Steph Topp

Dr. Stephanie Topp has a background in global public health, political and social sciences. She is Professor of Global Health and Development in Discipline of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at James Cook University, and Honorary Principal Research Fellow at the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne. Dr.Topp’s academic training reflects transdisciplinary interests spanning global health (PhD, University of Melbourne, 2014), development studies (MPhil, Oxford University, 2006) public health (MIPH, University of Sydney, 2004) and modern history (BA(Hons), University of Sydney, 2002). Prior to joining JCU, she spent eight years living and working in Zambia, initially in public health policy and planning role with an international non-government organisation and subsequently as a research fellow. Dr. Topp joined JCU in 2015 as Senior Lecturer and was promoted to Professor on 1 January 2024.

Dr. Topp’s research addresses political and power struggles that underpin inequitable access to health care and health outcomes. As a global public health, policy and systems researcher and current NHMRC fellow, she draws on theories and methodologies from the social sciences to identify the system-strengthening potential of adjustments to public health policy, governance and health workforce management (particularly in low-resource, remote and correctional settings) as well as the links between cultural health and wellbeing. Dr. Topp’s research has been widely cited in national and international policy, technical guidance and evidence synthesis reports from the World Health Organization, European Union, USAID, and governments in Australia and Finland. Over the past five years Dr. Topp been chief investigator for competitive grants totalling $3.8 million including NHMRC, MRFF, CRC-NA and Canada's CIHR. Also in the past five years, she has published 70 (career total 117) scholarly articles in field-leading journals including Lancet Global Health, BMJ Global Health and Social Science and Medicine, and presented at national and international conferences. Her success in communicating her research was recognised with a QLD Young Tall Poppy Award in 2019.

Dr. Topp has an exemplary teaching record having received Dean’s Awards for Teaching (2020) and Subject Excellence (2020) and a prestigious national Teaching Excellence Award from the Council of Academic Public Health Institutions of Australasia in 2022. This award was one of only three annual awards commending high quality teaching and learning initiatives and inspirational influence in the field of public health. At JCU Dr. Topp serves as co-course coordinator for the recently established Masters of Public Health – Masters of Development Studies, and from 2019-2023 was Post Graduate Academic Advisor for a suite of 10 public health course offerings. Instrumental to her success in leading course and subject design is a national and international reputation for scholarship in teaching. She has written chapters in a range of influential texts including the WHO-published Health Policy and Systems Research Reader on Human Resources for Health; Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health and Preventive Medicine; and The Routledge Handbook of Global Development. She has guided and mentored four PhDs to timely completion, with a further five under supervision. Her leadership in mentoring and building research capacity was recognized as a featured guest on the WHO TDR's popular Global Health Matters Podcast in November 2022 discussing "Global Health Career Paths: Learn, Mentor, Practice, Repeat", an episode downloaded more than 2700 times on podcast platforms and YouTube.

Dr. Topp’s international reputation is demonstrated in senior leadership roles including as a member of the Board of Directors for Health Systems Global (2020-2024); and appointed Chair of the Programme Working Group for the 8th Global Symposium for Health Systems Research to be held in Nagasaki in 2024. She is on the Editorial Board of academic journals BMJ Global Health and Social Science & Medicine: Health Systems, and regularly serves as expert reviewer for national and international grant agencies including NHMRC, South Africa’s Medical Research Council (MRC), Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institutes for Health Research (NIHR).

ENGAGEMENT (Media, Blogs, Webinars)

• Sept 2022: UNSW Social Policy Research Centre Webinar: Aboriginal Cultural Governance in Health Research
• Aug 2022: Global Health Matters Podcast (WHO TDR): Global Health Career Paths: Learn, Mentor, Practice, Repeat.
• Jun 2022: Public Health Association of Australia - CDC Corner: Questions of scope and governance: A northern Queensland perspective on the proposed Centre for Disease Control. Blog.
• Jun 2022: WHO-SYSTAC Initiative & University of Geneva: Webinar - Health Systems Resilience: Framing Debates and Latest Evidence
• Jul 2022: Health Policy and Planning Blog: Health Policy and Planning’s Top 10 Articles Contributing to the 2021 Impact Factor [Edelman [...] Topp SM (2021) Modified scoping review of the enablers and barriers to implementing primary health care in the COVID-19 context]
• Dec 2021: Bloomberg Press: Omicron, Delta pave the wave for a new super variant Panel Discussion with Anja Trivedi, Bloomberg Opinion Columnist.
• Aug 2021: Health Policy and Planning Blog: Health Policy and Planning’s Top 10 Articles Contributing to the 2020 Impact Factor. [Sriram, Topp et al (2018) 10 Best Resources on Power in Health Policy and Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries]
• Apr 2021: Bloomberg Press: COVID isn't over, and the next wave may be worse. Interview with David Fickling, 31 Mar 2021.
• Jul 2020: Health Systems Governance Collaborative Webinar - Towards Equity, Full Agency and Greater Cultural Awareness. Part of the Building the Reset initiative.
• Jul 2020: CRC NA Press Release: The Northern Australia health service delivery situational analysis report is the first pan-northern assessment of issues and priorities for health service delivery.
• Feb 2020: International Health Politices: Power and politics: the case for linking resilience to health system governance.
• Jan 2019: Health Policy and Planning Blog: Top 10 Altmetric & Downloaded papers 2018 [Sriram, Topp et al (2018) 10 Best Resources on Power in Health Policy and Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries]
• Dec 2018: nam AIDSMap: Ten reasons people stop attending HIV care in Zambia
• Dec 2018: International Health Policies: Social Science Researchers' Musings on Power and Health Systems.
• Aug 2018: JCU Brighter: Buying power: What's trendy for international health donors.