Professor Nancy Baxter

Head of School, Melbourne School of Population & Global Health, The University of Melbourne

Nancy Baxter is the Head of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne.

Nancy is a clinical epidemiologist, general surgeon and health services researcher. She was previously a Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Professor of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

As a strategic and dedicated leader, Nancy has been responsible for academic programs and innovative student experiences in her role as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. In this capacity, she led the development of a new Master of Public Health in Indigenous Health and an Advanced Standing Master of Public Health in Family and Community Medicine.

An established clinical researcher with an international reputation, Nancy has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters and is widely known for her contributions to health services and outcomes. Nancy has held continuous national funding since 2004 and secured over CAD$11 million in peer-reviewed funds as principal/co-principal investigator, and was awarded the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute for Health Policy Research article of the year for 2014/15. Nancy has extensive experience in using cancer registry data and health administrative data to examine the long-term impact of cancer care for adults. She has been elected to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (1991), American College of Surgeons (2007) and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2016).

Nancy is also the Ontario Provincial Endoscopy Lead for Cancer Care Ontario, where she has played a major role in influencing public policy and transforming the funding strategy for endoscopies, enabling best-practice pricing and reducing the use of deep sedation in routine hospital-based endoscopies.

Throughout her leadership roles in surgery, health and public policy, Nancy has demonstrated strengths as a collaborator with the ability to span disciplines and geographic boundaries.