Dr Alana Gall
Dr Alana Gall is a Pakana woman from the north-east coast of Lutruwita (Tasmanian Aboriginal) and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine at Southern Cross University. Alana has over a decade of experience in research, research translation, community engagement, health education, and clinical consultation and a background in Nutritional Medicine. Alana currently leads a research program that centres around First Nations Australians' traditional medicines and healing practices, which aims to protect, preserve and increase access to these medicines for First Nations Australians.
Alana has strong experience in qualitative methodologies, data analysis, and syntheses. She has extensive experience with Indigenist and decolonising methodologies, with a focus on strengths-based approaches that privilege the voices of Australian First Nations peoples. She pioneered the Think Aloud Yarn during her PhD under the FNCWR project, What Matters 2 Adults. Alana is currently collaborating with the FNCWR team on three NHMRC projects as a named Chief Investigator: 1) What Matters to First Nations Kids: Co-designing a wellbeing measure for First Nations children aged 5-11 years (WM2K Project); 2) Supporting Healthy Lifestyle Choices to Promote Mental Health & Wellbeing of Indigenous Youth Aging-Out-of-Care in Urban Settings, and 3) A First Nations Cancer Cohort Study (CanCo).
Qualifications
- PhD of Philosophy (current), Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University 2022
- Masters by Research, Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University, 2018
- Bachelor of Health Science (Nutritional Medicine), Endeavour College of Natural Health, 2015
Researcher biography
Dr Alana Gall is a proud Pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) woman whose ancestral heritage links to the north-east coast of Lutruwita (Tasmania), and more recently, the Bass Strait Islands of Cape Barren and Flinders Island.
Alana is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the First Nations Cancer & Wellbeing Research team, and the Project Manager of the What Matters 2 Adults Implementation project. Alana's research focusses on wellbeing and holistic health for Indigenous peoples globally. The aim of the WM2A-I study she is managing, is to test the most appropriate and effective methods for implementing the newly developed WM2Adults Wellbeing measure - the first nationally-relevant wellbeing measure developed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults.
Alana has a background in nutritional medicine and has more than 10 years' experience in research, research translation, community engagement, health education and clinical consultation. Alana's PhD thesis, titled Exploring Wellbeing from Indigenous Perspectives, centres primarily on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' wellbeing but also includes a focus on the domains of wellbeing for Indigenous peoples in Canada, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and the United States.
On a personal note, Alana is passionate about empowering others to take control of their own health and believes better health and wellbeing can be achieved at a population level through transdisciplinary approaches that adhere to holistic models of health and wellbeing. Alana is also passionate about education, understanding on both an academic and personal level, that this is one significant way to lift individuals, families and communities out of poverty – having hope for the future is imperative to good health and wellbeing. Due to this passion, Alana produced a free worksheet for children during the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with Wingaru Kids about antimicrobial bush medicines and would love to collaborate in this space more.
| Featured projects | Duration |
|---|---|
| Co-design in Health with First Nations Peoples |