Michelle Fitts

Michelle is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Based in Alice Springs, she has worked for over a decade with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Queensland and Northern Territory. Her research experience is largely on multi-site projects examining alcohol, traumatic brain injury, disability and drink driving. Michelle holds an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (2021-2024), focused on understanding the daily lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have sustained a traumatic brain injury through family violence. This program of work with women living with traumatic brain injury, their families and the services who support them will seek to bridge the gap between research and practice and help inform the service delivery of disability, legal, health and family violence agencies.

Prior to Western Sydney University, Michelle worked in the Wellbeing and Preventable Chronic Disease Division at Menzies School of Health Research and at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University. Michelle is an Adjunct Research Fellow at James Cook University. Her community and service provider partnerships have led to the creation of important outcomes including traumatic brain injury resources and a community drink driving program.