Rate My Professor Deborah Gleeson

Deborah Gleeson is a Professor in Public Health in the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University, where she leads the discipline of Health Practice and Management and serves as Discipline Cluster Lead in the Department of Public Health. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Science (BSc MLS), Graduate Diploma in Health Promotion, Master of Public Health (MPH), and PhD in Health Policy from Australian universities including La Trobe University and RMIT University. Gleeson began her academic career at La Trobe as a Research Fellow in the School of Public Health, progressing through Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Associate Professor positions to her current role as Professor. She teaches postgraduate subjects in health policy and health law and coordinates courses in the Master of Public Health program.

Her research focuses on public health policy, particularly the impacts of international trade and investment agreements on public health systems, access to medicines, pharmaceutical policy, alcohol policy, tobacco control, nutrition policy, and the commercial determinants of health involving pharmaceutical and alcohol industries. Gleeson has produced 129 peer-reviewed publications with over 2,200 citations. Key works include the co-authored book Trade Agreements and Public Health: A Primer for Health Policy Makers, Researchers and Advocates (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, with R. Labonté); 'Analyzing the impact of trade and investment agreements on pharmaceutical policy: provisions, pathways and potential impacts' (Globalization and Health, 2019); 'Global inequities in access to COVID-19 health products and technologies: A political economy analysis' (Health & Place, 2023); 'Pandemic Agreement Must Include Levers to Redirect Pharmaceutical Industry Behaviour During Pandemics' (International Journal of Health Policy & Management, 2024); and 'Factors Influencing the Prioritisation of Access to Medicines in Trade-related Intellectual Property Policymaking in Thailand' (The Journal of World Intellectual Property, 2024). She received the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) President’s Award in 2015 for leadership on trade and public health issues. Gleeson co-convenes the PHAA Political Economy of Health Special Interest Group, serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Globalization and Health, and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Global Health Centre of the Geneva Graduate Institute.