ProfessorNicola Stephens

Nicola Stephens is Professor of Public Health and the Director of the Postgraduate Programs in the Tasmanian School of Medicine and is a member of School's Executive Committee. Nicola is responsible for the academic management and quality of teaching and research undertaken across all postgraduate programs within the school, including Public Health, Healthcare Redesign, Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments, and Leadership in Health and Human Services. 

Nicola is an infectious diseases epidemiologist with an extensive background in public health surveillance and management in health departments across three Australian states, with a focus on communicable diseases, environmental health, data linkage and antimicrobial resistance. Nicola coordinates the Graduate Certificate in Health Protection and the research pathway for the Master's students within the College. 

Before joining the University of Tasmania, Nicola spent ten years as a senior public health manager within governments in NSW and Victoria. Her primary focus of work in those roles was communicable disease and environmental health epidemiology, surveillance and control. Nicola worked extensively with stakeholders nationally to ensure high standards of epidemiological and public health surveillance practice, and to ensure the dissemination and translation of research findings into policy and public health response activities. Nicola has also held roles as a manager and epidemiologist in the Tasmanian Public Health Services, and research positions in the Menzies Institute for Medical Research in the fields of cancer, cardiovascular disease and haemochromatosis. Nicola’s PhD focussed on improving public health surveillance methods and this applied research resulted in significant changes to public health practices in Victoria. Nicola has a long history of successfully working with research students across a very broad range of topics within both Masters and PhD programs. In February 2020, Nicola provided support to the Tasmanian Department of Health in Tasmania as a member of the COVID-19 response team in the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) for a period of 18 months before transitioning back to her academic role at the University.