My Expertise
I work to ensure health services reach everyone. For over 20 years I've partnered with organisations, communities, and policy makers to design more inclusive health systems - especially for people from culturally diverse backgrounds, carers, and people who experience disability. My teaching is about how health organisations and systems can plan, change, and act. My research develops methods like health impact assessment that shape both decisions and practice.
Keywords
Fields of Research (FoR)
Primary health care, Health services and systems, Public health, Social determinants of health, Service designSEO tags
Biography
Associate Professor Ben Harris-Roxas is an internationally recognised expert in health services research, integrated care, and health impact assessment. His research strengthens health systems for people from culturally diverse backgrounds, people with disabilities, and carers.
Ben received his PhD from UNSW Sydney on using equity-focused health impact assessment in health service planning. He worked across government, health services, and...view more
Associate Professor Ben Harris-Roxas is an internationally recognised expert in health services research, integrated care, and health impact assessment. His research strengthens health systems for people from culturally diverse backgrounds, people with disabilities, and carers.
Ben received his PhD from UNSW Sydney on using equity-focused health impact assessment in health service planning. He worked across government, health services, and consulting before returning to universities - experience that shaped his commitment to research that shapes practice.
Ben joined UNSW School of Population Health in 2021, and has been an investigator on research projects worth over $30 million and published more than 100 articles and book chapters. He convenes courses with over 400 postgraduate students enrolled each year and serves as Director of Dual Degree Programs in the School of Population Health, which bring together internationally recognised programs in Public Health and Health Management.
Ben's previous international leadership has included chairing the International Union for Health Promotion and Education's Global Working Group on Health Impact Assessment and the International Association for Impact Assessment's Global Health Section. He has consulted for the World Health Organization on health impact assessment and intersectoral action for health. Previously, he directed a joint evaluation and research collaboration between South Eastern Sydney Local Health District and UNSW Sydney.
Ben currently supervises PhD, Doctor of Public Health, and Master of Philosophy students. He welcomes prospective students interested in strengthening health organisations through multicultural community engagement, integrated care for marginalised groups, and health impact assessment.
My Grants
Career research income at June 2026
Total funding as an Investigator: $32,589,000
HERDC Category 1: $21.2 million (Competitive peer-reviewed research funding programs)
HERDC Category 2: $6.3 million (Australian government funding)
HERDC Category 3: $5.1 million (International and industry funding)
Past five years: $26.6 million (26 grants)
Total research funding: $30.1 million (67 grants)
Total education and capacity building funding: $2.4 million (4 grants)
Funders
- Australian Government Department of Health
- Australian Research Council (ARC)
- Avant Foundation
- Cancer Institute NSW
- Central and Eastern Sydney Primary Health Network
- Health Research Board (Ireland)
- Healthy North Coast Primary Health Network
- Medical Research Future Fund
- Mental Health Commission of NSW
- Mindgardens Neuroscience Network
- National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
- NSW Health
- Sax Institute
- South Western Sydney Primary Health Network
- Sydney Partnership for Health Education, Research and Enterprise (SPHERE)
- The Health Foundation (United Kingdom)
- University of New South Wales (UNSW)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
Grant reviewer for
- Medical Research Future Fund (Australia)
- National Health Health and Medical Research Council (Australia)
- Ramsay Hospital Research Foundation (Australia)
- RACGP General Practice Research Foundation (Australia)
- Health Research Board (Ireland)
- Health Research Council (New Zealand)
- ZonMw (Netherlands)
My Qualifications
PhD (Public Health, UNSW)
Master of Policy and Applied Social Research (Macquarie)
Bachelor of Social Work (UNSW)
My Awards
- Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care Sustainable Future in Primary Care Research Prize 2026
- Australian College of Health Service Management NSW Branch Leadership Recognition Award 2025
- UNSW Alan Hodgkinson Award for Teaching Excellence 2024
- UNSW School of Population Health Higher Degree Research Supervisor Award 2022
- UNSW Faculty of Medicine & Health Research Community Engagement Team Award 2022 for Shisha No Thanks
- Honourable Mention, 2021 Scientia Education Academy Exemplary Teaching Award
- NSW Premier’s Multicultural Communications Awards Campaign of the Year for Shisha No Thanks, 2020
- South Eastern Sydney Local Health District Health Awards (Keeping People Health Category) for Shisha No Thanks, 2020
- International Association for Impact Assessment, Institutional Award for NSW HIA Project, 2010
- Australian Health Promotion Association Ray James Memorial Award for excellence in health promotion research published in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 2010
My Research Activities
A/Prof Harris-Roxas' research activities focus on primary health care, integrated care, and health impact assessment. His current projects include:
- SEEC
- CHECC
- SHAReD
- CES-P&CH
- HIA-IM
- Preventive healthcare for People with Intellectual Disability
- Shisha No Thanks
- Improving access to the hearing services program for people from CALD backgrounds
My Research Supervision
Supervision keywords
Areas of supervision
My research spans three areas:
1. integrated care and primary healthcare equity
2. health impact assessment, and
3. multicultural health and language equity, including work on interpreters and machine translation.
I'm keen to supervise candidates in any of these areas, especially work that connects lived experience, service delivery, and policy. I try to give higher degree by research candidates room to develop their own ideas while staying grounded in the realities of the systems they're studying. If that sounds like your kind of project, get in touch.
