Rate My Professor Sarah Hill

Sarah Hill, PhD, is a distinguished public health researcher whose academic career includes significant contributions at the University of Otago's Department of Public Health. She completed her PhD in 2009, with a thesis titled "Invisible signs: Ethnic inequalities in health care and survival between Maori and non-Maori patients with colon cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand," supervised by Professor Tony Blakely. This work was selected for the Pro-Vice Chancellor's List of Exceptional PhD Theses. Earlier, she earned an MPH and participated in the New Zealand Census-Mortality Study (NZCMS, 2003). From July 2005 to February 2009, Hill served as Senior Researcher at the Wellington campus of the Department of Public Health. Trained as a medical doctor, she practiced clinically in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and West Africa before specializing in public health, achieving Fellowship of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine in 2005. In 2007, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, enabling her to work as a Visiting Researcher at Harvard University's Department of Society, Human Development, and Health.

Hill's research specializations encompass health inequalities, cancer epidemiology, ethnic disparities in healthcare, tobacco control, and commercial determinants of health. During her Otago tenure, she authored key publications such as "Ethnicity and Management of Colon Cancer in New Zealand: Do Indigenous Patients Get a Worse Deal?" (Cancer, 2010), "Survival disparities in Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealanders with colon cancer: the role of patient comorbidity, treatment and health service factors" (Social Science & Medicine, 2010), "Indigenous inequalities in cancer: what role for health care?" (ANZ Journal of Surgery, 2013), and "The effect of comorbidity on the use of adjuvant chemotherapy and survival from colon cancer: a retrospective cohort study" (BMC Cancer, 2009). Additional works include audits of the New Zealand Cancer Registry (2008) and studies on secondhand smoke mortality (2007). Her research has illuminated systemic factors contributing to poorer cancer outcomes for Indigenous populations, influencing public health policy and practice on equitable care. With over 2,200 citations, Hill's scholarship demonstrates substantial impact in addressing socioeconomic and ethnic health gradients.