B Pharm (Dist) Grad Dip Pharm (Dist) PhD SFHEA 

I am currently the Dean of the School of Health and Clinical Sciences at The University of Western Australia (UWA). Before this role, I served as the Director of Pharmacy in the School of Medicine and Pharmacology at UWA. My career has included a significant service portfolio, both within UWA and through various State and National organisations.

In 2021, I was honoured to receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Pharmacy from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (WA Branch). Additionally, I was recognized with a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2020 for my contributions to teaching and curriculum development. In 2019, my peers acknowledged me as one of the top ten agenda setters for the Australian pharmacy profession.

Regarding my publications and presentations, I am ranked in the top 0.7% of 35,916 published authors worldwide on the topic of pharmacists. Over the past decade, I have authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications, two commissioned reports for the Pharmacy Board of Australia and a further two commissioned reports for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, and delivered over 90 presentations at national and international conferences, achieving an H-index of 23. According to SciVal, 1 in 8 of my papers are in the top 10% most cited worldwide with a combined total of 2187 citations from 101 different countries across 25 subject areas. My work has a field-weighted citation index of 1.33 in medical education; internship, meaning my research is cited 1.33 times more often than the average. Moreover, Altmetrics indicates that 14 of my papers are in the top 10% for online attention, with 37 in the top 25%. In the last ten years, I have secured over $12 million in funding (research and training) and regularly contribute to peer reviews for international grants and journals.

Since 2010, I have supervised 18 PhD completions and am currently supervising five additional students who will finish in the coming years. My collaborations span state, national, and international boundaries. As the coordinating supervisor for most of these candidates, my primary motivation has always been mentorship. I take pride in the fact that nearly all of my completed students are now pursuing successful careers in academia or related health fields, with minimal revisions needed for their theses. Almost one quarter of my students have received prestigious National awards since completion. This includes Pharmacy Intern of the Year, Young Pharmacist of the Year, Pharmacist of the Year and Innovative Pharmacist of the Year. They have also won State based awards including the SA/NT Young Pharmacist of the Year and the WA Lifetime Achievement Award. I have also examined over 20 PhD theses both nationally and internationally.

As a Level E Professor and Dean of Health and Clinical Sciences, my research role is focused on supporting the next generation of researchers. I’m passionate about mentoring, fostering collaborations, and planning for succession that includes early and mid-career researchers. Over the last decade, I have supervised an average of four UWA Master of Pharmacy Research students and three exchange students from the University of Basel each year.  I am now welcoming Belgium and Norwegian students to the international program.

Mentorship

Since 2010, I have had 18 PhD completions. I am currently supervising an additional 4 students due to finish in the coming years. Of these, 5 included state-based collaborations, 4 national collaborations and 9 with international collaborations.  These works have mostly been by publication – and have resulted in 64 publications in peer reviewed journals, and more than 100 state, national and international presentations.  For the majority of these candidates I have been the co-ordinating supervisor.

Mentorship of these students has been my prime motivation of the years of PhD supervision.  Due to my strong mentorship style nearly all of my completed students, are now pursuing successful careers in academia or health industry related areas and making an impact in their own right.  All completed with minimal changes required to their final thesis.

I have also been an examiner of PhD theses for over 20 theses both nationally and internationally.

Master of Pharmacy Research Project completions (State, National and International)

International (University of Basel)

The Pharmacy team at UWA have been collaborating with the Pharmacy Discipline at the University of Basel for over a decade. As a result around 30 University of Basel students have come to Perth for a semester to successfully complete their Master of Pharmacy dissertation project. I was the founder, organiser, and primary supervisor for all of these research projects. In 2024 I travelled to Basel where Professor Kurt Hersberger and the University of Basel hosted a reunion of all the students that have come to UWA over the last decade. This was a wonderful event, where the students spoke about the profound impact the exchange to Perth and UWA made on their lives and their career choices. They travelled from all over Switzerland to attend the event. All had gone on to very successful careers in wide range of Pharmacy and health related areas.  This collaboration has also produced a number of international publications, and one of the successful students in the Master of Pharmacy (Basel) project is now completing her PhD at UWA. 

We are now accepting exchange students for the Master thesis from KU Leuven (Belgium), and University of Bergan Norway).  These Masters theses also drive collaboration between Universities.  My motivation for these thriving collaborations has always been the successful mentorship that I have been able to provide.  All of the students have successfully competed their thesis work – writing in English, their second language.  While they are at UWA they also interact regularly and successfully with our UWA Master of Pharmacy students, and go on to develop meaningful international friendships.

Master of Pharmacy Reserch projects (UWA: state and national collaborators)

Since 2007 I have supervised over 100 Pharmacy students to completion in their Master of Pharmacy Research projects. I use an inclusive mentorship style, to ensure excellence in project outcomes in a wide range of topic areas.  This has resulted in almost 30 peer reviewed publications with Master of Pharmacy students as co-authors. The students whom I have supervised have also gone on to win the project prize for the Master of Pharmacy on more than 10 occaisions. One of these successful candidates has just completed her PhD in Health Literacy at UWA (2024).