Vanda Nissen

Vanda Nissen is a Senior Research Project Officer in the First Nations Cancer and Wellbeing Research team at the University of Queensland (2023-).

Vanda is finishing her PhD at the School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology. Her thesis uses a mixed-method approach to examine uncertainty in healthcare communication with a focus on diverse populations. She has two peer-reviewed publications in the fields of psychology and health communication. In 2021 she was awarded a Rethinking Emergency Medicine Grant from the PA Research Foundation for her project: How well do bilingual and monolingual practitioners and patients understand each other? The results of this project were shared with the Emergency Department of the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

 Prior joining the First Nations Cancer and Wellbeing Research team, Vanda worked as a sessional health academic and a post graduate tutor at the Oodgeroo Unit (QUT). Her professional career spanned a range of roles over 17 years in international project management, translations/interpreting and teaching in Australia and Europe.