DrPenny Farrell

Key interest areas: climate change and planetary health, agrifood systems, policy, food environments, animal welfare, multispecies justice, equity.

I am a multidisciplinary researcher with diverse experience in social science and lived experience research, application of public policy theory, and analysis of large datasets. I frequently combine these approaches to try to bring clarity to complex problems. I lead a program of research which aims to understand how to build healthy, environmentally sustainable, and equitable food systems globally. I co-supervise three PhD candidates, and frequently supervise students in the GLOH5301: Global Health Capstone and PUBH5610: Public Health Research Project units. I have current collaborations with governments and multilateral organisations in the Pacific region, Asia, Europe, and Australia.

I am the Food Security Stream Lead in National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnership Project Strengthening Policy for Healthy and Sustainable Diets: Learning from Innovation in Practice (SHINE) (ID 2024539). 

Prior to completing my PhD in food systems and food security in 2020, I worked in public health research focused on planetary health and global health financing policy in the not-for-profit, university, and government sectors. I am a qualified veterinarian and from 2007 to 2017 I worked in clinical practice and animal welfare policy and regulation in Australia, and small-scale agriculture research in Sub-Saharan Africa and Viet Nam. The technical and deep contextual knowledge I gained from this work is central to my research.