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- Infographic - Indigenous Health Research Mentorship within Post-Secondary Institutions in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand: A Scoping Review.
- Infographic - Weaving Promising Practices to Transform Indigenous Population Health and Wellness Reporting by Indigenizing Indicators in First Nations Health
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Dr. Simon Graham
Indigenous Scholar, Narungga from the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia
Areas of interest
- Aboriginal health
- Sexually transmitted infections
- Viral hepatitis
- Health service access
- Structural determinants of health, health equity, and
- Community-based research
Education
- B.A., International Studies, Flinders University of South Australia
- M.Appl.Epid., Outbreaks, disease surveillance, Australian National University
- Ph.D, Sexually Transmitted Infections, University of New South Wales
Biography
Associate Professor Dr. Simon Graham is an Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator fellow in the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, Faculty of Health and Medicine at the University of Sydney. He is a Narungga from the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. A/Prof Graham is an epidemiologist whose research primarily focusses on sexual health among Indigenous people in Australia. In 2022, he won the NHMRC Sandra Eades Investigator Grant Award for the highest ranked applicant and in 2024 he received the Australasian Sexual Reproductive Health Leader Award. Simon was on the NHMRC Principal Committee Indigenous Caucus which conducted a national consultation to updated the NHMRC Road Map 3 which is a 10-year strategic framework that aims to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. He is a senior editor at the Lowitja's First Nations Health and Wellbeing Journal and in 2024, he was an invited speaker at the World Health Organization and International AIDS Society session on ‘Mobilize for action on sexually transmitted infections’.
In 2024, A/Prof Graham returned to Australia after six-years overseas, including:
- A Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at the PRIDE Health Research Consortium in New York City;
- A NHMRC postdoctoral fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London;
- An Endeavour fellow at the First Nations Health Authority in Vancouver;
- A Dyason fellow at the World Health Organization’s Epidemic and Pandemic Intelligence Hub in Berlin; and
- A NHMRC fellow at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) regional office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok.
During his time at the First Nations Health Authority, he worked with Dr Stelkia, Dr Evan Adams, and Dr Corellia Wieman on a systematic review of Indigenous designed interventions the reduced anxiety, depression and suicide ideation among Indigenous people in Canada ().
Previously, he led a quality improvement trial with four Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services that successfully tripled sexually transmitted infection testing which identified double the number of asymptomatic infections so treatment could be provided early in infection and prevent poor reproductive health outcomes from developing among young Aboriginal people living in small towns in the state of New South Wales.
Research Interests
A/Prof Graham’s research interests focus on reducing sexually transmitted infections among Indigenous people in Australia and globally. Indigenous young people feature heavily in his research and he has published in other areas including tobacco smoking and vaping, COVID-19, mental health and maternal and perinatal outcomes. He is interested in supporting other Indigenous people and researchers to lead Indigenous research with Indigenous communities that address their needs and empower them to led local interventions.