Currently supervising
Currently supervising:
- Abdi, Fatemeh - Falls prevention in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) older adults
- Ali, Rula - The impact of early and longitudinal placement in clinical general practice on UNSW undergraduate medical students’ career choice and perception of general practice (PhD)
- Choudhry, Uzma - Co-designing a physical activity program for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (MPhil)
- Driscoll, Sarah - Evaluation of a HbA1c Prediabetes SMS Notification Pathway (Doctorate of Health Sciences (Research, Dietetics Specialisation))
- Green, Jenny - Addressing education gaps amongst healthcare providers regarding long-term health risk after hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (PhD, UTS)
- Khan, Rabia - Understanding the role of social norms and trust on compliance with public health guidance (PhD)
- McCue, Peter - Engaging political actors to increase population levels of physical activity (PhD)
- McGlynn, Anna - Spread and scale of integrated care initiatives (DrPH Future Health Leaders)
- Nguyen, Paul - Feasibility of Using Retrieval-Augmented Generation to Address Language Barriers in Managing Patients with Abdominal Pain in the Emergency Departments (PhD)
- Mirkovic, Nada - Supporting Integrated Rare Disease Care (PhD)
I have had 9 HDR completions, outlined below.
| Completions | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor of Philosophy (Phd) | 4 | 2 as Primary, 2 as Co-supervisor |
| Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) | 2 | 2 as Primary |
| Master of Philosophy (MPhil) | 1 | 1 as Co-supervisor |
| Medicine (Hons) | 2 | 1 as Primary, 1 as Co-supervisor |
My Engagement
Leadership
- 2026 – present Co-Editor-in-Chief, Australian Journal of Primary Health
- 2025 – present Board Director, Council of Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia (CAPHIA)
- 2025 – present Chair, Advocacy and Policy Subcommittee, Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care
- 2023 – present Director, Dual Degree Programs, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney
- 2023 – present Research Co-Lead, UNSW Academic General Practice Network
- 2020 – 2024 Stream Convenor, Master of Public Health in Primary Health Care, UNSW Sydney
- 2023 – 2023 Deputy Director, Master of Public Health Program, UNSW Sydney
- 2022 – 2023 Lead, Academic Engagement, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney
- 2021 – 2023 Lead, Partnerships working group, Health25 Strategy Implementation, UNSW Faculty of Medicine & Health
- 2017 – 2021 Co-Convenor, Health System Integration and Primary Health Care Development Stream, UNSW Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity
- 2015 – 2017 Convenor, Global Working Group on Health Impact Assessment, International Union for Health Promotion and Education
- 2011 – 2015 Co-Convenor, Health Section, International Association for Impact Assessment
Other current roles
- 2026 – 2027 Elected member, Faculty Board, UNSW Medicine & Health
- 2026 – present Member, Bureau of Health Information Scientific Advisory Panel
- 2025 – present External academic member, Course Advisory Group, Discipline of Public Health, University of Canberra
- 2024 – present Central and Eastern Sydney Primary Health Network Community Council
- 2022 - present Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney
- 2019 – present Advocacy and Policy Subcommittee, Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care
- 2019 – present Education Committee, UNSW School of Population Health
Editorial
- 2026 – present Co-Editor-in-Chief, Australian Journal of Primary Health
- 2016 – present Editorial Board Member, Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal
- 2019 – 2026 Associate Editor, Australian Journal of Primary Health
- 2010 – 2023 Editorial Board Member, Environmental Impact Assessment Review
- 2019 – 2022 Editorial Board Member, BMJ Integrated Healthcare Journal
- 2019 – 2020 Review Editor (Public Health Policy), Frontiers in Public Health
- 2010 – 2016 Associate Editor, BMC Public Health
My Teaching
My teaching interests are focused on strengthening health organisations, primary health care, and health equity.
I convene PHCM9391 Health Organisations, Strategy and Change, a core course within the School of Population Health's Master of Health Leadership and Management programs. I am Director of Double Degrees in the School of Population Health. I contribute to PHCM9615 Principles and Practice of Primary Health Care.
I design activities and assessments that give students choice and control about the focus of their learning, and which allow them to draw on their prior learning and experiences. I'm committed to continuous educational improvement, and work in partnership with students to enhance courses.
Educational grants
I have been an investigator on Australian government-funded projects for education and capacity building worth $3.639 million between 2003 and 2023.
Location
Building C29 HTH Level 5
UNSW Sydney NSW 2052
Map reference (Google map)
Contact
Publications
ORCID as entered in ROS
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1716-2009
Related Links
Shisha No Thanks
This Cancer Institute-funded project has raised awareness about the harms of waterpipe use since 2018. It has had a significant impact on awareness amongst Arabic-speaking young adults.
Harris-Roxas Health
My personal website includes my publications, blog posts, and links to resources.
SEEC
The NHMRC-funded Strengthening Emergency Engagement and Communication for Multicultural Communities (SEEC) project aims to enhance the capacity of community and leaders to assist multicultural communities during health crises and other emergencies.
CHECC
The Community Health workers Extending Care in the Community study is a NHMRC Partnership Project in Sydney Local Health District of Community Health Navigators (CHNs) providing follow up care for patients as they move hospital to the community.
HIA-IM
The HIA-IM (Developing a Health Impact Assessment Implementation Model: Enhancing Intersectoral Approaches in Tackling health Inequalities) project is and Irish Health Research Board-funded project that aims to strengthen intersectoral policy and practice in tackling health inequalities...
Improving access to the hearing services program
This MRFF-funded project aims to enhance access to the hearing services program for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.
Preventive healthcare for People with Intellectual Disability
This NHMRC Partnership Project aims to improve access to, and quality of preventive health care across the lifespan for people with intellectual disability.Videos
