Dr Kalinda Griffiths’ children are her inspiration and what motivated her to go back to university. She was first exposed to research after being dragged into a traineeship in the Menzies School of Health Research labs.
Postgraduate Scholarship | 2012 | $74,048
Now working at the Sydney Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics, Kalinda’s passion is analysing data to understand inequities.
‘I wanted to understand the social aspects of why some people are healthier than others,’ she said.
‘I like getting lost in my hole. I really liked microbiology because I could hide-out and play with the bugs. It’s the same with data.’
She is currently investigating critical issue of birth registry under-estimation, which feeds into official statistics that in turn become the primary influence on where money goes.
‘If we don’t know there are children being born, and they aren’t registered then we don’t put those resources into education or healthcare,’ she said.
‘If we can unpick that and figure out where those issues lie, we can make positive impacts and changes.’
She shares her journey into research with us. Watch the video here.
