Principal Investigator of the Women's Health Ageing Project

Professor Cassandra Szoeke is a Full Academic Professor, Medical Doctor, Consultant Neurologist, Board Member, Speaker and Author. She is a globally recognised expert in sex-specific health.  She has hundreds of peer-reviewed publications of female-specific differences in mental & cognitive health, vascular risk & development of Chronic Disease.  She is a multi-award-winning clinical researcher who pioneered the inclusion of sex-differences in consideration of diseases which affect both men and women. She has several hundred published articles in academic journals and several book chapters in medical textbooks and uses academic research excellence to drive systemic change.  She has worked in the Commonwealth Science Industry and Research Organisation, Public Hospital system, and as non-executive board director for the Department of Health, including holding roles as Chair of Quality & Safety and Chair of Education, Training and Research Committees. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Digital Health and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  She has worked in the public and private health system in clinical, leadership and governance roles as board director appointed by the state health minister. She has contributed to the development of national health policies, has sat on the Council of the Australian Medical Association, was appointed to Medical Panels by the Department of Health (Victoria) and has held Chief Medical Officer roles for the Australian Healthy Ageing Organisation and the National Council of Women.As Principal Investigator of the Women’s Healthy Ageing Project, the longest study of women’s health in Australia, she authored the book Secrets of Women’s Healthy Ageing, which was highly commended in the Educational Publishing Awards Australia and was the Best-selling title in 100 years of Melbourne University Publishing in the genre of Medicine. In addition to her medical qualifications and fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians, she has a BSc with Honours in Genetics and a PhD in Epidemiology. Her postdoctoral studies at Stanford University CA were in the department of public health and policy and her sabbatical at Oxford University focused on sex-specific medicine.