Head of Department
Professor Helen Keleher
PhD, MA, BA, FPHAA
Office Location
F5.29, Caulfield Campus
Monash University
Telephone: +61 3 9903 1653
Email: helen.keleher@monash.edu
Professor Helen Keleher is a public health social scientist who is Head of the Department of Health Social Science, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University. She holds a Joint Chair in Health Equity with Inner South Community Health Service.
Her research interests are in primary and community health, the social determinants of health and inequity, building capacity for public health, population health and health promotion in health services/systems and policy, and women's health. Helen's first career was in nursing and her PhD topic was a social history of public health nursing in Australia.
Helen is course convenor of the Honours degree of Bachelor of Health Science. She is editor and author of several books on the determinants of health, health promotion and health systems, and dozens of journal articles and book chapters. She is currently President of the Public Health Association of Australia. From 1998-2005 she was National Convenor of the Australian Women's Health Network and was convenor of the 4th and 5th Australian Women's Health Conferences in 2001 and 2005. From 2005-8 she was a member of the Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network of the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health.
Current Research
Collie A, Keleher H; McClure R, Petersen A, Ellis N. Determining the individual, community and societal impacts of compensable injury in Australia. ARC Discovery 2011-2014.
Harris E, Baum F, Harris-Roxas B, Keleher H, Kemp L, Spickett J, Harris M, Morgan R, Dannenberg A, Sukkumnoed D, Wendel A. The Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessments Conducted in Australia and New Zealand, ARC Discovery Project Grant 2010-2011
MonashLink Community Health Service, Community Health Profile
Keleher H, Bruce E. Organisational change and capacity building for health promotion, Eastern Access Community Health Service.
Recent Publications
Keleher H, MacDougall C. Understanding Health 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, in press for publication late 2011.
Willis E, Reynolds L, Keleher H. Working in the Australian Health Care System. Elsevier, in press for publication late 2011.
Parker R, Keleher H, Forrest L. The work, education and career pathways of nurses in Australian general practice, in press, Australian Journal of Primary Health
Joss N, Keleher H. Partnership tools for health promotion: Are they worth the effort? In press, Global Health Promotion.
Keleher H. Planning for population health in Australia’s health reforms. ANZJPH, 2011 vol. 35 no. 2: 106-107
Keleher H. Parker R. Francis K. Preparing for primary health care futures: how well do Australian nursing courses perform? Australian Journal of Primary Health, 2010, 16(3), 211–216.
Bruce E, Keleher H. A Short Course in Writing for Publication for Health Promotion Practitioners. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 2010, 21: 239-41
Research Interests
- Health promotion, prevention, gender and social inclusion
- Primary health care and primary health nursing
- Health Literacy
- Mental health and well being
- Health inequalities and the social determinants of health
Currently Supervising
- Darshini Ayton
- Nerida Joss
- Tess Nagorcha-Tsindos
- Dimitri Batras
- Chebi Kipsaina
- Susan Heywood
LINK TO PREVIOUS RESEARCH OUTPUT
Awards and other engagements
- Australian 2020 summit - participant in Health Stream
- Member, Inaugral Public Health Research Expert Advisory Panel (Victorian Department of Human services), 2007 - 2009
- African Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellow Training Program, African Population and Health Research Centre, Nairobi 2009, 2010
Professional Affilitations
- Public Health Association of Australia since 1989
- International Union of Health Promotion and Education since 1994
- Australian Health Promotion Association since 1996
- Australian Women's Health Network since 1990
