Rate My Professor Julia Marley

Julia Marley is a Professor and Senior Principal Research Fellow in the UWA Medical School at the Rural Clinical School of Western Australia (RCSWA), based in Broome. She earned her BSc and PhD in Immunology from The University of Western Australia in 1991 and 2001, respectively, along with a Postgraduate Diploma in Science from UWA in 1993, a Postgraduate Diploma in Policy Science from Murdoch University in 2006, and an MPH with Distinction from James Cook University in 2016. Her professional career began with research fellowships at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK (2000-2001) and the Centre for Inflammation Research at the University of Edinburgh, UK (2001-2005). From 2006 to 2021, she served as Principal Research Officer at Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, Broome, where she pioneered collaborative research with Aboriginal communities. In her current role, she leads sustainable research practices partnering with over 30 health services and academic institutions.

Professor Marley's research employs a life course approach to Aboriginal primary health care in the remote Kimberley region, collaborating closely with Kimberley Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services and WA Country Health Service to address community priorities. Her work spans diabetes screening and management, including the ORCHID Study on optimizing gestational diabetes detection in rural areas and validation of HbA1c for early prediabetes identification; chronic kidney disease and dialysis outcomes; type 2 diabetes prevention in young Aboriginal people; perinatal mental health screening through the Kimberley Mum’s Mood Scale (KMMS), recognized among NHMRC's top projects; smoking cessation via the Be Our Ally Beat Smoking (BOABS) Study; antenatal and reproductive health; and nutrition. Key publications include "Prediabetes and pregnancy: Early pregnancy HbA1c identifies Australian Aboriginal women with high-risk of gestational diabetes mellitus and adverse perinatal outcomes" (2021, Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice), "Problems with the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test in Rural Aboriginal Australian Women: A Mixed Methods Study" (2019, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health), "Peritoneal dialysis outcomes of Indigenous Australian patients from remote areas" (2014, Nephrology), "Oral glucose tolerance test—The imperfect gold standard for gestational diabetes screening: A qualitative study involving clinicians in regional, rural and remote areas of Western Australia" (2025, Health Promotion Journal of Australia), and "Implementation of the ‘Kimberley Mum’s Mood Scale’ across primary health care services in the Kimberley region of Western Australia: A mixed methods assessment" (2022). With over 64 research outputs and 1,089 citations, her contributions have updated regional protocols, influenced national policy, driven practice changes, and built rural research capacity. She received the Vice-Chancellor’s Collaborative Partnerships Research Award in 2022 and the Sax Medal in 2016, and served as guest editor for the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.