Biography and expertise

Biography

Gillian Gould is a Professor in Health Equity and recently completed an NHMRC Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) Fellow, co-funded by Cancer Institute NSW, at Southern Cross University. She is an active vocationally registered GP, and a Tobacco Treatment Specialist. Her clinical work is at the Coffs Harbour Refugee Health Clinic which she co-founded in 2006. Previously a founding academic at UNSW Faculty of Medicine Rural Clinical School, Head of Campus Rural Clinical school, senior research fellow.

Gould's work contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals

Source: Scopus

Research

Gould's focus had been to improve tobacco smoking risks for Indigenous Australians. She co-developed, over a decade, multiple innovative strategies to tackle smoking with Aboriginal communities. Gould co-developed and led the first national trial for Indigenous pregnant smokers – SISTAQUIT(Supporting Indigenous Smokers To Assist Quitting) (Global Alliance for Chronic Disease (GACD)/NHMRC). This intervention was followed by an implementation phase called iSISTAQUIT in 40 health services supported by major funding from the Federal Department of Health. Gould will take iSISTAQUIT to full national scale in 2023-2026 and explore the translation to Indigenous populations globally. Impressively, Gould leads this key intervention from formative research to national scale in less than 7 years. The intervention aimed at health providers in antenatal care has potential to Close the Gap on Indigenous Smoking and improve the lives of Indigenous children. Gould is currently collaborating to design multi-behavioural approaches to aid refugees to address smoking, nutrition, alcohol and physical activity.

Supervision

Gillian is a Primary Supervisor for PhD students in her areas of expertise, having supervised six to completion and currently supervising three.

Other

(1985-present) Vocationally Registered Medical Practitioner with General & Specialist Registration Medical Board of Australia, AHPRA.

(2014-present) Endorsement Medical Acupuncturist, Medical Board of Australia, AHPRA.

(2002-present) Tobacco Treatment Specialist - Clinical, Australian Smoking Cessation Professionals.

Link

Honours

Outstanding Contribution to Impact Community - Research Excellence Award
Southern Cross University, 2025

Organisational affiliations

Professor, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University

Education

MBChB
University of Leeds (United Kingdom, Leeds)
Diploma in Drama
1980, University of Auckland (New Zealand, Auckland)
Grad Dip Experiential & Creative Arts Therapy
1999, Melbourne Institute for Experiential & Creative Arts Therapy
MA by Supervision Experiential & Creative Arts Therapy
2003, Master of Arts(MA, MA, AM, or AM), Melbourne Institute for Experiential & Creative Arts Therapy

Master's thesis: Choosing Wellbeing

PhD Public Health and Tropical Medicine
2015, Doctor of Philosophy, James Cook University (Australia, Townsville) - JCU

Thesis: Making Salient Messages for Indigenous Tobacco Control

Postgrad Cert Media and Medicine
20202020, Harvard Medical School (United States, Boston) - HMS