Associate Professor Courtney Ryder

Associate Professor in Public Health, Indigenous Health and Matthew Flinders Fellow

College of Medicine and Public Health

place Health Sciences (3.19)
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Associate Professor Courtney Ryder is an ECR injury epidemiologist, Aboriginal academic, Matthew Flinders Fellow and Discipline Lead for Injury Studies in the College of Medicine and Public Health. Her research is leading new ways of working with Indigenous Data through knowledge interface methodology and Indigenous Data sovereignty to change the deficit discourse surrounding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health statistics. Ryder earned her BScBEng(Biomed)(Hons) in 2006 from Flinders University and her PhD from UNSW (2021): ‘Discovering the Interwoven Health Inequities in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children with an Acute Burns Injury. The expertise she built during this time lead her to secure a 2023 NHMRC Investigator grant to transform injury for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children through innovative knowledge gain and co-designed intervention.

Ryder returned to Flinders in 2020 as a Senior Lecturer in Public Health, where she made a substantial contribution to scholarship as the inaugural Public Health Teaching Program Director. With over a decade’s experience in higher education, Ryder is viewed as a leader transforming student learning in Cultural Safety and Aboriginal health. Work which has been recognised nationally and internationally, through keynote addresses, congress papers, case studies, teaching innovation and scholarship awards and a Churchill Fellowship.

Ryder’s high standing in the academic community is evident through being a:

Ryder is a Research Fellow with The George Institute for Global Health, and Senior Lecturer at the School of Population Health UNSW. Ryder also LOVES running, competing at SAAL!

Qualifications

Bachelor of Science Bachelor of Engineering (Biomedical)(Honours) 2006
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2021

Honours, awards and grants

Honours and Awards
2024: Matthew Flinders Fellow
2023: Aboriginal Scholarship Award, Public Health Association of South Australia
2022: Vice-Chancellor's Early Career Research Award
2022: College of Medicine and Public Health Early Career Research Award
2022: College of Medicine and Public Health Reconciliation Award
2020: College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Teaching Innovations and Scholarship Award.
2017: NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarship
2013: Churchill Fellowship

Research Grants
2024. Targeting Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Expenditure through Citizen Sciences with Aboriginal Communities. 2024. MRFF, ($997,153).
2022. Transforming Injury for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children through Innovative Knowledge Gain and Co-designed Intervention. NHMRC, ($642,650).
2022. Knowledge interface co-design of a diabetes and metabolic syndrome intervention with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living on Ngarrindjeri country. MRFF, ($756,623).
2022. The Patient Journey for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples with a Road Traffic Injury. Lifetime Support Authority, ($424,140).
2021. Implementing holistic burn care through a culturally safe integrated model. NHMRC RART, ($2,410,958).
2021. Research with the Riverland Academy of Clinical Excellence, ($400,000).
2021. Maternal Health Services in Rural, Regional and Remote Australia: Uptake, Barriers and Recommendations - Research (Mapping) Project, ($49,575).
2021. The Australian Traumatic Brain Injury National Data (ATBIND) Project. MRFF, ($365,995).
2021. Yarning Up on Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Expenditure. CRE Research Excellence in Aboriginal Child and Adolescent Health ($17,628).
2020. Understanding Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure Impacts on Aboriginal Families in Australia, Flinders Health and Medical Research Council Kickstart Grant, ($21,650).
2017. Preventing Falls in Older Aboriginal People: The Ironbark Trial, NHMRC, ($3,000,000).
2017. Quality of life, associated psychological and economic family impacts, and trajectory of recovery in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander paediatric burns patients. NHMRC, ($86,117).

Key responsibilities

Discipline Lead Injury Studies, Public Health Discipline Group, College of Medicine and Public Health.

Topic coordinator
PHCA9509 Practicum in Public Health
Topic lecturer
PHCA9504 First Nations Health and Wellbeing
PHCA1509 Health Equity
Supervisory interests
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander injury
Biostatistics and epidemiology
Health equity
Indigenous research methodologies
Higher degree by research supervision
Current
Principal supervisor: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (1)
Associate supervisor: Genetic Councelling (1), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (1)
Expert for media contact
Child/Youth health
Children/Youth
Community/Public health
Data mining
Diversity and Inclusion
Education - Aboriginal
Epidemiology
Head injuries
Injury
Public health
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
Big Data
Clinical Quality Indicators
Clinical Registeries
Indigenous Data Sovereignty
Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Expenditure
Available for contact via
Or contact the media team
+61 8 82012092
0427 398 713
Media expertise
  • Child/Youth health
  • Children/Youth
  • Community/Public health
  • Data mining
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Education - Aboriginal
  • Epidemiology
  • Head injuries
  • Injury
  • Public health
Interests
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
  • Big Data
  • Clinical Quality Indicators
  • Clinical Registeries
  • Indigenous Data Sovereignty
  • Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Expenditure