Dr Sandra Thompson is a public health physician with experience in clinical practice, public health, research, planning and policy development, and program management in multiple Australian jurisdictions. She has been the Director of the Western Australian Centre for Rural Health (WACRH) and Professor of Rural Health at the University of Western Australia since February 2010. Her research spans many areas of health, and are particularly centred around health disparities, Aboriginal health, rural health, and health of vulnerable groups such as new migrants and refugees.

Committed to implementation of evidence into practice, she collaborates widely across Australia, as evidenced in grants and publications. She has a strong interest in developing the skills and capability of researchers and building research capacity. She was a chief investigator on three Indigenous Capacity Building Grants and on several Centres for Research Excellence related to health services research and Indigenous health; all provided early career researchers with superb, structured training and career development opportunities. Many of those mentored or supervised are now leading Indigenous academics and researchers, with others in key roles in planning and service delivery. Professor Thompson has supervised multiple Indigenous students and provides instrumental intellectual input and support for undergrad/postgraduate students to undertake research and publish a peer-reviewed article as first author (24 student 1st first author publications since 2010). Many students/mentees have been awarded prizes/postgraduate student awards. She has supervised/mentored 10 post-docs since 2010; many have flourishing research careers. She is acknowledged as a top-rated expert in Indigenous Health Services over the years 2013-2023 and has been in the top 1% of scholars writing about Rural Health Services over the past 10 years (Expertscape).

Prof Thompson has been the lead or a coinvestigator on >$20m of grants from NHMRC, Healthway, Cancer Council WA, Cancer Australia, National Stroke Foundation and government agencies. Her research has shared lessons of tensions working in the cross-cultural space, enhanced understanding and improved collaborative practice through partnership opportunities, joined up approaches, support for community members, emerging voices and early career researchers. She regularly participates in community events, links research and evaluation activities to community initiatives.

Prof Thompson has >300 peer-reviewed publications, >100 in the last 5 years, many as senior author. Her Google Scholar H index is 58 ;12613 citations. Many of her more recent publications are in Indigenous health research, a notoriously more challenging area of research because of the necessity of time for consultation, ethics, and feedback. Her Indigenous health research publications are influential for policy and practice because of their applied nature.

Research and translation activities include advocacy, presentations, participation in roundtables and on Advisory Committees (eg. Indigenous Aust Health InfoNet, CCWA Aboriginal Advisory Group). She has been an expert advisor to multiple state and national projects. She was Deputy Chair then Chair of the Australian Rural Health Education Network (ARHEN) over several years, and now Chairs the ARHEN Research Committee. She was an expert witness for two Aboriginal deaths in custody. Invited keynote presentations in 2022 included Heart Attack Day (Manitoba, Canada), at the International Indigenous Peoples Navigation Network, and 2023 at Medical Oncology Group of Australia on burden of Indigenous Cancer.

Awards include: 2018 - Mentor of the Year, Public Health Association of Australia; 2022 - Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (General Division) in the Australia Day Honours for significant service to tertiary education, to rural and regional health, and to Indigenous health.