Caroline Miller

Prof Caroline Miller is the Director of the Health Policy Centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, located in Adelaide, Australia.

She is also an NHMRC Career Development Fellow and Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow at the University of Adelaide.

The centre she leads at SAHMRI undertakes programs of research in public health, specialising in tobacco control, obesity prevention and alcohol. The centre delivers evidence to inform public health policy and population-based public health and health promotion interventions to reduce the preventable burden of non-communicable disease.

 Prof Miller is most known for her work in tobacco control, in which she has specialised for 20 years. She was one of a select group of research scientists advising the Australian Government on the body of research to ascertain the optimal design for the packaging which then became the regulations for the Act. She has led elements and contributed to the larger evaluation of the law. Her doctoral research into Graphic Health Warnings on tobacco resulted in her being awarded a doctoral research medal in 2011. The findings have received international recognition and were applied in formulating a new series of health warnings for Australia.

Prof Miller has also published research on Quitlines, televised Quit campaigns, smoking in pregnancy and tobacco cessation in mental illness. In her capacity as General Manager, Cancer Control at Cancer Council SA, her portfolio included directing South Australia’s Quit program for many years. She has extensive experience advising Australian state and federal governments on evidence for tobacco control policy and programs, and a range of other areas of cancer control. She is the principal external advisor to the South Australian Government on tobacco control and has held a (competitively tendered) commissioned Tobacco Control Research and Evaluation unit for 20 years.

She is highly experienced in other areas of health promotion and public health, including obesity prevention and population-wide screening for cancers (breast, cervix and bowel). She advises the South Australian Government on obesity prevention initiatives. She is advancing a program of research applying a public health framework to the issue of obesity prevention.

The Centre Prof Miller leads also undertakes research in patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) in prostate cancer and breast cancer. The Centre also manages the SA Cancer Clinical Registry and works in partnership with the NT Population Cancer Registry. Health Translation SA’s Beat Bowel Cancer Project, is based in the Centre.

Prof Miller is also Executive Officer at SAHMRI, leading work including SAHMRI’s Consumer Engagement strategy, measuring Research Impact and managing government relations regarding data access.

 Highlights of her career include:

• Publication of 86 peer-reviewed papers accepted, 1518 citations (total Google Scholar) and 115 conference presentations
• CIA on $11.5m of competitive funding, with $19m awarded over all research projects
• NHMRC Career Development Fellow
• CIA on 2 NHMRC Grants
• Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow
• Cancer Council SA Principal Research Fellow
• Doctoral Research Medal for PhD in Medicine (Public Health)
• Member National Expert Reference Group on Tobacco
• Member Research Advisory Committee National Breast Cancer Foundation, overseeing Category 1 funding scheme
• Past member Australian Expert Committee on Tobacco Plain Packaging
• Past chair of Cancer Council Australia and National Heart Foundation Tobacco Issues Committee, at time of passing of Australian Plain Packaging legislation – a world first tobacco control policy initiative
• Past President of the Public Health Association (SA Branch), Convenor of PHAA National Conference and member of PHAA national executive

Prof Miller currently supervises 3 PhD, 1 MPhil, 2 Hons students.