Rate My Professor Kelby Smith-Han

Dr. Kelby Smith-Han is a Senior Lecturer in Health Professions Education in the School of Allied Health at the University of Western Australia. He moved to Perth in 2022 from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he taught undergraduate medical students for 15 years. His previous roles at Otago included Teaching Fellow from 2008 to 2022, Postdoctoral Fellow from 2014 to 2020, and Research Fellow from 2020 to 2023. Dr. Smith-Han's academic background comprises a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Otago awarded in 2000, a Master of Health Sciences endorsed in Mental Health from Otago in 2002 with the thesis "Bullying Behaviour at school and Mental Health," a Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Education from Otago in 2014 titled "'Just a GP': an exploration of undergraduate medical students' discourses of General Practice," and a Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Education from the University of Dundee in 2019.

Currently, Dr. Smith-Han contributes to teaching in the Humanities in Health and Medicine major and the postgraduate Certificate, Diploma, and Master courses in health professions education at UWA. His research interests focus on student learning development, including professional identity, transformational learning, professionalism, health humanities, and threshold concepts; the health and wellbeing of health professional students; and academic staff development via metacognition strategies for teachers. Key publications include "Conceptualising wellbeing among health-care workers during the Covid-19 pandemic" (Health, 2025, with McHugh, Trotman, and Nicholson), "Enhancing capabilities and careers in Health Professions Education - An impact evaluation" (2025), "Using Health Humanities in Health Professions Education" (2025), "Reasons for why Medical Students Prefer Specific Sleep Management Strategies" (Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 2024), and "How educators can preserve empathetic, human, health care in an increasingly technological age: Using arts and humanities in health professional education. Workshop" (2024, with Darbyshire). He has produced 40 research outputs in total. Dr. Smith-Han has earned major awards such as the UWA Excellence in Teaching Award for a Program that Enhances Learning (shared with Carr, Evans, and Bartle, 2025), School of Allied Health Teaching Excellence Award - Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (2024), School of Allied Health Excellence in Teaching Award for a Program that Enhances Learning (shared, 2024), Associate Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (2023), and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2023).