Dr. Maxine WhittakerCo-Director WHO Collaborating Centre for Vector Borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases | JCU
Dr. Maxine Whittaker is a public health physician, applied medical anthropologist, and health systems researcher who is an international expert on improving the health systems and services to increase accessibility and acceptability of quality services to populations. She is a public health leader in One Health (human-animal-environment-plant interface) and a particular focus on equity and community ownership and engagement. She has worked in global health for more than 35 years and lived/worked in many countries in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. She has published more than 120 peer reviewed publications, (h Index of 31, i10 index of 67), and written several project documents for development partners and countries, policy briefings, briefing papers, book chapters and commissioned papers. Since 2010 Professor Whittaker has been a Principal, Chief, or Co-Investigator in more than $85,000,000 worth of nationally and internationally competitive, industry and other research grants and contracts. She is the Co-Chair of the Research Review Panel for the World Health Organisation’s Human Reproductive Program – with focus on sexual and reproductive health, gender, and gender-based violence, and Chair of the Western Pacific Region WHO Technical Advisory Group on Reaching Unreached Populations. She retired in October 2021 from the position of Dean of the College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences at James Cook University. In 2017 she was awarded the Royal Australasian College of Physicians International Medal, in recognition of outstanding service in developing countries.