Rate My Professor Elizabeth Sullivan

Professor Elizabeth Sullivan FAFPHM is a public health physician and Professor of Equity in Health at the University of Newcastle. She holds a Doctor of Medicine from the University of New South Wales, a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Master of Public Health, and Master of Medicine in Sexual Health from the University of Sydney. Her distinguished career includes roles as Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing from 2022 to 2025, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation in 2022, and Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College from 2020 to 2021 at the University of Newcastle, where she led the pivot to online learning during COVID-19 and ensured graduation of health professionals. Previously, she served as Assistant Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the University of Technology Sydney, leading the Athena SWAN Gender Equity Initiative to a Bronze Award. Earlier, she was Director of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Perinatal Statistics and Epidemiology Unit at the University of New South Wales from 2002 to 2014. She completed public health training via the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and preventive medicine residency at the New York City Health Department.

Professor Sullivan specializes in equity in health, maternal and perinatal epidemiology, justice health, and the effects of criminalisation of poverty on mothering and intergenerational incarceration. She has attracted over $21 million in research funding, supervised 18 PhDs to completion, and authored more than 280 peer-reviewed publications, including Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and WHO reports that inform health policy and practice. Key publications include 'Early childhood hospital utilization and diagnoses for children born to mothers with kidney transplants: An Australian cohort study' (2026, American Journal of Transplantation), 'Effects of the Connections program on return-to-custody, mortality and treatment uptake among people with a history of opioid use: Retrospective cohort study in an Australian prison system' (2024, Addiction), 'The high prevalence and impact of rheumatic heart disease in pregnancy in First Nations populations in a high-income setting: a prospective cohort study' (2020, BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology), and 'Gestational breast cancer in New South Wales: A population-based linkage study of incidence, management, and outcomes' (2021, PLOS ONE). She serves on the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine Council, was a NHMRC Council member from 2015 to 2018, and an invited WHO expert in perinatal epidemiology. A Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, her work advances health equity and leadership in STEMM and academia.