Helen Brown

Helen is a health and environment consultant who has been researching and teaching in the field of climate change and health for over 20 years.  Her research and practice include the application of Health Impact Assessment and systems thinking to tackle the health impacts of climate change.  Helen was the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for HIA at Curtin University from 2014 to 2021 and the Chair of the HIA Network Asia Pacific from 2018 to 2021. Since leaving full-time academia, Helen has continued to work in the field, developing climate and health training courses for WHO, assessing health co-benefits of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in Lao PDR, and as a climate and health expert with the health sector team at the Asian Development Bank.  

Helen worked as Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Impact Assessment in the School of Public Health at Curtin University. She has also held other leadership positions, including Deputy Head of School and Director of Health, Safety, and Environment. One of her key ambitions is to promote the use of HIA in the Asia Pacific Region and to develop and improve guidelines on HIA.

Helen was a lead author for the national HIA Guidelines in Australia, published in 2017. She has undertaken extensive work to build capacity in HIA in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam through projects sponsored by the Asian Development Bank, including development and delivery of HIA curricula and courses; training of trainers for HIA; and other advocacy activities. Her research interests include HIA methods and tools, risk assessment, climate change, sustainability, and systems thinking.