Maxine Whittaker
Biography
Maxine A. Whittaker, MBBS, MPH , PhD, FAFPHM, GAICD, is a public health physician and health systems researcher who is an international expert on improving the health systems and services to increase accessibility and acceptability of quality services to populations and a public health leader in One Health and the Director of the World Health Organisation's Collaborating Centre for Vector Borne Diseases and Neglected Tropical Diseases.
She is a member of the Quadripartite One Health High Level Expert Advisory
Panel, the Australian Government’s Partnerships for a Healthy Region and a
member of the Queensland Government’s Biosecurity Ministerial Advisory
Committee.
Experience Maxine Whittaker has lived and worked in Bangladesh, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Papua New Guniea and worked extensively in China, Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Thailand , Tonga, Vanuatu, and Vietnam. She has extensive experience in project and programme design in health and development, especially in infectious diseases, One Health, and sexual and reproductive health, gender analysis, and using rapid formative research and anthropological methods and for a variety of international development partner and NGO organizations. From 2006-2009 she was the Senior Technical Health Adviser to the National Department of Health in Papua New Guinea where she was involved in health and development policy work, technical programme support especially in disease control and family health services, and a member of several national committees to advise the Ministry of Health. In 2017 she was awarded the Royal Australasian College of Physicians International Medal in recognition of outstanding service in developing countries.
Research Interests Maxine Whittaker research interests are in fields of operational and health services research and medical anthropology, with a primary focus on Oe Health, sexual and reproductive health, health seeking behaviour and quality of care. She has a special interest in the issue of scaling-up pilot programmes into policy and practice, and as a founding member of Expandnet has contributed to a body of work published by WHO on this topic. She is co-chaired the Health Systems panel (http://www.malariaeradication.org/malera-refresh) and is recognized as one of the leaders in re-invigorating social sciences and community participation in the malaria research agenda.
Since 2009 has been CI on research and project grants in the Asia Pacific region worth more than $A80 million including several from DFAT published more than 80 peer reviewed publications, and several project documents for development partners and countries, policy briefings, briefing papers, book chapters and commissioned papers.
Present service and leadership roles
- Civil Society Representative to the Global Fund Regional Artemisin Initiatives Regional Steering Committee (https://www.malariafreemekong.org/contents/malaria-free-mekong-a-platform-of-communities-and-civil-society-organizations-announces-the-appointment-of-global-fund-rai-rsc-cso-representatvies-amd-alternates) (2021-)
-- Member, Internal Review Panel, Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
-Member of the Technical Reference Group of the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia)(https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/) - -
- Member Queensland Government's Biosecurity Ministerial Advisory Council (2019- now) (https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/biosecurity/policy-legislation-regulation/biosecurity-queensland-ministerial-advisory-committee).
- Member of the Public Health Association of Australia
- Member, Steering Committee CSIRO Strengthening Pandemic Preparedness: Sceicne and technology enabled solutions mission (2021-2022)
- Executive Committee of Australian Network of WHO Collaborating Centres.
- Member of the Communicable Disease Research Centre Reference Group, Fiji Institute of Pacific Health Research at Fiji National University
Previous positions She was previously Dean of the College of Public Health, Medcial and Veterinary Sciences at James Cook University (2016-2021); and Professor of International and Tropical Health and Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Health Information Systems, Director of the Health Information Systems Knowledge Hub, Program Director of the Australian Initiative on Control and Elimination of Malaria/Pacific Malaria Initiative Support Centre and co-Secretariat of the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (2008-2016) .
Previous service and leadership roles She was the Chair of the Board of Trustees (2019), Board of Trustee member ( 2014-2019) and member of the Scientific Advisory Group of icddr,b (https://www.icddrb.org/).
2003-2022 Chair/Co- Chair/Member of the WHO Research Project Review Panel (RP2) of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research including the WHO Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/about_us/en/)
Other professional activities:
Temporary adviser to Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, WHO Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, 15-24 February, 2022
Temporary adviser to World Health Organisation (Western Pacific Region) to 4th meeting Technical Advisory Group on Universal Health Coverage (19-21 August 2020) and 5th Meeting (15-17 November 2021)
Temporary adviser to World Health Organisation (Western Pacific Region) to Consultation on Reaching the Unreached (27-29 July 2020)
Editorial Board CABI One Health Resources https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/do/10.5555/cabi-one-health-resources (2022 -)
Section Editor for Health Systems and Social Science of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Associate Editor for Malaria Journal
Associate Editor Public Health Action
Editorial Board Member One Health Bulletin (Hainan Medical University Press)
Member of the RBM Country and Regional Support Partners Committee
Member of the Australian Anthropological Society
Member of the Society for Applied Anthropology
Member of the Royal Society for Tropcial Medicine and Hygiene
Member of Expandnet
Technical Advisor, International Development, Storyboxes (https://www.thestoryboxes.com/)
Mentor in the ASTMH Committee on Global Health (ACGH) Mentorship Initiative (2019)
Mentor in the Catalyse Mentorship program - advancing women scientists in Aboriginal and Tropical health (Menzies Institute)(2019 and 2021)
Mentor AFPHM (2022-)
Consultant, Fred Hollows Foudnation (NZ) to develop an Eye Health roadmap for Papua New Guinea (2021-2022)
Media Events
Radio:
The Health Report - Guest profile
The Health Report: Reducing death in childbirth (Aired: Monday 8 November 2010 8:39AM)
The Global Body Psrt 4: The future of the human race https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/maxine-whittaker/3917878 (Broadcast Mon 14 Jan 2013, 5:30pm)
The Conversation
https://theconversation.com/profiles/maxine-whittaker-349567/articles
YouTube/Videos
Situational Analysis on health services in northern Australia webinar for CRC NA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gKjoddtCQc and related publications https://crcna.com.au/resources/publications/northern-australia-health-service-delivery-situational-analysis-webinar and
Open Access (JCU Open Access Week 2019)
Introduction to One Health https://youtu.be/f2URbp318eg
Mi aigris long koins bilong em' ('I was attracted to him because of his money'): Polygamy, sexual agency and women in contemporary Papua New Guinea The 2013 Australasian HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health Conference, Recorded on 21-25 October 2013 in Darwin, Australia. -https://www.sexualhealthvisual.com/Video_by_Agnes_Mek_on_Mi_aigris_long_koins_bilong_em_I_was_attracted_to_him_because_of_his_money_Polygamy_sexual_agency_and_women_in_contemporary_Papua_New_Guinea_1.html#lectures
Books
Released in 2021: One Health: The Theory and Practice of Integrated Health Approaches 2nd edition. October 2020 Edited by Jakob Zinsstag, Esther Schelling, Lisa Crump, Maxine Whittaker, Marcel Tanner and Craig Stephen