Professor Roxanne Bainbridge

Professor Roxanne Bainbridge is a Gunggari/Kunja woman from South-Western Queensland. She previously worked as a Professorial Research Fellow in Indigenous Health at Central Queensland University Australia; Adjunct to The Cairns Institute at James Cook University; and an inaugural Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity at the University of Melbourne / the University of Oxford. With a background in anthropology, Roxanne focusses her interests on medical anthropology as a culturally constructive critique of the biomedical sciences and policy-makers that provides new understandings of human health, wellness and illness for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Roxanne is an engaged researcher/evaluator with extensive experience leading, collaborating and coordinating projects with international, national and local teams. Her methodological expertise is in high impact applied research conducted in participatory and action-oriented research approaches embedded in improvement and systems sciences. Specific proficiencies are in research impact assessment and evaluation; improvement sciences; systems sciences; mixed methods; phronetic grounded theory; systematic literature reviews; and auto/ethnographic approaches. Roxanne applies her methodological expertise and concepts of Indigenous data sovereignty and governance to projects in Indigenous health, e.g. mental health and suicide, adolescent psychosocial wellbeing, social and emotional wellbeing across the life course, health services research, child and maternal health, palliative care, binge drinking and health promotion; and, in education, e.g. engagement, pedagogy, school transitions, inclusive practice and mentoring).

Over the last 10 years she was Lead/Chief Investigator on a total of 52 grants attracting $37.230m. Of 119 publications, 74 are peer-reviewed articles in national/international peer-reviewed journals; 18 are systematic reviews; 18 are reports for government and community-controlled organisations; 12 chapters; 1 peer-reviewed conference paper; 4 peer-reviewed commissioned works; 1 book; and developed government and community health and educational resources. Systematic literature reviews (including Cochrane) in various content areas for Indigenous populations, e.g. Indigenous research impact, social and emotional wellbeing interventions and measurement tools, mentoring, alcohol and other drugs, resilience strategies, Indigenous research education, child and maternal health, cultural competence, sexual assault, family-centred interventions, health promotion tools, program transfer and Indigenous community governance. She is currently the lead investigator on a 1) 4-year national evaluation of the Commonwealth Government’s investment in Indigenous Primary Healthcare, and 2) ARC Engaging adolescents to improve mental healthcare in Indigenous primary healthcare services.

Key research interests

Systems science

Improvement science

Development and application of research methodologies and methods with a strong focus on research translation and engagement and impact

Strengthening researcher capacity and improving the integrity and quality of research to maximise its impact and benefit for Aboriginal and Torres Strait people

Leading and collaborating in the development and application of co-designed intervention research that is rigorous, pragmatic and embedded into the routine delivery of services and government policy