Rate My Professor Donna Quinn

Ms Donna Quinn serves as Lecturer in Aboriginal Health in the School of Allied Health and Human Performance, College of Health, at Adelaide University. A senior woman of the Wiradjuri Nation from New South Wales, she has extensive experience living, studying, and working in South Australia. Before her current appointment, she was team leader at a rural Aboriginal health service in the Riverland and provided cultural education to medical and nursing students at Flinders University Rural and Remote Health across South Australian regional campuses. In New South Wales, her career included student support work in primary schools and serving as an ITAS tutor for Charles Sturt University and La Trobe University. Quinn's diverse professional background also features roles in droving livestock, station hand duties, and owning/operating a roadtrain and heavy haulage business as depot manager.

In her role as an Aboriginal Academic, researcher, and community engagement and course coordinator within the Health Sciences Program in Public and Allied Health, Quinn focuses on cultural awareness, safety, competency, and community engagement. Notable projects include the NALHN Aboriginal Health Consumers' voices informing culturally respectful and safe social work practice (2024). Her publications encompass "Working towards culturally safe and sensitive hospital social work practice in northern Adelaide, South Australia" (Jones et al., 2025, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities), "Understanding well-being and safety for First Nations children and young people in the Riverland—Engaging with metic knowledge via a capability approach" (Jones et al., 2024, Australian Journal of Social Issues), "Factors that sustain indigenous youth mentoring programs: a qualitative systematic review" (Sanchez et al., 2023, BMC Public Health), and the protocol paper (Millerick et al., 2021, JBI Evidence Synthesis). Quinn received the Riverland 'Person of the Year' NAIDOC award in 2021. She contributes to the Aboriginal Knowledges core working group for Adelaide University, various Aboriginal committees at UniSA, and the Aboriginal Health Research Ethics Committee (AHREC) of the Aboriginal Health Council (AHCSA). In 2019, she joined the SA Aboriginal Affairs Senior Management Council working group for Closing the Gap strategies.