Associate Professor Susanne Roehr

Dr. Susanne Röhr is Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Social Determinants of Dementia at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW Sydney. Before joining CHeBA in early 2025, she held a position as Associate Professor of Psychology at Massey University in Auckland, where she co-led the New Zealand Body, Mind and Ageing Study (NZ-BMA). Her interdisciplinary background spans psychology, epidemiology, and public health, with a Master of Science in Psychology, a PhD in Social Medicine and a Venia Legendi in Epidemiology and Public Health from the University of Leipzig, Germany. Following her PhD and prior to relocating to Aotearoa New Zealand, she led the research group Epidemiology and Population Brain Health at the University of Leipzig. Susanne is a Global Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI).

Susanne's research focuses on modifiable risk and protective factors for brain health, cognitive ageing, and dementias across the lifespan, with a particular interest in understanding what is modifiable, for whom, when, and under what conditions, to better inform policy and practice. Her work examines inequalities and the social and structural determinants of brain health, including the broader societal and planetary forces shaping opportunities for healthy ageing. Beyond identifying vulnerability, she is also interested in understanding resistance and resilience, as well as how risk and protective factors differ across population groups, particularly by sex and gender. She draws on these insights to inform and develop innovative approaches to population- and individual-level brain health promotion, including the design and evaluation of equitable multidomain dementia risk-reduction interventions.

Susanne has led multiple large-scale studies and collaborates extensively across international consortia, including COSMIC. In 2026, she was awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship to investigate temporal inequity and its societal impacts in Australia. Her research has been recognised with multiple awards and draws on both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, bridging research with policy and community engagement. Susanne integrates creative methods such as arts, photovoice, and documentary filmmaking into her research to explore and communicate complex social and health-related themes in more accessible ways. At UNSW, she continues her commitment to advancing research on brain health equity and sustainable ageing globally.