Rate My Professor Cassandra Lane

Dr Cassandra Lane is a PRSP Research Fellow in the School of Medicine and Public Health within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health and Behavioural Sciences from the University of Newcastle in 2022 and her Master of Public Health from the University of Victoria, Canada, in 2018. With over ten years of experience on multi-disciplinary teams, Dr Lane has co-designed, evaluated, scaled-up, and sustained various public health initiatives across Canada and Australia. Her current research advances equity-focused implementation science through partnerships with the NSW Centre for Population Health and Local Health Districts to enhance chronic disease prevention programs and services for rural and remote schools. As co-lead of the Hunter New England Population Health cultural and equity network, she promotes responsive health promotion in schools serving high proportions of Aboriginal communities and other priority populations. A qualitative research enthusiast, Dr Lane has led or supported more than 30 qualitative projects, conducting upwards of 220 interviews and focus groups spanning health service evaluations to studies on intersectional gender equity and institutional reform. From 2022 to 2024, she led four qualitative studies for the University’s Athena Swan Cygnet reports, contributing to its successful Silver accreditation from Science in Australia Gender Equity.

Dr Lane’s impactful contributions are internationally recognised, evidenced by invitations to speak at prestigious events and awards including the 2023 Early Career Researcher Award for Research Impact and the 2025 Best Presentation award from the International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, the 2022 HMRI Research Team Award, and the 2022 NSW Health Keeping People Healthy Award. Key publications include 'How effective are physical activity interventions when they are scaled-up: a systematic review' (International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2021), 'Identifying essential implementation strategies: a mixed methods process evaluation of a multi-strategy policy implementation intervention for schools' (International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2022), 'Optimising a multi-strategy implementation intervention to improve the delivery of a school physical activity policy at scale: findings from a randomised noninferiority trial' (International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2022), 'Learning health systems approach for public health improvement: A case study in school-based physical activity promotion' (2023), 'Learning Health System to rapidly improve the implementation of a school physical activity policy' (Implementation Science Communications, 2024), and 'Learning health system for implementation, scale-up, and sustainment: a systematic review to consolidate guidance for improvement' (Implementation Science, 2026). Her work significantly influences public health implementation, particularly in educational settings.