Head of School
About Head of School
Professor Sophia Zoungas
Honesty, integrity, transparency, commitment, passion and excellence. These are all values that matter to me personally, and I bring them with me to my role as Head of School. I believe they are key to producing discoveries that will change millions of lives for the better, and to training the next generation of public health professionals who will build on that knowledge.
- Head of School
- Academic leader
- Clinician-researcher
Professor Sophia Zoungas has brought her broad clinical and public health expertise to her leadership of Monash’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine since 2019. She’s overseen huge growth as the School has responded to public health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst also growing the pre-existing portfolio of non-COVID research and education.
A practicing Clinical Endocrinologist specialising in diabetes care, she’s led clinical trials that helped transform care in diabetes, cardiovascular health, kidney disease and healthy ageing. New knowledge generated by her research has created a paradigm shift in clinical practice around the management of type 2 diabetes, and new awareness of the association between hypoglycaemia and cardiovascular events.
In addition to her executive duties, she’s the Principal Investigator of the world’s largest study exploring the preventive effects of statins in the healthy over-70s (STAREE). She also leads the Australian National Diabetes Audit and the Diabetes Clinical Quality Registry, a centralised quality assurance activity aiming to improve the quality of care provided to people with diabetes.
With an enviable publication record across titles including Lancet and NEJM, Professor Zoungas has sourced more than $50 million in funding across competitive grant schemes, and philanthropic and industry sources.
Her impact has been recognised through numerous awards, the most recent being the Australian Diabetes Society’s Kellion Award in 2022.
Within the School and in the community, she’s an active leader, Chairing the School’s Executive Committee and Senior Management Committee, holding Ministerial Appointments, and serving on numerous national and international scientific advisory boards, editorial boards, steering committees and data safety monitoring boards.