Dr Adrienne Lee Withall

Research Interests:

Dr Withall is a Wodi Wodi Wandiwandian woman and combined track ageing and mental health specialist in the School of Population Health, where she is a Leader of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Theme. Her research focuses on promoting cognitive health and wellbeing for priority populations. She leads a sub-stream on Ageing at the Margins in the recently funded UNSW Ageing Futures Institute and equity and innovation in cognitive assessment is a key focus of this research (https://research.unsw.edu.au/ageingfutures/ageing-futures-institute-home). In particular, Dr Withall is leading NHMRC-funded research to leverage serious games for novel cognitive assessments. 

Adrienne is a mid career researcher (7 years post-PhD research FTE), and is author of 55 journal publications, an edited book Alcohol and the Adult Brain, and 5 book chapters. Her research is highly cited and she has a h-index of 25, with 2273 citations. Her expertise is on young onset dementia, particularly priority populations at risk of accelerated cognitive decline (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with harms from drug and alcohol, older justice-involved people). She uses mixed methods to aid the translation of her research into policy and clinical practice.

She partners regularly with a range of stakeholders, including Aboriginal communities (e.g. Marcia Ella Duncan and the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council to design the first on-country experience for UNSW medical students), people with Lived Experience (e.g. via the Black Dog Institute) community organisations (e.g. Dementia Australia), health services (e.g. Northern Sydney Local Health District Drug and Alcohol Services, NSW Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network) & industry partners (e.g. Flourish Australia, Corrective Services NSW). She has served as an Advocate for people with young onset dementia on various working parties and policy groups, as well as during the Senate Enquiry on Younger People in Residential Care.

Adrienne is currently an Executive Board member of the Australian Young Onset Dementia Special Interest Group and a member of the International Indigenous Dementia Research Network. She is also a Management Committee Member of the SPHERE Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Clinical Academic Group, the UNSW Medicine and Health Aboriginal Sovereign Strategy Group, the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District Dual Diagnosis Substance Use & Neurocognitive Disorder Working Group and an elected Member of the Medicine and Health Faculty Board. 

Dr Withall regularly reviews grants for national (e.g. NHMRC, ARC, Dementia Australia Research Foundation, Bupa Health Foundation) as well as international grant bodies (such as UK Medical Research Council, Alzheimer's Research UK, Wellcome Trust, Health Research Board Ireland and Netherlands Organisation of Health, Research and Development). She also regularly serves on NHMRC grant panels.

Adrienne currently supervises PhD, DrPH, Masters, and Honours/ILP students.