VC's biography

Professor Janice Reid AM, FASSA
Vice-Chancellor, University of Western Sydney
BSc (Adelaide), MA (Hawaii), MA (Stanford), PhD (Stanford)

Professor Reid has been Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Western Sydney since 1998. She is a recipient of several awards and honours both in Australia and overseas, and has been a member of the boards of public agencies at State and Federal levels in the health, welfare, schools, higher education, energy, superannuation, international relations and cultural fields.

In the field of education she has served on the federal Higher Education Council, the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, the Executive of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) of which she is an elected Fellow (FASSA), the Federal Council for Australia-Latin America Relations (COALAR) and the 2002 federal Higher Education Review Reference Group. From 2005-2008 she was the Vice-Chair and Australian representative on the Governing Board of the OECD’s program on Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE). She currently sits on the boards of UniSuper (the higher education sector pension fund) and the federal Higher Education Research Reference Group (HERRG).  She is Convener (Elect) of the NSW and ACT Vice-Chancellors’ Committee (2012-13) and is Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee of the International Talloires Network of Universities.

In the health sector she has served on committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Trust and Council of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, was Chair of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare from 1995 to 2001 and chaired the national review of nursing education in Australia in 1994.  She currently sits on the boards of the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission and the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and chairs the Research Committee of both.   Her own research has been in the fields of Aboriginal and refugee health and health care, occupational health and mental health. Her publications and edited volumes include: Body, Land and Spirit:  Aboriginal Health and Healing (1982); Sorcerers and Healing Spirits:  Continuity and Change in the Medical System of an Aboriginal Society (1983); Anthropology and Primary Health Care in Developing Countries, Special Issue of Social Science and Medicine (1984); The Health of Immigrant Australia (1990); and The Health of Aboriginal Australia (1991).

Professor Reid currently sits on the National Cultural Heritage Committee and the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.  Her previous appointments to cultural, community and industry bodies include the Board of Integral Energy, the Board of Queensland Museum, Greater Western Sydney Economic Development Board and the Salvation Army Greater Western Sydney Advisory Board. 

In January 1998 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to cross-cultural public health research and the development of health services for socio-economically disadvantaged groups in the community.  In 1984 she received the Wellcome Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland for research in anthropology as applied to medical problems.  In 2003 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for service to Australian society in health and university administration.