Professor Kathleen Clapham leads the Ngarruwan Ngadju research program. Kathleen is an Aboriginal Australian; a descendent of the Murrawarri people of north-western NSW.
Kathleen holds a BA (first class honours) and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Sydney. She is an Honorary Professorial Fellowship in the Injury Division of The George Institute for Global Health.
Within the broad area Indigenous health research Kathleen has a strong research interest in improving the safety, health and wellbeing of Indigenous children and young people, research targeting the social and cultural determinants of health, and health services research aimed at improving the health of Indigenous people across the life span. Community based participatory action research projects which she leads involve with Indigenous people in urban, regional and remote communities, collaborations with research, government and non-government organisations.
Kathleen has been chief investigator on 12 NHMRC and ARC funded studies and has led or contributed to government funded health services research, with grants totalling more than $17.5 million. Based at the University of Wollongong she has developed strong collaborative partnerships with Aboriginal community organisations across south eastern NSW. She currently leads an ARC research project focused on developing a place based model for community led solutions to complex health and social issues. She also leads a collaboration addressing Aboriginal community research and evaluation capacity building.
She is guided by a strong commitment to social justice, health equity and Indigenous human rights. She brings specific expertise and skills in Indigenous research methodologies, qualitative research methods, ethnography, and evaluation of community interventions. She employs a critical Indigenous research methodological approaches in which community engagement, sustainable partnership, research benefit to Aboriginal communities and capacity building are crucial components.
Through her work, Kathleen has achieved tangible benefits to Aboriginal people through undertaking research which will have impacts in terms of reduced harm, social and health improvements, and capacity development. She has specific skills and expertise in community engagement and translation research.
View Kathleen Clapham's UOW Scholar profile