Helen Anscomb

Background: Helen Anscomb is a neuroanatomist. clinical anatomist and the newly appointed Professor of Anatomy and Histology at Flinders University, SA. She is retaining her long-standing association with James Cook University via an Adjunct role within the College of Medicine and Dentistry (2024-2027 inclusive).

Whilst at JCU, she served as the Academic Lead (Head) for Anatomy and Pathology (from 2012-2022) and Year 1 Coordinator of the MBBS program (2010-2021) in the College of Medicine and Dentistry. During this time her leadership roles included being the Anatomical Licensee and Coordinator of the Human Bequest Program (overseen by Queensland Health) and she held responsibility for strategic leadership and oversight of the anatomical teaching facilities, resources and management of teaching activities for both the Townsville and Cairns campuses.

In 2015, she developed and became Course Coordinator for the RACS (Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) accredited Graduate Diploma of Surgical Anatomy at JCU. Throughout her time at JCU, she was involved in teaching undergraduate human anatomy to Medical and Allied Health professional students across the Academy and into postgraduate medical programmes, as well as a number of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses run by the College (Surgical training) and for the JCU GP Registrars’ training programs. Helen has an outstanding and sustained personal track-record of educational leadership in relation to innovative teaching delivery, curriculum development and evaluation, and the development and implementation of scholarly teaching initiatives. Her experience in course design, and establishment in collaboration with clinical and industry partnerships sets her apart as someone who can design, initiate and deliver high quality and in-demand course offerings whilst establishing and maintaining effective teaching and research collaborations. She has a strong commitment to fostering academic excellence in foundation science and clinically applied education and research and her contributions to excellence and scholarship in tertiary level education have been recognized internationally through Senior Fellowship (SFHEA) of Advance HE.

Helen has presented her academic work in more than 50 research publications through peer-reviewed scientific journals, peer-reviewed conference proceedings. invited presentations, book chapters and abstracts. During her career she has supervised and mentored more than 10 research and Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students (including 5 PhD, and 3 Honours) from a number of disciplinary backgrounds and is currently the primary supervisor of a further 2 PhD candidates within the College of Medicine and Dentistry. She was Project Co-Lead on the National Health and Medical Research Council project grant (NHMRC: APP1003788) to investigate the Development of anti-TNF treatment strategies for cognitive decline in association with collaborators at the University of Adelaide, SA. In all, her contributions to scholarly research have generated more than $550,000 in high profile and Category-1 and 3 grants through strategically aligned, interdisciplinary collaborative projects (NHMRC in 2011; AITHM (Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine) in 2014). She has also won a number of internal University research grants to the sum of ~$65,000.

Helen’s outstanding and sustained contributions to teaching and teaching leadership are evidenced through sustained funding via Learning and Teaching projects (current grants include a $2,000 – OER Grant; $5,000 – Cat B: Promoting active learning and student engagement and $10,000 – Cat C: Immersive learning for 2023); Personal Teaching and Development awards (including – JCU Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning Citationand Faculty Scholar Development Award) and Awards/Nominations from peers, students and colleagues (Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) citation nominations; JCU Top 10 lecturer – Unijobs; JCU Medical Student Association (JCUMSA) outstanding contribution to teaching award).

In terms of her contributions to service and engagement at JCU, Helen was an active member of numerous internal committees including Postgraduate Studies (Medicine), Board of Studies (Medicine), Assessment Committee (Medicine), and Learning, Teaching and Curriculum Management (College of Medicine and Dentistry), and had sustained experience as a Subject and Course Coordinator. In 2023 she was Acting Associate Dean Learning & Teaching (May-October) for the College and has contributed to strategic educational leadership with the College via Cabinet, Summit and College Council. She has also contributed to the promotion of learning and teaching quality and innovation through roles in internal course-review, in collaborations with the Centre of Education and Enhancement (Education Division) and through Course Performance Review (CPR) and reporting. Externally, Helen has held key positions within the Queensland Health Schools of Anatomy Managers Network (SOAMN), where she assisted in the re-development of legislative guidelines, audit tools and processes and contributing to procedural reform and policy review. She has also peer-reviewed for national grant funding bodies (i.e. NHMRC) and internationally recognised journals and is a long-standing member of a number of scholarly societies (ANZACA, the Anatomical Society (AS) and ANZAHPE).