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Sam McEwen

Epidemiology and Surveillance Research Officer
Background

Sam is the epidemiology and surveillance officer for the STRIVE PNG project where his role has been primarily to oversee the development and implementation of an integrated febrile illness sentinel surveillance network in Papua New Guinea.

Sam is a graduate of Australia's field epidemiology training program – the Master of Philosophy (Applied Epidemiology) – through the Australia National University with a professional background in public health and communicable disease control. He has previously worked in state government public health units in South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory in communicable disease control teams responsible for routine disease surveillance and data analysis and outbreak investigation.

Following the completion of his field epidemiology training he worked in Fiji as part of the Health Security Corps under the Australian Volunteer Program as an epidemiologist with the Fiji Centre or Communicable Disease Control on building disease surveillance capacity. Sam has also been deployed with the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network on multiple occasions to assist in providing epidemiological support to the WHO's Rohingya refugee crisis response in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh before joining the Burnet Institute.

He has research interests in communicable disease epidemiology and control, vector borne diseases, spatial epidemiology and environmental health.

Qualifications
  • 2017: Master of Philosophy (Applied Epidemiology), Australian National University, Australia
  • 2013: Master of Health and International Development, Flinders University, Australia
  • 2011: Bachelor of Health Science (Hons), University of Adelaide, Australia
  • 2010: Bachelor of Health Science, University of Adelaide, Australia
Positions
  • 2019 ongoing: Epidemiology and Surveillance Officer, STRIVE PNG project, Burnet Institute
  • 2017-2018: Epidemiology Officer, Fiji Centre for Communicable Disease Control (Health Security Corp, Australian Volunteer Program)
  • 2016-17: Surveillance Officer/Applied Epidemiology Scholar, Communicable Disease Control Section, ACT Health
  • 2012-2016: Public Health Officer, Communicable Disease Control Branch, SA Health