Dr Philayrath Phongsavan, Director
BA MPH PhD

Philayrath Phongsavan is a member of the Australian Centre for Health Promotion Research Unit. She is also a Team Investigator in the NHMRC Capacity Building Grant titled 'Building Capacity for Physical Activity Research in Population Health'. She holds this position as a Research Fellow with the School of Public Health and Community, at the University of Sydney, and is also affiliated with the NSW Centre for Physical Activity and Health. Her professional interests are in applying health promotion research evidence to practice, particularly in the area of chronic diseases. Her current work centres on the public health aspects of physical activity research and health promotion, with a focus on examining the empirical links between psychosocial health and physical activity. She also has strong interests in measurement development, developing and managing population-health surveys, intervention development and evaluation. She is a co-investigator of the first Australian randomised controlled trial examining the effects of pedometer-regulated walking program on patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders.

Most recently, Philayrath has spent over three years living in the Pacific where she held a health and nutrition position with the United Nations Children's Funds (UNICEF) in the Pacific. She was responsible for developing policy and implementing programs relating to a range of public health initiatives: from chronic diseases [eg. tobacco control, obesity prevention] to malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies [eg. iron fortification, infant and child feeding practices]. She worked closely with UN agencies, national governments, NGOs and donor agencies such as AusAID, NZODA and UK-DFID across the Asia-Pacific region. She also contributed to building the capacity of the health workforce to address both non-communicable and communicable diseases facing many Pacific countries at this time. Her research during this period has been predominantly field-based, co-ordinating and training of local health staff in population-wide surveys and implementation of public health interventions, and examining how the environment and culture influence nutrition but also health-related outcomes such as physical inactivity and obesity. Philayrath was one of the chief investigators responsible for the developmental and implementation of the first Pacific and nation-wide surveys assessing the Health Behaviour and Lifestyle [relating to tobacco use, physical activity, dietary practices, substance use] of adolescents in Vanuatu, Kingdom of Tonga and the Federated States of Micronesia.

She has authored over 30 technical reports and scientific publications and had presented on numerous national and international conferences. As well as her research responsibilities Philayrath contributes to MPH teaching in health promotion research methods and international health promotion at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney.