Professor Cathy Vaughan
Director
Research Focus: Violence against women, Gender and health, Health equity
Professor Cathy Vaughan is a public health researcher with expertise in gender, violence prevention and response, sexual and reproductive health, and health systems. She has over 25 years’ experience working in Asia and the Pacific, as well as Australia.
Cathy has extensive experience using qualitative and participatory research methods to work with groups experiencing health inequalities, including migrant and refugee women, women with disability, faith communities and young people, to generate evidence about the social and structural underpinnings of health. Her work is underpinned by a commitment to participatory approaches to health research and to strengthening research capacity.
Her current research focuses on the impact of intersecting inequalities on health, and in particular on the ways intersecting inequalities shape experiences of gender-based violence and the effectiveness of violence prevention and response initiatives. This includes a particular focus on technology-facilitated gender-based violence in Asia and the Pacific.
She uses her expertise in co-design approaches to work with community groups, NGOs and government departments to strengthen the use of research in the development, implementation and evaluation of health programs in settings across Asia and the Pacific.
Cathy has taught into the Master of Public Health program at The University of Melbourne since 2011, coordinating subjects on participatory research methodologies and community engagement, and on women's health. She co-leads the kNOwVAWdata course to strengthen capacity to conduct safe, ethical and rigorous research on violence against women in low- and middle-income countries; and leads the Co-Design and Implementation Effectiveness node of the Methods and Implementation Support for Clinical and Health research hub (MISCH) at the university.