معرفی
Steven Allender is a Deakin Distinguished Professor at Deakin University's School of Health and Social Development within the Faculty of Health. He serves as founding Director of the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE), a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre, and leads the Institute for Health Transformation. His work spans public health, epidemiology, and nutrition with focus on chronic disease prevention through systems thinking approaches.
Professor Allender holds a PhD from the University of Ballarat. His research focuses on solving complex public health problems, particularly the burden of chronic disease, malnutrition, and climate change impacts in both developed and developing countries. He pioneers community-based interventions using complex systems approaches, with significant emphasis on obesity prevention, food retail environments, and health equity. His methodology integrates systems thinking, implementation science, and community engagement to address structural determinants of health.
His recent publications demonstrate strong trends in applying systems thinking to obesity prevention (12 of 15 recent articles), with growing emphasis on climate change-health interactions (3 articles), food retail policy (5 articles), and health equity measurement (4 articles). The work increasingly employs community co-design, implementation research, and sophisticated evaluation methodologies including RCTs and meta-analyses.
- Consultant, Prevention, Health Policy and Epidemiology Section, European Association for Cardiac Prevention and Care (2010)
- Honorary Membership, Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians, UK (2009)
- World Heart Federation Fellowship in Cardiovascular Epidemiology (2006)
- Nominated Future Leader, Deakin University Developing Research Leaders Program (2010)
- Multiple Merit Awards from University of Oxford for outstanding research contributions
Professor Allender actively supervises 5 current doctoral students while having completed 17 PhD supervisions, focusing on community action, climate change health impacts, obesity prevention, and mental wellbeing. He has secured over $10 million in competitive grant funding including major NHMRC Partnership Projects, CREs, and international grants from NIH and EU bodies. His current leadership includes the NHMRC TCR on Commercial Determinants of Aboriginal Health ($1.5M), the RE-FRESHING CRE ($2.5M), and the STAIR obesity prevention trial ($1.4M). He maintains significant community partnerships through VicHealth contracts and local government collaborations across rural Victoria.
He leads the Global Obesity Centre (GLOBE) as a WHO Collaborating Centre, directing research teams focused on systems approaches to obesity prevention, food retail environments, and climate change-health interactions. His work engages multiple stakeholders including local governments, health services, and international organizations through the World Heart Federation and European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention.
