Associate Professor Kath Francis (prev. Baldock)

Associate Professor Kath Francis is a leader in higher education and academic practice, with particular expertise in Public Health and decolonising educational systems and practices.  Kath's current role is Dean of Programs (Human Performance), and she is also a collaborative lead (alongside Prof Steve Larkin and Prof Tina Brodie) in the Aboriginal Knowledges in Curriculum and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy program of work for the new Adelaide University.  In her leadership roles, Kath leads strategic approaches to academic development, decolonising curriculum and pedagogy, and to reimagining structural and cultural facilitators supporting transformative education. For Kath, contributing to education systems that facilitate transformation of students from who they are to who they are becoming - i.e., graduates who are socially just, anti-racist, culturally responsive and who will contribute to creating a better world - is the ultimate privilege.  Her current roles provide Kath the ideal platform to drive change in higher education structures and practices to that end.  

Kath has a background in public health practice, research and teaching, and has led numerous initiatives in curriculum renewal at institutional and national levels. In recent years, Kath has moved into strategic teaching and learning leadership roles within higher education. She has led numerous local and strategic initiatives to support the development of academics who are culturally responsive in their teaching practice and equipped to embed Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing within curricula and pedagogy.  She co-created the Aboriginal curriculum and pedagogy mapping & decolonisation process (ACP) for UniSA with Dr Aidan Cornelius-Bell and Michael Watkins. Kath currently leads, in close collaboration with a team of Aboriginal academics, an institution-wide strategic, relational approach to decolonising higher education and in developing systems and practices for the sustainable and transformative weaving of Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing within curricula and pedagogy across disciplines.

Alongside academic leadership, Kath is an active researcher in educational initiatives as well as public health projects.  She is an Associate Investigator on the NHMRC funded special initiative on human health and environmental change, Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL).  Kath collaborates nationally in research on: 1) teaching advocacy in public health curricula across Australia; 2) evaluating racial segregation in learning objectives within First Nations health courses; 3) development of academic capacity and responsiveness to decolonise curricula; 4) co-creation of a suite of online modules in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research methods and approaches.  She is also principal/co-supervisor for several PhD and Masters by Research candidates, and has supervised 9 Higher Degree Research students to completion.

Kath is actively engaged in the public health agenda nationally.  She is currently a Board Member on the Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia.  Kath is also an Executive Committee member of the South Australian Branch of the Public Health Association of Australia, providing senior advice and leadership in advocacy and other public health initiatives.

Public Health Association of Australia

Australasian Epidemiological Association

International Epidemiological Association

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia

• Bachelor of Health Sciences The University of Adelaide

• Graduate Diploma in Public Health The University of Adelaide