Maddie Heenan

About Maddie Heenan

Research Associate, PhD candidate

Maddie is a Research Associate and PhD candidate within the Health Systems Science team at the George Institute for Global Health. She is also an Associate of the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW, and The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre.

Her research seeks to use public health law to prioritise government action in chronic disease prevention, and environmental health and sustainability. Her areas of research include public health law and regulation, commercial determinants of health, policy coherence and the political economy. Maddie has worked closely with a variety of governments on research and policy issues. Her PhD is part of a larger project working with a multi-disciplinary team of policy makers, public health lawyers and nutrition experts to co-design regulations under the South Australian Public Health Act to prevent NCDs.

Maddie has a background in policy, advocacy and strategic communications. Prior to undertaking her candidature, she was working as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) in Canberra. Some of Maddie’s work includes leading the campaign to update the NSW Liquor Act to better regulate online sales and delivery of alcohol, and ensuring the ACCC’s Digital Platforms Inquiry went beyond competition issues to also focus on consumer rights and the predatory advertising strategies of junk food, alcohol and gambling industries.

Why public health acts could be our best chance to stem the tide of non-communicable diseases

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health Date published:

Legal and regulatory instruments for NCD prevention: a scoping review and descriptive analysis of evaluations in OECD countries

BMC Public Health Date published:

Combining public health evidence, policy experience and communications expertise to inform preventive health: reflections on a novel method of knowledge synthesis

Health Research Policy and Systems Date published:

The Effect of Retail Food Environment Interventions on Dietary Behavior in Postsecondary Education Settings: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

The Journal of Nutrition Date published:

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