Dr Kerrie Noonan
Adjunct Associate Professor, Public Health Palliative Care Unit, LaTrobe University.Director of Research, Western NSW Local Health District.
Dr Kerrie Noonan is a clinical psychologist, social researcher, founder and innovator.
Over the past 25 years, Kerrie has been working to create a more death literate society, one where people and communities have the practical know-how needed to plan well and respond to dying death and grief. Kerrie has a long-standing interest in community capacity building approaches to death, dying and bereavement, palliative care and how people can build their grief and death literacy.
In 2010, Kerrie co-founded and was the founding executive director of The GroundSwell Project with Dr Peta Murray. Under Kerrie’s leadership until early 2019 the organisation developed a number of important collaborations including the Drama Project (Peta Murray, Nicole Bonfield, Niki Read, Nepean High School); Dying to Know Day (with thanks to Jane Tewson at Igniting Change and Nicole Endacott), FilmLife Project (Nepean Hospital ICU Nurse Lizzie Barrett, ICE, Coalition of Mischief, Rohan and Gerlee Scanlan Jones, Organ and Tissue Donation Authority), Busting Cancer (Niki Read, Cancer Council NSW), Ten Things to Know Before you Go (Vasudhara Foundation).
Kerrie was a founding member of the Caring at End of Life Research team at Western Sydney University and is an investigator on the Death Literacy Index project and Death Literacy in Australia Project at the Public Health Palliative Care Unit at LaTrobe University. This pioneering research has investigated the role of family, friends and neighbours play when someone is dying at home and coined the term ‘death literacy’. The Caring at End of Life Research Team at WSU, led by Prof Debbie Horsfall has published a number of important contributions to the field including recent reports The Death Literacy Index and Researching Compassionate Communities in Australia.
Kerrie was awarded her PhD in 2018 by Western Sydney University for her study titled Renegade Stories: A study of deathworkers using social approaches to dying, death and loss in Australia. She has a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology, a BA (Psychology), and a Grad. Dip. in Systemic Therapy (Family Therapy). Kerrie is a fellow of the Sydney School for Social Entrepreneurs and has a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration from Griffith University.
In 2022 she was elected Vice President of Public Health Palliative Care International.
Stories
S8: Episode 86: Dr. Kerrie Noonan - The Waiting Room Revolution2020 Podcast: The Exchange - Thinking Around The Box Podcast, The Exchange.
2020 Podcast: Survival of the Kindest, Compassionate Communities UK.
2016 Last rites: how the Western world has lost its 'death literacy' Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald.
Qualifications
Registered Psychologist AHPRA
Endorsed area of practice, Clinical Psychology, Board-approved supervisor.
Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), University of Newcastle.
Master of Psychology (Clinical), WSU
Graduate Diploma in Systemic Therapy (Family Therapy), Relationships Australia.
Doctor of Philosophy, WSU
Graduate Certificate of Business Administration, Griffith University
Awards
Research Impact Award, 8th International Public Health Palliative Care Conference, Bern Switzerland - 2024.
Griffith Award for Academic Excellence - 2020
Dean’s Doctoral Award, PhD, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University.
Social Justice Social Change PhD Scholarship, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, WSU.