Rate My Professor Marita Lynagh

Associate Professor Marita Lynagh is a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Health Behaviour Science, School of Medicine and Public Health, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle, Australia. She completed her PhD in 2004 at the University of Newcastle with a thesis evaluating a health promoting schools approach to reduce sun exposure, smoking, and unsafe alcohol use among secondary school students. Her academic background includes a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) and a Bachelor of Human Movement Studies from the University of Queensland, along with a Graduate Diploma of Social Health Sciences (Health Promotion) from the University of Newcastle.

Lynagh's research focuses on health behaviour change strategies, particularly incentive-based interventions, physical activity promotion, alcohol harm reduction, tobacco control, and the unmet needs of haematological cancer survivors and their support persons. She has conducted evaluations such as a National Heart Foundation-funded feasibility trial using financial incentives to help pregnant smokers quit. She collaborates on Cancer Australia and beyond blue-funded national studies on haematological cancer survivors, and a National Institutes of Health-funded longitudinal study on food marketing's influence on preschoolers' dietary intake. Her work also addresses selection tools for undergraduate medicine admissions. Over more than 20 years at the University of Newcastle, Lynagh has developed and taught innovative curricula in nursing, health sciences, education, and medicine programs. She held an Honorary Research Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Visiting Professorship at Dartmouth Medical School's Hood Centre for Children and Families. Lynagh serves on the Discipline Management Committee, JMP Admissions Committee, Academic Senate Committees, National UMAT Technical Sub-Committee, and reviews for journals like BMC Public Health, Medical Education, and Health Education Research. Awards include the 2015 Faculty of Health Career Enhancement Fellowship, 2011 Vice-Chancellor's Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, and 2007 Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Teaching Excellence. Key publications comprise 'Interventions for improving medical students' interpersonal communication in medical consultations' (2021), 'A scoping review of admission criteria and selection methods in nursing education' (2020), 'A national study of the unmet needs of support persons of haematological cancer survivors' (2018), and 'Have we got the selection process right? The validity of selection tools for predicting academic performance in the first year of undergraduate medicine' (2017), contributing to over 1,600 citations.