ProfessorKellie Charles

PhD, SFHEA

Kellie is a Professor in Pharmacology and is an education-focused academic with interests in designing innovative teaching approaches for health professions education. As an education researcher, her interests focus on evaluating the effectiveness and safety of such education innovations integrating new technologies, such as artificial intelligence. High level quality use of education resources are as important for student learning as quality use of medicines are to patient's health.  

Kellie has a PhD in Pharmacology from University of Sydney (2004 – Investigation of relationships between hepatic drug metabolism, inflammation and cancer). She completed postdoctoral research in the field of cancer and immunology pharmacology and was involved in 3 international clinical trials investigating the regulation of inflammatory pathways regulating ovarian cancer growth and piloting new immune modulatory drug treatments for ovarian cancer at Barts Cancer Institute and Queen Mary, University of London, UK.

Kellie returned to a lectureship in Pharmacology in 2008 and was awarded a Denis Wade New Investigator Award in 2009. Kellie was awarded a Cancer Institute NSW Career Development Award in 2011 and established a research focus in the clinical utilisation of inflammatory biomarkers for prognositic and predictive clincial outcomes in patients with metastatic cancer. She has led and Chaired the organisation of a multi-institution Sydney Cancer Conference in 2010. She is a current member of the Cancer Research Network and Steering Committee.

Kellie has led large scale strategic initiatives for the Sydney Medical School (curriculum redevelopment of MD program, design of inter-professional education programs) and currently chairs numerous committees associated with the governance of coordinating the preclinical aspect of the MD program at University of Sydney. She is passionate about pharmacology, particularly teaching, and was recently awarded the 2020 ASCEPT Teaching Excellence Award. In 2020, she was also awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in the UK. 

Kellie is currently the ASCEPT Education Forum Chair and leads multi-institutional discussions and training for pharmacology education across Australia and New Zealand. She also Co-Chairs the Australian New Zealand Prescribing Skills Assessment Committee with A/Prof Paul Chin, University of Otago. The ANZ PSA is the national level prescribing competency exam for graduating medical students.