Academy Fellow

Professor Janice Reid was Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Western Sydney, a multi-campus institution of 40,000 students, from 1998 to 2013. She is a recipient of several awards and honours both in Australia and overseas, and has been a member of the boards of state, federal and international public agencies and non-profit organisations.

In the field of education she has served on the Federal Higher Education Council, the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, the Executive of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) of which she is an elected Fellow (FASSA), the Federal Council for Australia-Latin America Relations (and as chair of its Education Action Group) and the 2002 Federal Higher Education Review Reference Group. From 2005-2008, she was the Australian representative and Vice-Chair of the Governing Board of the OECD’s program on Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) and in 2012 she was Convenor of the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. She is currently Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee of the international Talloires Network of universities, and Australian nominee on the Council of the University of the South Pacific. She previously served on the boards of the Blue Mountains Grammar School (NSW) and Anglican Church Grammar School (Qld).

In the health sector she has served on committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Trust and Council of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, and as Chair of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare from 1995 to 2001. She chaired the national review of nursing education in Australia in 1994. She has been a member of the boards of the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission and the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation, and chaired the Research Committee of both. In 2013 she was appointed to the Regional Advisory Council of St Vincent’s Hospital (NSW).

Janice Reid graduated with an earth sciences degree before teaching in Papua New Guinea. Her graduate studies were in anthropology and public health. Her subsequent research was primarily in Aboriginal and refugee communities focusing on health and health care and mental health. Her authored publications and edited or co-edited volumes include: Body, Land and Spirit: Aboriginal Health and Healing in Aboriginal Society (1982); Sorcerers and Healing Spirits: Continuity and Change in the Aboriginal Medical System (1983); Anthropology and Primary Health Care in Developing Countries, Special Issue of Social Science and Medicine (1984); The Health of Immigrant Australia (1990); and The Health of Aboriginal Australia (1991). In recent years she has published on higher education.

Professor Reid is currently Chair of the Pacific Friends of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria and is the Australian representative on the Council of the University of the South Pacific. Her previous appointments include the Board of the National Library of Australia, the National Cultural Heritage Committee, the Board of UniSuper Ltd (pension fund), Integral Energy (power utility), the Board of Queensland Museum, Greater Western Sydney Economic Development Board, NSW Productivity and Innovation Council, the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Salvation Army Greater Western Sydney Advisory Board.

1998: Member of the Order of Australia (for services to cross-cultural public health research and the development of health services for socio-economically disadvantaged groups in the community).

1984: Wellcome Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (for research in anthropology as applied to medical problems).

2003: Centenary Medal (for services to Australian society in health and university administration).

2012: presented the Sir Robert Menzies Oration on Higher Education at the University of Melbourne on the historical and political context of higher education funding, public policy and social justice.

2013: Honorary Doctorate of Letters and an Emeritus Professorship of the University of Western Sydney.

2015: Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia.