Vita Christie

Vita has more than a decade of experience as a Manager and Administrator of an Indigenous health centre. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Public Policy from The University of Sydney and a PhD from Macquarie University. Vita specialises in high impact translational research in Indigenous Health and previously trained and worked as a Nutritionist.
Having worked in the Indigenous health sector for more than 15 years, Vita has built many enduring relationships with the Indigenous communities of NSW and beyond. She has also had varied experience working with government (local, state and federal levels), the NGO sector and philanthropists.
Vita is passionately concerned about the inequality and inequity that is experienced around the world, and particularly here in Australia. and seeks to make a contribution through work.
Prior to working in the Indigenous health sector, Vita travelled extensively throughout the Middle East, India, and Latin America. This travel provided great insight into nations which have struggled socioeconomically and provided contrast to Australia, a high income country, but where underprivilege still exists. It was this contrast that motivated Vita in her career choices.
The research question for Vita's PhD thesis was “How can breast cancer policy and practice better meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Australia?”. The thesis looked both at the global and local context to evaluate what the most important elements are to encourage an improvement in the current health outcomes for Indigenous Australian women, which are poorer than those of non- Indigenous Australian women. The thesis found that both practice and policy could be improved in order to enable this change but that the effort needs to be concerted.