Professor Fran Baum

Professor Fran Baum AO is a public health social scientist with a special interest in creating healthy, equitable and sustainable societies. She is a professor of health equity, The Stretton Institute, The University of Adelaide, Australia.

From 2009-2021 she was a Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor and Director of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity at Flinders University.

She received an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her public health service. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and of the Australian Health Promotion Association.

She is a past National President and Life Member of the Public Health Association of Australia.

She is co-Chair of the Global Steering Council of the People’s Health Movement – a global network of health activist (www.phmovement.org ). She is the author of The New Public Health (2016, Oxford University Press) and Governing for Health (2019 Oxford University Press). Fran is an activist academic who advocates for a fairer, more sustainable and healthy world.

She has held multiple grants from the National Health & Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council which are considering health inequities and public policy, social determinants of health and Health in All Policies. She holds an NHMRC Investigator Grant which provides $2.24M for a research program entitled "Restoring the Fair Go: which policies and practices are likely to reverse growing health inequities in Australia post-COVID-19".

Fran is program director of the Stretton Health Equity.