Rate My Professor Lyndal Parker-Newlyn

Associate Professor Lyndal Parker-Newlyn serves as Academic Lead for Rural Medical Education and Academic Lead for MD Admissions in the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Wollongong. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine (Honours) from the University of Newcastle (1993), a Master of Health Science (Education) from the University of Sydney, a Master of Education (Educational Leadership) from the University of Wollongong, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Wollongong focused on medical student selection in a rural context. Prior to academia, she completed initial training in Newcastle, served in the Royal Australian Navy as Airfield Emergency Officer and Senior Medical Officer in Nowra, NSW, and practiced as a general practitioner in Nowra after earning Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in 1999. She chaired the Shoalhaven Division of General Practice, served as Deputy Chair of the NSW Rural Doctors Network and the Australian Rural and Remote Workforce Agencies group, and held positions on Commonwealth advisory committees for general practitioners.

Associate Professor Parker-Newlyn joined the University of Wollongong in 2006, contributing to curriculum design and delivery, including Case Based Learning activities and core clinical presentation blueprints. Her academic interests center on medical education, student selection and assessment, approaches to learning, curriculum development, and rural medical workforce distribution. Key publications include "The Australian health workforce: Disproportionate shortfalls in small rural towns" (2024), "Medical school admission processes to target rural applicants: an international scoping review and mapping of Australian practices" (2025), "A comparison of rural and regional work locations and speciality choices between graduates from the University of Wollongong and all Australian medical schools using the Medical Schools Outcomes Database" (2023), "Approaches to learning: does medical school attract students with the motivation to go deeper?" (2020), and her doctoral thesis "Choosing tomorrow's rural doctors: An analysis of medical student selection in an Australian rural context." Her leadership supports the production of graduates more likely to work in rural and regional areas and pursue general practice careers.