Rate My Professor Stephen Bell

Stephen Bell is Adjunct Professor (Research) in Evidence Synthesis, Qualitative and Implementation Methods at Monash University's School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. He earned his PhD in Global Health and Sustainable Development from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2009, MA in Environment and Development from the same university in 2003 with distinction, and BA (Hons) in Human Geography from the University of Leeds in 2000. Currently, as Senior Principal Research Fellow, Co-Head of Global Adolescent Health, and Theme Lead of Social Science and Global Health at the Burnet Institute, Bell directs research on young people's sexual, reproductive, and maternal health. His focus areas include adolescent-responsive health services and systems, contraceptive innovation, safe abortion, enabling socio-structural environments, intersections of health and climate change, youth-led co-design of services, programs, and policies, as well as HIV, sexual and reproductive health, maternal health, neglected tropical diseases, tuberculosis, and Indigenous health. He specializes in qualitative research design, health and social risks, agency and action, sex-positive and rights-based approaches, community-based participatory research, and innovation in participatory and ethnographic methods such as photovoice and peer research.

Bell's distinguished career spans senior research and consultancy roles, including Associate Professor at the University of Queensland Poche Centre for Indigenous Health (2021-2022), Senior Research Fellow at UNSW Sydney's Kirby Institute and Centre for Social Research in Health (2013-2021), Senior Technical Advisor at Options Consultancy Services (2012-2013), Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group (2023), and Research Consultant at Population Services International (2023-present). He has collaborated with international governments, NGOs, UNAIDS, UNFPA, and WHO. Awards include the UNSW Bridging Fellowship (2020-2021), Australasian Sexual Health Conference Sexual Health Society of Victoria Best Poster Award (2019), Economic and Social Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship (2011), PhD Studentship (2003-2007), Alan Mountjoy Prize for best independent dissertation on international development (2003), and MA Scholarship (2002-2003). He serves as a Commissioner on The Lancet Global Health Commission on People-Centered Care for Universal Health Coverage and Member of the International Editorial Board at Culture, Health & Sexuality. Key publications comprise edited books 'Peer research in health and social development: international perspectives on participatory research' (2021) and 'Monitoring and evaluation in health and social development: interpretive and ethnographic perspectives' (2016), with a third in progress, 'Lived Experience: Critical Perspectives in a Changing World'. Highly cited works include 'Beyond deficit: Strengths-based approaches in Indigenous health research' (Sociology of Health & Illness, 2021; 292 citations) and 'Young people and sexual agency in rural Uganda' (Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2012; 117 citations). His transdisciplinary work advances health equity through people-centred global health solutions.