Focus on Sustainability
Belle with several MCF colleagues at the inaugural MCF Climate Futures Summit held in October 2022, including Associate Professor Ben Neville (OGC 1988)
Navigating Health, Climate & Sustainable Development DR ANNABELLE (BELLE) WORKMAN (OGC 2003), RESEARCH FELLOW, MELBOURNE CLIMATE FUTURES, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Until the recent global COVID-19 pandemic, comparatively good health was something that many of us took for granted. Like many others, I took good health for granted, growing up in a loving family with healthy members until my mother’s cancer diagnosis in my penultimate year of school. Our family’s experience with her journey changed the trajectory of my life both personally and professionally. While I had plans of becoming a physiotherapist or dietitian while at school, the world had other plans and following undergraduate studies in political science and Chinese, I instead found myself working in public health at a government agency, carrying with
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me a strong interest in environmental policies. When these two interests collided and I learnt more about environmental health (that is, how human health is affected by our natural and built environments), I realised I had found my longterm professional pathway, in part motivated by my mother’s experience with our healthcare system. I am now privileged to work as a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Climate Futures initiative, undertaking research at the intersection of climate change, human health, and policy
