Associate Professor Odette Pearson

Prof Odette Pearson, BAppHSc, GCHEcon, PhD, is a Kuku Yalanji/Torres Strait Islander woman, Co-Leading the Wardliparingga Aboriginal Health Equity Theme at SAHMRI and holds the title of Adjunct Professor with the School of Medicine at the University of Adelaide.

Prof Pearson’s experience and post-doctoral training in Indigenous health policy, health systems and inequity comprises a unique comprehensive skillset relevant to existing and emerging complexities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing.

Prof Pearson seeks to understand how institutional policies and practices drive health and social inequities experienced by Indigenous populations. Her novel approach is the use of administrative data analysed at the community-level to show and investigate reasons for variations in health outcomes both within the Indigenous community and between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous community.

Integral to her research is the inclusion of Indigenous communities in defining their health and wellbeing and deriving greater benefit from data through Indigenous data governance. Her work traverses evidence-based policy development, health services research and epidemiology to identify and address health and social strengths and disadvantages among the Indigenous population.

Prof Pearson has expertise in 1) primary health care workforce and systems and their linkages with health and social services 2) conceptual development of Aboriginal specific well-being frameworks and indicators, and 3) using social and epidemiological research to develop policy for prevention and health management. With strong community and cross sector engagement her research activity focuses on how to reduce inequity by improving health and social system responses to better meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.