Associate Professor Morwenna Kirwan

I am a Senior Research Fellow in the Co-design Health Research and Innovation Team at UNSW, with a PhD in Health Behaviour Change. My research uses technology to facilitate lifestyle health behaviour change, including physical activity, exercise, nutrition, and chronic disease self-management, applying co-design methodology to develop, and rigorous evaluation methods to test, community-based programs with priority populations, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, older adults, people with diabetes, and culturally diverse communities.

I lead and co-lead studies that co-design programs with the communities they serve, to promote physical activity, exercise, nutrition, and chronic disease self-management, and improve health outcomes. I have secured more than $5.3 million in competitive and philanthropic research funding as Chief Investigator, including two Medical Research Future Fund grants and a major philanthropic research award, and have published widely on the effectiveness of community-based group exercise and lifestyle interventions for improving health outcomes. My work spans the development and evaluation of evidence-based exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle programs that support sustainable health improvements in community settings.

With over twenty years' experience in higher education, I bring a strong record of educational leadership and curriculum innovation alongside my research. I have led major curriculum initiatives, including a faculty-wide interdisciplinary curriculum repository and a co-designed cultural safety curriculum for health professional education, and have been recognised with a national teaching citation from the Australian Awards for University Teaching, multiple university teaching excellence awards, Senior Fellowship of the UK Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), and the world-first Associate Fellowship (Indigenous) of the Higher Education Academy. I have also mentored colleagues to more than a dozen university and national teaching awards. Combined with fifteen years in research and health technology innovation, this gives me expertise spanning curriculum development, educational leadership, and translational research implementation, grounded in cultural responsiveness, innovation, and practical impact.