Rate My Professor Natalie Townsend

Ms Natalie Townsend serves as the Research Executive Manager for the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health at the Centre for Women’s Health Research, within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle. She holds a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours 1) and a Master of Clinical Epidemiology (Distinction), both obtained from the University of Newcastle. With over a decade of experience in women’s health research, her focus includes mental health and the impacts of violence and abuse. She demonstrates expertise in longitudinal methods, study design, survey development, research translation and communication, participant recruitment, and project management.

Townsend’s research specializations cover epidemiology, mental health, public health, violence, and women’s health, with fields of research including epidemiology not elsewhere classified, women’s studies, and public health not elsewhere classified. She has co-authored key publications such as “The impact of adverse childhood experiences on the health and health behaviors of young Australian women” (2021, Child Abuse & Neglect), “Intimate partner violence adversely impacts health over 16 years and across generations: A longitudinal cohort study” (2017, PLOS ONE), “Bullying among 18 to 23-year-old women in 2013” (2017, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health), “Perceptions of coping with non-disease-related life stress for women with osteoarthritis: A qualitative analysis” (2016, BMJ Open), “Factors influencing contraceptive use or non-use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a systematic review and narrative synthesis” (2020, Reproductive Health), and “Longitudinal inconsistency in responses to survey items that ask women about intimate partner violence” (2019, BMC Medical Research Methodology). As an investigator on grants totaling $9,648,257, including an $8,537,673 grant in 2023 for the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, she contributes to policy through co-authored reports and submissions to government inquiries on sexual violence, domestic violence, mental health, and COVID-19 impacts on women, as well as presentations on research translation and health outcomes.