Prof. Dr. Maxine Whittaker

Maxine Whittaker is a public health physician, health systems academic and researcher and applied medical anthropologist, focusing on improving the health and community systems and services to increase accessibility and acceptability of quality services to populations, health equity and social inclusiveness and a public health leader in One Health. Since 2021 Maxine is the Civil Society Representative for the Global Fund Regional Artemisinin Initiative 3 and 4 of the Greater Mekong Subregion (pro bono). Maxine also engages in public health advocacy work, as well as policy translation from implementation research. She was the Dean of the College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences at James Cook University from Jan 2016- October 2021. She is a member of the Quadripartite One Health High Level Expert Advisory Panel, the Australian Government’s Partnerships for a Healthy Region, a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission for People-Centred Care and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the icddr,b (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh. She is presently the Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion adviser to Pacific Mosquito Surveillance Strengthening for Impact, co-lead of Gender and social equity working group for OHHLEP and for the Working group on Mechanisms for Meaningful engagement of people with lived and first-hand experience in people-centred care for universal health care (Lancet Commission). She has published more than 180 peer reviewed publications and several project documents for development partners and countries, policy briefings, briefing papers, book chapters and commissioned papers and a strong record in leading major research grants. She has worked extensively within the Pacific, She has also lived and worked in Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea , Zambia, Zimbabwe and worked extensively in Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, Lao PDR, Nepal, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Vietnam. In 2017 she was awarded the Royal Australasian College of Physicians International Medal in recognition of outstanding service in developing countries.