Isabel Hanson is one of 18 to win John Monash Scholarship this year

Doctor, university lecturer, public policy specialist. Now Isabel Hanson is also a John Monash scholarship winner.

Isabel Hanson will study at Oxford on a John Monash Scholarship.

Isabel Hanson is a general practice registrar, a university lecturer and a public policy specialist who also has a degree in economics and psychology. Now she is one of 18 exceptional scholars who have won scholarships from the General Sir John Monash Foundation to do postgraduate study overseas, starting next year.

Speaking between patient appointments at Gandangara Health Services, an indigenous owned and run medical centre in the Sydney suburb of Liverpool, Dr Hanson said her ultimate goal was to return to Australia with a masters and a doctorate from Oxford and pursue a double career.

She would like to work in academia, where she would help educate future doctors about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, as well as have a government career, in which she helps to build policy in this area.

At Oxford she is applying to do both a masters and a D.Phil in the translational health sciences program.

“I’m hoping to learn excellent research, analysis and creation skills and how then to translate that knowledge into effective policy,” she said.

Dr Hanson said she began working with the indigenous community in Sydney when she was doing her first degree in economics and psychology. She was a volunteer with a charity called Life for Koori Kids which creates opportunities for Aboriginal children and their families.

“I’ve been helping out with them since 2009, and that’s what’s fed my passion for working with people,” she said.

Then she took a policy job in the Prime Minister’s Department in Canberra before deciding to do medicine in order to work in Aboriginal health.

That led her to work at Gandangara where she considers herself fortunate to be mentored by one of the Aboriginal elders.

“What we try to do here at Gandangara is to see people as whole, to exercise people’s strengths and to do things together,” she said.

A key to her approach is to allow patients to be deeply heard, “to acknowledge them in their context and make space for them”.

Dr Hanson said it was “also about seeing the bigger, broader social determinants of health and how people’s histories – racism, trauma and poverty – impact people’s health”.

“There’s been so much othering and, you know, racism against Aboriginal people. And I think that as a non-Aboriginal person, part of the pathway to healing, to treaty, to justice, is doing things together and really recognising and valuing the strength and power of our Aboriginal community,” she said.

Dr Hanson is also a lecturer at the University of Sydney involved in training medical students as part of her role as an academic registrar in her general practise training program. She has also just taken a role as a senior policy adviser at the Centre for Policy Development.

“Part of why I’m so excited about the Monash (scholarship) is because my passion is to link up all the careers that I’ve had,” she said.

“To link up the passion for really good policy and excellent research and advocating for better health care, a better society, a healthy Australia – and my love of clinical medicine and working with people on the ground and also my work with the university, doing research and teaching the next generation of medical students and doctors.”

The 18 recipients of the 2022 Monash scholarships were selected from 245 initial applicants.

Chairman of the General Sir John Monash Foundation Jillian Segal said this year’s recipients included the first ever allied health professional to win a scholarship, speech pathologist Rebecca Keeley.

Ms Keeley plans to do an MBA at Oxford and then return to northern Australia to help redesign how allied health services are provided in remote areas.

The scholarships, for postgraduate study overseas, are intended to foster leadership and expertise and to help the recipients build international networks. They are also intended to build Australia’s capabilities for the future.

Ms Segal said this year’s awardees – who will study at universities in the UK, the US, Europe and Asia – included a high number of scholars in the health area.

“Maybe the pandemic has inspired a lot of outstanding young people to look at the health space,” she said. Other scholars will be studying in law, engineering, public policy, art, economics and international relations.