Dr Julie Leask is a senior research fellow and manager of social research at the National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance. She is also senior lecturer (conjoint) appointment with the Sydney Medical School and formerly visiting research fellow, University of Leeds. [More...]

Dr Julie Leask is a senior research fellow and manager of social research at the National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance. She is also senior lecturer (conjoint) appointment with the Sydney Medical School and formerly visiting research fellow, University of Leeds.

Julie has a background in public health, nursing and midwifery with a Master of Public Health (1998) and PhD (2003) from the University of Sydney.

Julie is a social scientist specialising in immunisation issues, particularly vaccine risk perception and communication. At NCIRS, Julie leads a program of research on public and professionals' beliefs, perceptions and practices regarding immunisation and infectious diseases.

Julie's immunisation research incorporates diverse areas including psychological and socio-cultural theories on risk, bioethics, mass media production and framing, coverage of health issues, social disadvantage, program evaluation and shared decision making.

Julie's most recent work focuses on seasonal and pandemic influenza and on vaccination in pregnancy. She is primary supervisor for three PhD candidates (Catherine King, Maria Chow and Kerrie Wiley) and two Masters candidates(Telphia Joseph and Braedon Donald).

Julie is former convenor of the University of Sydney Qualitative Health Research group (1999) and worked as editorial assistant for Tobacco Control, a BMJ subsidiary journal (1999-2001). Her PhD was supervised by Simon Chapman.

Julie has been an invited speaker at a range of international and national conferences and has published and taught on immunisation controversies, the anti-vaccination lobby, public and health professional perceptions and mass communications.

In 2002 she convened the first national workshop on the Perception and Communication of Vaccine Risk in Melbourne. In 2009, Julie was a panelist and speaker at a meeting held by the Institute of Medicine to review communication priorities in the US National Vaccine Plan. She is a member of the MOTIV international Think Tank (Motivators of Trust in Immunisation) and an advisor to a project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine monitoring public concerns about vaccination which is being led by Dr Heidi Larson. [Hide detail]