Glen is a PhD Candidate with over 30 years’ experience in health care policy and advocacy as a senior executive and director. He has initiated, and instituted public inquiries, judicial inquiries, and legislative changes at State and Commonwealth levels resulting in policy change improvements to injury and communicable disease prevention, access to mental health services, and access to specialist medical services.  

With degrees in Psychology, History and Philosophy of Science, Health Leadership & Management, and Public Health, Glen’s current research and policy work is in health promotion, epidemiology, healthy cities, and pandemic preparedness. He currently serves on the board and committees of the Australian Health Promotion Association; Australasian Epidemiological Association; Public Health Association of Australia (NSW); Alliance for Healthy Cities; Australian & New Zealand Head and Neck Cancer Society; and Rare Cancers Australia. He is also an Associate Fellow, Australasian College of Health Service Management; and a Fellow, Royal Society for Public Health; Royal Society of Medicine; Governance Institute of Australia; Australian Instate of Management; and Institute of Managers and Leaders Australia & New Zealand. 

His thesis is entitled “The Politics of Pandemics: A policy analysis of Australia’s national public health response to COVID-19”. 

What sparked your interest in health equity?

I was fortunate in my early career working with non-profits to have a lot of exposure to the inner workings of political and policy decision making at the highest levels of government on health-related issues. As a result, I was shocked, angered, and frustrated at the callousness, expediency, and at times apathetic nature, in which many policy decisions were made. It was in many cases the antithesis of equity, fairness, and from a pragmatic perspective, just decent effective policy. In one instance, the way in which evidence was manipulated (and falsified) to attain certain political objectives on a particular mental health issue was one of the most abhorrent things I’ve experienced in my health advocacy career. Instead of addressing the health inequities across the social gradient many of these policies seemed to reinforce or ignore it altogether! Many years later, preventing similar future inequitable government health policies continues to be a strong driver of my research, advocacy and consulting work.