Welcome to Associate Professor Rebecca Disler, respiratory researcher

Professor Terry O'Brien, CCS Head of School, writes:

It gives me great pleasure and excitement to announce the recruitment of Dr Rebecca Disler to the academic Monash University appointment as Associate Professor and ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow in the Respiratory Research@Alfred section of the Department of Immunology and Pathology in the Central Clinical School. 

Rebecca is an outstanding early-career clinical respiratory researcher, with a nursing background, who has a rapidly emerging research trajectory and profile for her clinical research into chronic lung disease, for which she has been awarded a prestigious and highly competitive ARC DECRA grant, awarded to address end-stage chronic disease across rural Australia. Through her research, Dr Disler seeks to influence and lead healthcare improvement for people living with chronic disease. Her research builds on her PhD and 8 years’ experience as clinical nurse across acute and community sectors. Dr Disler will also have an adjunct appointment in the Monash School of Nursing, and will assist in PhD supervision and help enable enhanced collaborations between CCS Respiratory Research@Alfred section and School of Nursing. 

Rebecca graduated with her Bachelor of Nursing from Latrobe University in 2002, and then a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne in 2004. She subsequently completed a Postgraduate Diploma Nursing Practice (Critical Care) from the University of Melbourne (2005), a Masters of Science from King’s College in London, and then a PhD from the University of Technology Sydney (2015). She was appointed to the academic appointment of Senior Lecturer in Chronic Care in the Sydney Nursing School (University of Sydney) in 2016, and then to her current appointment as Senior Research Fellow, Department of Rural Health, Melbourne Medical School (University of Melbourne).
 
Dr Disler has published >33 articles, including 17 first author, four Cochrane publications as invited Senior Author (2021, 2021, 2020, 2019), and four book chapters. Her research has been recognised internationally in 2017 with an Early Career Achievement Award from American Thoracic Society, the premier international respiratory society. Her work has been included in several international and national guidelines, including UK’s National Institute for Care Excellence (NICE) statements and the Global Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) Strategy. Dr Disler is on the Victorian Executive Board and Research Sub-Committee of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ). She is Lead Convenor of the TSANZ Palliative and Supportive Care and Evidence Based Medicine groups, having previously also been Lead Convenor for the TSANZ Respiratory Nursing group. Furthermore, her ability to advocate for global and interdisciplinary issues led to her invitation to the Local Organising Committee for the 2020 and 2021 TSANZ annual conference.

Associate Professor Rebecca Disler will start her new appointment with Monash University in January 2022. She will be based on the 4th Floor of the Alfred Centre with the rapidly growing, dynamic group of chronic lung disease researchers in Respiratory Research@Alfred under Professor Anne Holland’s leadership, which includes the recent recruitment of A/Prof. Natasha Smallwood and A/Prof. Yet Khor. Please join with me in congratulating, and welcoming her to Monash and The Central Clinical School.