control that have delivered evidence (60+ reports and briefings) to policymakers. She was integral to the SAHMRI COVID-19 Analytics Unit, producing over 30 evidence-based briefings on public health policy decisions. She actively supervises graduate students and has several ongoing research projects examining dietary advice interventions, warning label effectiveness, and smoking cessation communication strategies for surgical patients.

Her laboratory work centers around the Health Policy Centre at SAHMRI, where she leads the tobacco control research and evaluation program, overseeing population monitoring, social marketing campaign evaluation, and policy evaluation projects on vaping and tobacco use.