An EconoTimes perspective

Penny Hawe

My training is in community psychology and public health epidemiology. My main expertise is the theory, methods, ethics and economics of complex, multi-level community and population-level interventions to promote health and prevent disease. I'm best known for my publications in health promotion evaluation, social capital, and using complexity thinking to design more effective interventions and more appropriate evaluation methods. My main empirical work is in schools and neighbourhoods. I spent 10 years in Canada where I had the opportunity to help shape the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's strategy to move from descriptive and analytic health research to more solution-focused investments in population health intervention research. I am currently a Professor of Public Health at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney and a lead investigator of the NHMRC Australian Prevention Partnership Centre (TAPPC) . My focus of interest in TAPPC is in implementation science and communication of the science underpinning public policy.