Kristen Beek is a social scientist and public health researcher from the School of Population Health at UNSW. She has a background in applied anthropology and development studies, humanitarian health research and capacity development, and public health research and practice in Australia and internationally. Her areas of particular research interest are disaster risk reduction and health; health workforce training and capacity development; sexual, reproductive, maternal, adolescent and child health; health in humanitarian settings; and strengthening health systems to respond to health needs across the life course.

Kristen has researched and worked with United Nations agencies, international and local non-governmental organisations, and academic institutions in this field across the Asia-Pacific region. She has developed training packages on responding to sexual and reproductive health needs in complex humanitarian settings and is currently involved in producing online training for operational research to support vector surveillance and control for Aedes and Anopheles-borne diseases in Pacific Island countries.

As an early career researcher, Kristen has an emerging record of publications on important areas of public health research including prevention and response to violence in crisis contexts; reproductive health, rights and justice; health systems support for universal health coverage; and health workforce capacity development.

Kristen currently convenes the following courses for the Bachelor of International Public Health program:

• Women's and Children's Health
• Applied Public Health Practice