Anita is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and Associate Professor at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Sydney, Australia. Anita’s research focuses on three key areas: vaccine-preventable disease epidemiology; travel-associated infectious disease risks; and migrant, refugee and international traveller immunisation gaps. She led the migrant, traveller and refugee research stream for the Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) in population health: Immunisation in under-studied and special risk populations (2012-2016) and now leads a program of research in travel, migrant and refugee immunisation at SPHCM. Her current research includes a large serosurvey of university students, including international students, which aims to determine travel health behaviours and population immunity to a range of vaccine preventable diseases. She has published over 70 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and over $1.5 million in grants as chief investigator. Anita has a background in immunisation policy, and in her previous role at Australia’s National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) she contributed to several technical reports for the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, supporting government decisions on inclusion of new vaccines on the Australian National Immunisation Program. Anita is Director of the Master of Public Health program at SPHCM and contributes to teaching including convening Epidemiology and Statistics for Public Health and Immunisation Policy and Practice.
Areas of expertise
- Immunisation uptake
- Immigrant health
- Migrant travellers
- Vaccine preventable disease epidemiology
- Quantitative research methods