Rate My Professor Juli Coffin – Ellison

Professor Juli Coffin, a proud Nyangumarta Aboriginal woman from the Pilbara region, serves as the Ellison Professor of Aboriginal Young People's Social and Emotional Wellbeing in the Health Sciences at Murdoch University’s Ngangk Yira Institute for Change, a position she has held since 2022. She earned a Bachelor of Education, a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine with distinction, and a PhD, for which she received the Vice Chancellor’s medal for research excellence. Her career trajectory includes appointments as Senior Lecturer in Aboriginal Health at the Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health (University of Western Australia), faculty at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and researcher at the Telethon Kids Institute. Professor Coffin’s academic interests center on cultural security, chronic disease management, community development, health promotion, and equine psychotherapy, with a particular emphasis on enhancing social and emotional wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal youth through culturally secure interventions.

Professor Coffin developed the pioneering Yawardani Jan-ga Equine Assisted Learning program, the first of its kind globally in the Kimberley region, which has supported over 2000 Aboriginal young people and collaborated with more than 50 community organizations to build confidence, self-awareness, and emotional regulation via horse interactions led by Aboriginal practitioners. Her influential publications include “Rising to the Challenge in Aboriginal Health by Creating Cultural Security” (2007), “Decolonising Australian Community Development Tools” (2016), “Our Journey, Our Story: A Study Protocol for the Evaluation of a Co-Design Framework to Improve Services for Aboriginal Youth Mental Health and Well-Being” (2021), and “Wongi mi bardup (doing it our way)” (2020). She has secured major grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council and Healthway. Notable awards encompass the 2021 Minister’s Award for Outstanding Contribution and Youth Focus for Change Award at the Western Australian Mental Health Awards, induction into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame, and the 2024 Australian Mental Health Prize in the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander category. Professor Coffin also serves on the State Training Board.