I am a proud Ngemba woman currently living in Sydney.   I have previously completed a Bachelor of Public Health at the University of Wollongong in 2021 and am starting my Master of Public Health.  I have always been passionate about public health, specifically health promotion that aims to prevent chronic illness by educating people about risk factors for certain chronic diseases.   I have always been interested in taking the skills I learned in my undergraduate degree and working in the Aboriginal health sector to give back to my community.   Throughout my undergraduate degree, I have had the chance to intern with the National Health and Medical Research Council working with the public health team.   This internship involved working on the scoping review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people sue of the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Indigenous Guide to Healthy Eating.

Through this internship, I was ale to learn about the most prominent issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nutrition including food including food insecurity, lack of education and limited financial resources.   I also interned at the Thurru Indigenous centre at the University of Newcastle where I had a chance to co-author the development of the Trauma Response in Public Health journal article written by the University of Newcastle that looked at relevant chronic diseases in Aboriginal communities.

I began working for the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AH&MRC) as a community engagement officer in the policy team.   Throughout this time at AH&MRC I have developed a knowledge and skill base across relevant domains of health positive under the Closing the Gap initiatives.   I had the opportunity to go into communities across New South wales to hear about common health issues people are facing.   This allows our team to work with government to over come these issues.   I will continue to work at AH&MRC whilst I study as my master’s degree to continue contributing to the Aboriginal health sector and developing my workplace skills.