Vice-Chancellor

Professor Janice Reid AM, FASSA, BSc (Adelaide), MA (Hawaii), MA (Stanford), PhD (Stanford)

Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Western Sydney

Janice 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 and non-profit organisations at State and Federal levels in the health, welfare, schools, higher education, energy, pension fund, international relations, arts and heritage 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) and in 2012 she was Convenor of the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. She is currently Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee of the international Talloires Network of universities.  She previously served on the boards of the Blue Mountains Grammar School (NSW) and Anglican Church Grammar School (Qld).

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, and as Chair of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare from 1995 to 2001. She chaired the national review of nursing education in Australia in 1994.  She is a member of the boards of the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission and the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation, and chairs the Research Committee of both.

She currently represents Universities Australia on the National Cultural Heritage Committee and sits by ministerial appointment on the Board of the National Library of Australia.  Her previous appointments include the Board of UniSuper Ltd, Integral Energy, the Board of Queensland Museum, Greater Western Sydney Economic Development Board, NSW Productivity and Innovation Council, the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Salvation Army Greater Western Sydney Advisory Board.

Janice Reid’s own research has been in the fields of Aboriginal and refugee societies, health and health care, occupational health and mental health.  Her authored publications and edited or co-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).

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 services to Australian society in health and university administration.  In 2012 she presented the prestigious Sir Robert Menzies Oration on Higher Education at the University of Melbourne, on the historical and political context of university funding, public policy and social justice.