Andrea Bugarcic

Biography

Following the completion of her PhD, Andrea held post-doctoral research fellow positions at Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University and Institute for Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, where her primary research interests were regulation of intracellular protein trafficking in viral infection and Parkinson’s disease. As a Lecturer in School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Andrea designed and delivered several biology undergraduate subjects and evaluated implementation of novel assessment tasks within practical biomedical curriculum while building a research profile in educational research. In 2015, Andrea moved into educational leadership role within complementary medicine field, firstly as a Head of Department - Biosciences and then as Director of Education at Endeavour College of Natural Health where she continued her educational research while driving quality in curriculum development and delivery. Here she was also involved in developing undergraduate and postgraduate programs, submitting applications for TEQSA program accreditations and building scholarship profile of the College as a whole.

Andrea joined National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine, Southern Cross University as Senior Lecturer in 2020.

Research

Andrea's research interests focus around evidence acquisition and transferability into education and practice. As a scientist, Andrea's research aims to understand the basic mechanism pathways involved in disease, from viral and bacterial infections to Parkinson's disease. Andrea is currently expanding this basic mechanistic understanding research to incorporate herbal molecular research by incorporating traditional herbal knowledge and contemporary naturopathic practice. As educational scientist, Andrea primary research is focused on evidence in health professions, with specific interest in traditional and contemporary evidence nexus applied in clinical practice. Andrea presented at various conferences and published widely across both fields.

Andrea was successful in attracting several grants in both scientific and educational research space and has received Commendation for Programs that Enhance Student Learning at University of Queensland in 2012 and her work on measuring critical thinking in oral presentations was presented in Good Practice Guide for Science (2013) aligned to Threshold Learning Outcome 4: Communication.

Community engagement

Andrea is involved in peer review across several journals publishing educational and scientific research and has reviewed Honours and PhD theses. She also mentors students and young researchers in developing their own research and career interests.

Andrea chaired and was a member of various academic and research Committees and Boards.

Andrea has also developed a workshop that engaged primary school students with cell biology and was a National Science Project competition judge.

Supervision

Andrea supervised to completion 5 Honours and 3 PhD students across both educational and scientific research and in different higher education institutions.

Andrea is interested in supervising students in the following broad areas (not an exclusive list) - evidence use in health practitioners, development of critical thinking and clinical reasoning in health science students, herbal traditional knowledge in contemporary disease models for positive health outcomes and understanding of basic biological processes.

Teaching

Andrea's teaching experience spans science education and professional education - she developed and taught undergraduate cell biology lectures and laboratories and taught anatomy and physiology content. She also delivered professional development lectures in educational research and scholarship.