My participatory research and teaching focuses on ensuring that everyone has access to the sanitation services that they want to use, regardless of their income or the country they call home (watch a brief video on my work here). I use interactive methods to understand and help improve people’s experiences with toilets, menstrual health and hygiene, incontinence and water, with a focus on low-middle income contexts.

I am a Senior Lecturer in Global Health 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 Visiting Lecturer in Water, Sanitation and Health within the School of Civil Engineering at The University of Leeds and an Honorary Fellow within the School of Public Health at The University of Queensland. I have worked in several countries, particularly in Oceania, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

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!

In my undergraduate days, I was one of the founding members of the University of Western Australia Pantomime Society, where I honed my skill of engaging with audiences on taboo matters, particularly through making a fool of myself on stage. 

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.

I am a proponent of the Amartya Sen philosophy of "Development as Freedom" and Robert Chambers' approach of participatory development. My work particularly focuses on the use of participatory action research (PAR) to engage with communities and local stakeholders so as to understand, navigate and improve complex water, sanitation and hygiene systems around the globe.

Current projects: 

• 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
• 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
• 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;
• Scaling up Off-grid Sanitation (Haiti, Kenya, Peru, South Africa) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of UKRI
• Creation of a Package of Incontinence Training Materials for WASH Practitioners funded by Elrha's Humanitarian Innovation Fund

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

Previous projects

• 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
• The cyanobacteria risk assessment and monitoring program project (Australia), funded by the Water Corporation
• 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 
• 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

Current PhD students

• Sara Sánchez López: Understanding the social and economic impact of menstruation in Spain
• Hannah Robinson: Inclusive WASH Facilities: Streamlining the implementation of gender policy and the use of gender guidelines

PhD graduates

• Mofwe Kapulu: Approach for scaling up citywide safely managed sanitation access and services: A study of Lusaka, Zambia
• Claire Rosato-Scott: Emergency sanitation for children with urinary incontinence
• Mariam Zaqout: The Political Economy of Sanitation: An Exploratory Study of Stakeholder Incentives in Delivering Sanitation

Honours and Dissertation Coordinator

PUBH1101: Health and Illness in Human Populations

PUBH1102: Health and Globalisation

PUBH5767: Child and Maternal Health

PUBH5805: Qualitative Research Methods in 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