Dr Rachel Cole is a Lecturer in Health Promotion in the School of Health with experience and a passion for working with industry to create active and healthy community environments using upstream systems-based approaches to integrate health and well-being across sectors. Dr Cole is currently working in partnership with the local Primary Health Network, and prior to her appointment at UniSC in 2012, also held various public sector industry positions at state policy, regional and local levels in health promotion and epidemiology positions for 15 years.
In her industry and engagement roles, Dr Cole is involved in practice and research that uses data, evaluation and other forms of evidence to inform evidence-based activities, population planning including co-design and participatory partnerships and community assessment, and re-orienting health sectors toward systems thinking and health promotion approaches to creating healthy and active communities.
During her time at UniSC, Dr Cole has taught courses in public health, health promotion and epidemiology at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her teaching uses real-world case studies to engage and inform students, and blended and flipped pedagogical approaches including content videos, face-to-face and real-time online workshops, interactive online platforms and platforms that provide immediate feedback to check understanding.
Dr Cole’s research is focused on urban and transport policy and planning approaches to improve population health through understanding and influencing the environmental determinants of active and healthy living. Her research includes studies on health-related transportation behaviour, epidemiological analyses of the health and equity consequences of environmental attributes of urban environments, and policy and practice levers of promoting active and healthy living across sectors specific to the Queensland context. More recently, Dr Cole’s research has involved novel uses of large Queensland Government administrative datasets, including household travel surveys and health service administration data, to understand the environmental attributes, socio-economic disparities and transportation behaviours of communities to inform urban and transport planning policy and practice.
Research areas
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
- Urban Planning and Health
- Sports Science and Exercise
Teaching areas
Dr Rachel Cole's specialist areas of knowledge include public health, health promotion, behavioural and social epidemiology, physical activity and sedentary behaviour, built and social environments, public health policy