qualifications: PhD
contribution: original concept
position: Associate Professor
Canada
qualifications: PhD
contribution: contributed to drafts
position: Professor
Lesley Barclay (AO PhD) is the foundation Professor of Health Services Development at Charles Darwin University and co directs a new Graduate School of Health Practice. As the Chief Investigator she guided medical and midwifery colleagues in one of the first National Health and Medical Research Council Centres of Clinical Excellence in Research focusing on improvements to maternity services. She is currently leading research into maternity services in China funded by ARC in partnership Chinese colleagues, and on Indigenous birth and systems to support this in Australia. Lesley has led over 30 research projects and been successful with 8 NHMRC and ARC grants in the last decade, supervising more than 30 major research theses to successful completion. Five of her graduates are now in professorial positions. In recent years she has published 3 books, 25 refereed journal articles and 15 major reports for government. Lesley has worked in International development for nearly 20 years, as a technical adviser to governments, AusAID, World Bank and WHO, in provision of primary health car, maternal infant/child health and capacity building in health worker education systems. This work has occurred in Asia, Melanesia and the Pacific Islands. Lesley has also served on a variety of national committees such as the NHMRC Council for two terms and was an inaugural ministerial appointee to the Australian Council for Safety and Quality. She was awarded an AO in 2004 in recognition of her contribution to professional and international developments and child health.
qualifications: PhD
position: Senior research assistant; Research Fellow
Yu Gao (PhD) is a young Chinese obstetrician with experiences in social science research, qualitative methods, and health service development. She recently received her Doctor of Philosophy at Charles Darwin University. Her doctoral field work was conducted in Shanxi Province, China, exploring the accessibility, quality of services and other factors contributing to maternal deaths. She is interested in doing research in China, qualitative research, evidence based medicine, and maternal deaths review studies.
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11th Biennial Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors Congress (PRIDoC) 2024, 2–6 December 2024, Kaurna Country, Adelaide, Australia
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Te Tāreitanga: Evolving understanding of health workforce research, 9 December 2024, Dunedin, NZ, and online
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4th International Indigenous Health & Wellbeing Conference 2025, 16–19 June 2025, Adelaide Convention Centre, Kaurna Country, Australia
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