Dr. Laura Dryburgh
2022
Chairman's Circle John Monash Scholar
Master of Public Policy
Medicine and Health
University of Oxford
United Kingdom
Laura is a medical doctor and health policy specialist who is passionate about improving health outcomes and equity in Australia. She is currently an Assistant Director of the National Health, Sustainability and Climate Unit with the Interim Centre for Disease Control in the Department of Health and Aged Care. Throughout her medical career Laura has worked with Australians from many walks of life, including people living in rural and remote areas, First Nations communities, those requiring aeromedical retrieval with the Royal Flying Doctors Service and newly arrived refugees. Through these experiences she has developed an understanding and appreciation of the diversity of health challenges facing different communities and individuals around the country. She was awarded the Chairmans Circle General Sir John Monash Scholarship in 2022, which enabled her to undertake a Masters of Public Policy at the University of Oxford which she graduated from with Distinction. While overseas she spent time with the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Europe where she examined the commercial determinants of health, particularly in crisis stricken areas, and how governments can work to ameliorate these. She currently volunteers on the Royal Australasian College of Physician’s Health Reform committee and as a surf life saver.