Madeleine Lawson
Scholar Profile
Madeleine is a proud Ngemba woman, who completed a Bachelor of Public Health at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in 2021. Our Club is currently supporting her by way of an Australian Rotary Health Indigenous Scholarship as she completes the final stages of a Master of Public Health at UOW.
Madeleine is passionate about public health, specifically health promotion that aims to prevent chronic illness by educating people about risk factors for certain chronic diseases. She has always been interested in taking the skills learned in her undergraduate degree and working in the Aboriginal health sector to give back to her community.
Throughout Madeleine’s undergraduate degree, she had the chance to intern with the National Health and Medical Research Council working with the public health team. This internship involved working on the scoping review that examined the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Indigenous Guide to Healthy Eating for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Through this internship, Madeleine was able to learn about the most prominent issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nutrition including food insecurity, lack of education and limited financial resources. Madeleine also interned at the Thurru Indigenous centre at the University of Newcastle where she had a chance to co-author the development of the Trauma Response in Public Health journal article written by the University of Newcastle that looked at relevant chronic diseases in Aboriginal communities.
Madeleine began working for the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AH&MRC) as a community engagement officer in the policy team. Throughout this time at AH&MRC she developed a knowledge and skill base across relevant domains of health under the ‘Closing the Gap’ initiatives. Madeleine had the opportunity to go into communities across New South Wales to hear about common health issues people are facing. This allowed the team to work with government to overcome these issues.
Madeleine continues to work at AH&MRC whilst studying for her Master’s degree so that she can continue contributing to the Aboriginal health sector and developing her workplace skills.