Rate My Professor Melissa Harris

Dr Melissa Harris is a Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She earned her PhD in Gender and Health and Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) Honours from the University of Newcastle. Beginning her career at the University of Newcastle, she served as Research Associate in the Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing from 2009 to 2011, Research Assistant in the Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health in 2012, and Research Academic in the Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing from 2012 to 2014. She is currently a Brawn Research Fellow at the Centre for Women’s Health Research, co-lead of the Worldwide Wellness of Mothers and Babies (WWOMB) program, Deputy Director of the HMRI Women’s Health Research Program leading sexual and reproductive health and chronic disease streams, and Research Project Manager at Hunter Medical Research Institute. Dr Harris has taught courses in experimental methodology, population health, and early childhood health policy.

Her research specializes in women's health, focusing on contraceptive use and family planning across the reproductive life course in high- and low- to middle-income countries, chronic disease management, and psychosocial factors influencing physical health and healthcare outcomes. Employing innovative methods such as longitudinal modelling, data linkage, and cohort recruitment via social media, she has produced key findings on complex contraceptive patterns, unintended pregnancy, long-acting reversible contraception uptake, and stress as a risk factor for arthritis and type 2 diabetes. Select publications include 'The Influence of Perceived Stress on the Onset of Arthritis in Women: Findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health' (Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 2013), 'Recruiting Online: Lessons From a Longitudinal Survey of Contraception and Pregnancy Intentions of Young Australian Women' (American Journal of Epidemiology, 2015), 'Contraceptive use among women through their later reproductive years: Findings from an Australian prospective cohort study' (PLoS ONE, 2021), 'Psychological factors in arthritis: Cause or consequence?' (2016), and 'Stress increases the risk of type 2 diabetes onset in women: A 12-year longitudinal study using causal modelling' (PLoS ONE, 2017). Dr Harris has received the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2018), AHRA Women's Health Research Translation Early and Mid-Career Researcher Award (2021), University of Newcastle VC Excellence Awards for Research Supervision Excellence (2021), and University of Newcastle Postgraduate Research Scholarship (2011). With over 100 publications, four invited commentaries, and more than $900,000 in competitive funding, her research informs contraceptive services, clinical training, therapeutic guidelines, and national policies on mental health and chronic disease.