Rate My Professor Meredith Tavener

Dr Meredith Tavener is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She holds a PhD in Community Health and Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Newcastle, a Master of Medical Science and Graduate Diploma in Health Promotion also from the University of Newcastle, and Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) and Bachelor of Applied Science (Human Movement) from the University of Ballarat. With more than 25 years of experience in qualitative health research, she joined the University in 1996 as Senior Research Coordinator for the $1.65 million Department of Veterans’ Affairs Preventive Care Trial. She advanced through various roles, including Project Manager for the $2.0 million Department of Defence Study of Health Outcomes in Aircraft Maintenance Personnel (2001-2004), Research Academic (2004-2009), Postdoctoral Researcher (2010-2012), Research Fellow (2012-2017), and Lecturer/Course Coordinator (2019-2020). Dr Tavener managed two cohorts of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, held an administrative/research role in the University of Newcastle Athena SWAN pilot (2016-2017), and served as Trial Manager for an NHMRC-funded project assessing post-stroke arm recovery (2017-2022).

Dr Tavener's research specializations include qualitative research methodologies, health behaviour, implementation science, person-centred care, ageing, consumer health, and public health evaluation. She founded and chairs the Qualitative Methodologies and Methods Network for the Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia, has supervised nine PhD students to completion, and currently supervises three more. For five years, she coordinated and delivered innovative online postgraduate courses in qualitative health methods and conducts capability-building seminars and workshops. Her major awards include the 2023 Australian Award for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, Fellow of Advance HE (UK) Higher Education Academy (2022), University of Newcastle Teaching Excellence Award – Highly Commended (2023), Early Career College Teaching Excellence Award (2021), DVC(A) Education Innovation and Impact Award (2019), and Fellow of the Australian Association of Gerontology (2016). Key publications encompass 'Healthy ageing at very old ages - perspectives from women in the oldest cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health' (2025), 'Retirement and a healthy lifestyle: Opportunity or pitfall? A narrative review of the literature' (2018), 'Cancer incidence and mortality in aircraft maintenance workers' (2008), and contributions to the Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health (2015).