Sally Ann Nathan

Associate Professor Sally Ann Nathan is a public health social scientist at the School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney, specializing in youth and vulnerability, drug and alcohol treatment for young people, and community engagement in health service development. She actively partners with non-government organizations, including the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector, to improve health equity for young people and marginalized communities.

Her educational background includes a PhD (awarded 2013), Master of Public Health (1996-1999), and Bachelor of Science (Psychology) with Honours (1985-1988), all from the University of New South Wales.

Professor Nathan's research program is characterized by innovative use of multiple methods to examine complex psychological, behavioral, community, and socio-political change. Her work focuses on consumer/community participation in health service decision-making, advocacy by the non-government sector, capacity building for health development, refugee settlement, Aboriginal health and wellbeing, and adolescent drug and alcohol treatment. She has published 74 peer-reviewed articles with an H-index of 23 and has secured over $4 million in research grants, including $2.6 million in Category 1 grants.

Her research has significant impact across refugee health, Aboriginal health services, youth drug treatment, and community engagement. Recent publications demonstrate methodological diversity with emphasis on mixed methods approaches, data linkage studies, and participatory research with vulnerable populations.

• 2024 UNSW School of Population Health Excellence in HDR Mentoring
• 2020 Australian Therapeutic Communities Association Excellence in Research and Evaluation award
• 2019 UNSW Vice Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching
• Multiple awards for research supervision excellence (2018)

Professor Nathan currently supervises six higher degree research students across diverse topics including mental health for psychosocial workers working with refugees, health policy evaluation in rural Australia, and Aboriginal experiences accessing rheumatology services. Her previous students have completed research on NGO drug and alcohol treatment performance measurement, teaching Aboriginal health in public health education, and adolescent health services. She convenes Foundations in Public Health & Health Systems and Qualitative Research Methods courses in postgraduate programs at UNSW.