Sarah Johnstone

Dr Sarah Johnstone is a Research Fellow and Senior Research Officer at Queensland University of Technology's Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice, specializing in co-design and design for diversity within the Design Lab research center.

• Research Focus: Accessible engagement methods, design justice, Indigenous methodologies, and social ecology.
• Key Projects: Navigating Aged Care Project with FECCA, accessibility manual development for art institutions, and Palliative Care Hospital Experience at St Vincent's Hospital.
• Teaching: Associate Fellow (Indigenous) of the Higher Education Academy, teaching units like Design Consequences and Impact Lab 2: People.

Her recent publications in How Designers Are Transforming Healthcare (Springer, 2024) reveal trends in human-centered healthcare design, cross-cultural medical engagement, and creative service innovation.

Scientific Contributions:

• 2021 Outstanding HDR Student award
• Lead author on 2021 White Skin, Brown Soil decolonial theory paper
• Key participant in Clinical Excellence Queensland's Health Excellence Accelerator Lab (HEAL)

Dr Johnstone actively coordinates Australian Research Council-funded projects like Amplifying Voices from the Royal Commission into Aged Care, while exploring spiritual ecology through her ancestral connections.