Allison Milner Early Career Research Fellowship

Photo of Allison Milner

The Allison Milner Early Career Research Fellowship has been established by the University of Melbourne and the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences to honour the legacy of Associate Professor Allison Milner who died in the most unexpected of circumstances in August 2019. The fellowship will support an early-career researcher currently working in the area of public health and health equity. An area in which Allison was deeply passionate.

Please support the fellowship by donating here.

About Associate Professor Allison Milner

Associate Professor Allison Milner was an outstanding scholar who conducted research that was firmly focussed on improving the lives of disadvantaged groups. Allison strove to find ways to promote mental health and prevent suicide. She saw workforce participation and building cohesive, fairer, and health-promoting work environments as key to improving mental health and wellbeing. She firmly believed that everyone had the right to a job including people who have been historically excluded from the workforce such as people with a disability and disadvantaged young individuals. But she didn’t see paid work as the endgame – she also believed that work should be a positive experience. Her research demonstrated the importance of paid, quality work for mental health and suicide prevention.

Allison ‘walked the talk’ of her research. In the workplace she built connections, looked out for her colleagues, helped build their careers and brought colour, fun and laughter. She worked tirelessly but strived to make her workplace a healthy place to be.

Collaborating broadly across academia and the wider public, Allison worked with a number of ‘at-risk’ groups to identify and develop interventions for suicide prevention. One such group was construction workers, where Allison’s research helped in the development of a programme to address mental health by the charity MATES in Construction. She also worked tirelessly with disadvantaged young people, including young people with disability, to find ways to enable more positive transitions into the workforce.

The fellowship established in Allison’s honour will ensure continued support in areas which she was passionate. We hope the intellect and genuine care Allison had for the health and wellbeing of vulnerable groups will continue now and into the future.

About the Fellowship

The Allison Milner Early Career Research Fellowship will fund a single talented early career researcher to develop a program of research to reduce inequities in line with Allison’s values and interests. The fellowship will position the fellow to be a future research leader in this sorely needed research field.

The recipient of this one-off fellowship will demonstrate the values and qualities that Allison emulated including a commitment to social justice, valuing of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and collaborative team-based research that includes academics, government and non-government organisations and advocates. They will conduct applied research that is of relevance to policy and advocacy.

Donate towards the fellowship