James Ward: What will it take to achieve health equity for First Nations People of Australia, the role of research, and our vision at UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health

Join our seminar online at our Zoom meeting or register to attend in-person.

About the speaker

Professor James Ward is a Pitjantjatjara and Nukunu man, an infectious diseases epidemiologist and a national leader in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research. He is currently the Director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at The University of Queensland.

He has held various roles over the last 25 years in Aboriginal public health policy for both government and non-government organisations, in urban regional and remote communities.  He has built a national program of research in the epidemiology and prevention of infectious diseases, with a particular focus on STIs, HIV and viral hepatitis in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Professor Ward has previously worked at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Baker IDI in Alice Springs and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. He has served on numerous national and international committees including currently the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia, the Australian National Council on Alcohol and Drugs, the CDNA COVID-19 Working Group and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander COVID-19 Taskforce. He has over 120 publications and leads several large scale public health and infectious diseases studies. 

Seminar Overview 

Achieving health equity seems a long way off for First Nations Peoples of Australia but should it be that way? The UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health was established with a vision to conducting research that has potential to change this discourse. It would be naive to think research alone is going to close the inequity we face as people, but it does have the potential to change policy, programs and people. At the UQ Poche Centre we have embarked on an ambitious agenda to do our part in Closing the Gap. Conducting research in areas identified as priorities by our organisational partners, translating this into policy and practice, as well as building capacity through our people is what we have set out to do. This seminar will be the first of the fortnightly UQ Poche Centre Seminars.

Seminar Recording