Rate My Professor Michelle Kennedy

Kennedy's research specializations encompass Aboriginal health, tobacco control, and Indigenous research methodologies and ethics. Her work informs national policy in alignment with Closing the Gap reforms aimed at reducing low birth weight babies among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. She has forged partnerships with Aboriginal community-controlled health services, peak bodies, and government agencies, delivering workshops with Tackling Indigenous Smoking funded organizations and leading high-impact projects such as national group-based smoking cessation care and mail-out support in Aboriginal community-controlled health services. Key projects include ‘Which Way?’, the first Indigenous-led primary evidence for smoking cessation care among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, with findings published in the Medical Journal of Australia, and the Murra Minya project governed by the National Health Leadership Forum in partnership with the Lowitja Institute. Notable publications include the chapter ‘Commercial Tobacco and Cancer’ (2024, co-authored with Maddox R, Waa A, Henderson PN, Calma T); ‘What ngidhi yinaaru nhal yayi (this woman told me) about smoking during pregnancy’ (Medical Journal of Australia, 2020); ‘Barriers to Quitting Smoking During Pregnancy: A Cross-Sectional Survey’ (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021); and ‘Wula (Voices) of Aboriginal women on barriers to accepting smoking cessation support during pregnancy’ (Women and Birth, 2018). Her contributions also feature extensively in conference proceedings on smoking cessation interventions for pregnant Aboriginal women. Awards include the NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (awarded prior to PhD submission), NHMRC Investigator Grants (2023 and 2025), and the 2022 HMRI Early Career Researcher of the Year.