Rate My Professor Julie Hennegan

Associate Professor Julie Hennegan serves as Principal Research Fellow and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow (2022-2026) in the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland, where she joined the Australian Women and Girls' Health Research (AWaGHR) Centre in 2025 to lead its thematic pillar on Health Equity. Holding a DPhil and MSc in Evidence Based Social Intervention from the University of Oxford, as well as a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours) from the University of Queensland, Hennegan is a mixed-methods researcher blending social and behavioural science, epidemiology, and complex intervention design and evaluation. Her career includes prior roles as Research Fellow at the Burnet Institute, Honorary Research Fellow at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, and Research Associate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Hennegan's research centers on advancing menstrual and reproductive health for two billion menstruating women and adolescent girls worldwide, with expertise in global women's and adolescent health.

Hennegan has developed consensus definitions of menstrual health, mid-level theory via the integrated model of menstrual experience, and core measures for research and monitoring. She leads the Adolescent Menstrual Experiences and Health Cohort (AMEHC) Study in Bangladesh, prospectively following 2,000 adolescent girls to quantify menstrual health influences on life outcomes. Her work spans monitoring menstrual health interventions in East Africa, East Asia, and the Pacific, alongside studies on diverse Australian populations and reusable menstrual technologies. Key publications include 'Menstrual health: a definition for policy, practice, and research' (2021, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters), 'Women’s and girls’ experiences of menstruation in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis' (2019, PLOS Medicine), 'Measurement in the study of menstrual health and hygiene: a systematic review and audit' (2020, PLOS ONE), and 'The Menstrual Practice Needs Scale (MPNS-36): development and validation' (2020, BMJ Open). Her contributions shape global policy and evidence-based practice in menstrual health.