Dr Aryati Yashadhana is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity (CPHCE), and School of Population Health, and a Visiting Fellow, School of Social Sciences, UNSW. Her work focuses on socioeconomic, cultural and political determinants of health, intersectional health equity (gender, race, class), and international development. Her research has largely taken place in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia (NSW and Northern Territory) with a focus on analyzing the cultural dimensions of access and equity in the context of eye health and chronic disease. Dr. Yashadhana works from a place of understanding and respect for Aboriginal cultural protocols as foundational to research relationships. Internationally, she’s worked in in low and middle income settings (Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, South East Asia, Pacific) and been a lead investigator on various projects commissioned by the World Bank Group centred around access to child eye health services (Malawi, Colombia, Pakistan). Dr Yashadhana specialises in qualitative and participatory methodologies, with a particular interest in the application of critical realist and decolonizing theories, the way marginalised peoples and cultures interface with dominant systems and structures, and analyzing access to health systems and services.
Dr. Yashadhana has had outstanding impact for her early career stage, with examples of research and policy impact in the areas of eye health and cultural competence in clinical education and care. She recently co-designed three modules for undergraduate medical students at UNSW with the goal of improving cultural competency skills when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. She was recently acknowledged for her contributions in the Lancet Global Commission on Global Eye Health where she contributed to co-authoring several parallel articles focused on gender and ethinic diversity in eye health leadership, and access to eye care among racially minoritised groups.
Dr. Yashadhana is Chief Investigator A on the NHMRC funded Gaawaadhi Gadudha Project which aims to develop a model of cultural health that demonstrates how existing walaays (Aboriginal cultural gatherings) carried out on sacred sites impact community and individual wellbeing; and how they can be better linked with regional health systems to improve health outcomes for the Yuwalaraay, Gamilaraay, and Yuin peoples in the Western and South Coast regions of NSW. The project operates under a cultural governance framework that ensures that decisions made are reflective of cultural leaders from the study sites.