Although I began my professional life is a public health engineer, I was quickly lured into participatory, qualitative research methods which help us understand and improve vulnerable people’s experiences with toilets, menstrual health and hygiene, the menopause transition, incontinence and water. I have conducted research in several countries, particularly in Oceania, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and am working to decolonise my research by only collaborating on projects outside of my cultural background which are led (in practice, not just on paper!) by local researchers.

On a more 'official' note, I am a Senior Lecturer in Global Health (Teaching and Research) within the School of Population and Global Health at The University of Western Australia and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I am also a Senior Honorary Fellow within the School of Public Health at The University of Queensland. 

I'm also a co-founder of the 'Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Failures' initiative, encouraging WASH professionals to be more honest about when things don't work out. Check out (and sign!) The Nakuru Accord!

Geographical Research Experience (*indicates extended periods of fieldwork experience)

Australia*, Bangladesh, Belize, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Fiji*, Ghana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal*, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Republic of South Africa, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands*, The Netherlands, Uganda, Vanuatu*, Zimbabwe, Zambia.

Current projects: 

• Caring for the other half: Strengthening sanitation governance to improve menstrual health in urban informal settlements (South Africa), funded by the Matariki Network
• Menstrulife: A consortium conducting research into menstrual health over the life course (Australia, UK, Norway), funded by the Medical Research Council of UKRI
• Menstrual health education e-Delphi (Australia)

Current projects (Postgraduate student-led):

• Rajan Bhandari: Early childhood development in Nepal: The potential role of health workers for strengthening the overlooked aspects of nurturing care
• Debashish Biswas: Achieving sustainable operation and maintenance of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in primary schools in Dhaka, Bangladesh: from problems to solutions
• Chamoda Idamgedara: Tabling taboo topics: Barriers to GP-Patient discussions of toileting troubles (Australia)
• Matthew Konlan: Competency for emergency obstetric and newborn care: A review of tools and measures and an assessment in Ghana
• Yirui Lian: Greenhouse gas emissions in waste stabilization pond: investigating the main drivers and the role of microbial communities (Australia)
• Andreas Pfeifle: Linking microbial ecology in sewage sludge processing to odour (Australia)
• Dani Russell: Pharmacotherapies for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in pregnancy (Australia)
• Sara Sánchez López: Understanding the social and economic impact of menstruation in Spain

Current Advisory Board positions

• Menstrual Justice: Achieving the Right to a Good Period in low-and middle-income countries (Nepal, Guatemala), funded by UKRI Horizon Europe
• Disability and older age inclusion grant: improving the lives of older people with incontinence (humanitarian contexts in Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, South Sudan, Lebanon, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen and Somalia), funded by Elrha
• Sanitation Cooperatives in Bangladesh, funded by the Gates Foundation

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Previous projects

• Scaling up Off-grid Sanitation (Haiti, Kenya, Peru, South Africa), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of UKRI
• Improving experiences of the menopause transition in non-office workplaces (Australia) funded by the SPGH Staff Incentive Fund and WAHTN Community and Consumer Involvement Program
• Engaging communities to address antimicrobial resistance: Identifying contextualised and sustainable community-led solutions in low resource settings (Nepal, Bangladesh) funded by the Medical Research Council of UKRI
• Evaluation study to measure the impact of the ASHA Sangini Scaleup Project on frontline worker performance and key health indicators in Uttar Pradesh (India) funded by Catholic Relief Services
• Creation of a Package of Incontinence Training Materials for WASH Practitioners funded by Elrha's Humanitarian Innovation Fund
• Amplifying local voices to reduce failure in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector (Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe) funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering
• Amplifying WASH voices: a focus on funders (sub-Saharan Africa) funded by the Institute for Development Studies
• Children and their caregivers' experiences with incontinence in humanitarian contexts (Bangladesh, Uganda) funded by Elrha's Humanitarian Innovation Fund
• Open innovation for addressing women’s experiences of incontinence: Developing a patient-led research agenda (UK), funded by University of Leeds Research Development Fund
• Taking the embarrassment out of health problems: Understanding the experiences of women with urinary incontinence (UK), funded by University of Leeds Q-Step Summer Research Program
• Water and sanitation markets in the Pacific: Understanding demand and fostering sustainable WASH marketplaces (Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea), funded by Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Water supply sustainability through Integrated Water Management (Nepal), funded by Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Evaluation of the Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition for COVID-19 prevention: the inclusion of people with disabilities, older adults and older adults with disabilities (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Zambia, Kenya, Sierra Leone) funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office
• Research collaboration on complicated plastic waste and dignity (Kenya) funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare
• EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Water and Waste Infrastructure Systems Engineered for Resilience (UK), funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of UKRI
• Health and hygiene improvements to enhance indigenous education opportunities: A health science partnership between Leeds University UK, Johns Hopkins University USA, and The University of Queensland (Australia), funded by the UQ Global Strategy and Partnerships Seed Funding Scheme 
• The cyanobacteria risk assessment and monitoring program project (Australia), funded by the Water Corporation
• Engineering education for social and environmental justice (Australia), funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council

Previous Advisory Board positions

• The last taboo: menstrual management in the South Pacific (Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea), funded by Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Improving the lives of older people –understanding barriers to inclusion of older people with incontinence in humanitarian WASH programming (Malawi, Ethiopia), funded by Elrha's Humanitarian Innovation Fund

PhD graduates

• Dr Mofwe Kapulu: Approach for scaling up citywide safely managed sanitation access and services: A study of Lusaka, Zambia
• Dr Hannah Robinson: Beyond binaries: towards a gender inclusive sanitation future
• Dr Claire Rosato-Scott: Emergency sanitation for children with urinary incontinence
• Dr Mariam Zaqout: The political economy of sanitation: an exploratory study of stakeholder incentives in delivering sanitation

Dissertation Coordinator

PUBH1101: Health and Illness in Human Populations

PUBH1102: Foundations of Global Health

PUBH5767: Child and Maternal Health

Sept. 2017 – Mar. 2020, Lecturer in Water, Sanitation and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

Jan. – Aug. 2017.  Research Fellow in Water Engineering for Developing Countries, Cranfield University, Cranfield, United Kingdom

Jun. 2013 – Dec. 2016, Research Fellow, Department of Marketing, Monash University & International WaterCentre, Melbourne, Australia            

Jun. 2016 -  Nov. 2016  Lecturer, Global Change Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Aug. 2016, Guest Lecturer, Shantou University Summer School on Environment Science and Engineering, Shantou, China

Jul. 2012 – May 2013, Research Associate, School of Environmental Systems Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia

Jul. 2012 – Apr. 2013, Research Associate, School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Australia

Aug. 2011 – May 2012, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Engineer, Nepal Water for Health, Bharatpur, Nepal