ProfJacqui Webster

Jacqui Webster (BA Soc, MA Development, PhD Public Health) is an National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator (Leadership 2) on strengthening the impact of food policy research in Australia and globally amd Deputy Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development at UTS. Her primary research interests are on programs to reduce cardio-metabolic diseases including food and water security and population salt reduction programs.  She is currently leading an NHMRC IDEAS grant on strengthening and monitoring implementation of a a community-led program to improve food and water security in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia.  She has secured consecutive Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases grants through the NHMRC to scale-up food policies to reduce diabetes and hypertension in the Pacific Islands, in collaboration with Fiji National University, Deakin University and the University of Sydney. Jacqui is also involved in two DFAT Regional Health Partnership projects and is currently part of a regional collaboration with UNSW and Northwestern University aimed at improving measurement of individual experiences of food and water security with a view to strengthening community-led solutions.

Jacqui's responsibilities at UTS include supporting research and strategic operations for the WHO Collaborating Centre on Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development at UTS. The WHO CC also carries out the role of Secretariat for the South Pacific Chief Nursing, Midwifery Officers Alliance (SPCNMOA). This partnership requires a range of skills including consultations, regional strategic planning, networking, negotiation, project management and the delivery of papers and presentations. Jacqui established and was Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Population Salt Reduction at The George Institute for Global Health from 2013 to 2024 and continues to collaborate with TGI on salt reduction reseach. 

Jacqui is also responsible for supporting development of early career researchers and supporting research impact for the WHOCC NMHD and the School of Public Health at UTS.

From March 2023-24, Jacqui took a year off work to cycle across Europe and Africa.  She has just published Two Bugs on Bikes - our middle-aged gap year cycling across Europe and Africa (Hembury Books 2025). There are strong public health elements throughout the book, reflecting on the social, public health and environmental issues that she witnessed up close when cycling through Africa.