ProfessorDebra Jackson

AO RN BHSc(Nsg) MN(Ed) PhD FRCSI SFHEA FCNA

Professor Debra Jackson AO is a distinguished nurse scientist and scholar, and her career has spanned clinical practice, academic work, research and scholarship. She is a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). In 2015 she won a Principal Fellowship of the NIHR-funded Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, awarded in recognition of sustained contribution to generating knowledge to enhance the care of NHS patients. In 2019, her work was honoured through her being awarded Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to medical education in the field of nursing practice and research as an academic and author. In 2020 she was appointed Fellowship Ad Eundem,Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland.In 2021 she was admitted to the Sigma Nursing Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, and in 2025 was awarded a highly prestigious Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing (UK), In 2025, for sustained and excepetional service to the art and science of nursing.

Professor Jackson has been named as Australia's leading nurse researcher by the Australian newspaper in their list of Australia's Top 250 Research Field Leaders in 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. In 2021 and 2025 she was also again named global leader in nursing research. This is based on the highest number of citations from papers published in the past 5 years in the 20 top journals in the field, She has also been named as the top rated global expert in nursing 2013-2023 (Nursing: Worldwide - Expertscape.com).

Professor Jackson has an extensive editorial portfolio, currently serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Advanced Nursing and formerly she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Nursing. Recognised as Australia's leading nurse researcher by The Australian (2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025), she has also been named a Global Leader in Nursing Research, the top rated global expert in nursing 2013-2023 (Nursing: Worldwide - Expertscape.com). and the #1 ranked Clinical Nurse Specialist by ScholarGPS (2025).