Matthew Leach

Biography

Associate Professor Leach is Deputy Director of Education at the National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine, Southern Cross University. A/Prof Leach holds qualifications in nursing [BN], naturopathy [DipAppSc(Nat)], nutrition [DipClinNutr] and clinical research [BN(Hons) and PhD]. He also has extensive clinical, research and teaching experience.

Research

Associate Professor Leach has been a researcher for more than 22 years. His program of research, referred to as BEACON (Building Excellence and Advancing understanding of health Consumer Outcomes and Needs), is underpinned by three pillars: health consumers (i.e. the health care needs, preferences and behaviours of individuals and communities), health care provision (i.e. health workforce and services planning, and evidence-based practice), and health care impact (i.e. the safety and effectiveness of health care services and interventions). A/Prof has made a significant contribution to each of these areas, each of which he is internationally renowned.

Associate Professor Leach is an accomplished researcher. He has published more than 181 refereed journal articles, 13 book chapters and a sole-authored textbook. This work has been cited more than 5,445 times, including in systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines and government policies, thus attesting to the international impact of Associate Professor Leach’s research. A/Prof has been the recipient of A$2.47 million in competitive research funding, which has included grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) and National Institutes of Health (US). Associate Professor Leach’s research is truly international and multidisciplinary, evidenced by meaningful engagement and collaboration with individuals/groups from 27 distinct disciplines spanning 45 agencies and academic institutions across 10 countries.

Teaching

Associate Professor Leach has extensive experience in program administration, curriculum design and development, pedagogy, multimodal learning, and internal and external program evaluation. A/Prof has been a member of various government higher education accreditation panels, and since 2011, has been a member of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) Register of Experts.

Supervision

A/Prof Leach currently supervises 5 PhD candidates, and 2 Masters by Research candidates. He has supervised 8 research students to completion, including 6 PhD graduates and 5 honours graduates.