Elizabeth is a public health epidemiologist and commenced a research career in 2004 at the International Diabetes Institute — now merged within Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, after practicing as a podiatrist for several years. During this period (equivalent to 11 years after accounting for career disruptions) Elizabeth has provided research leadership on diabetes, Indigenous health, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and kidney disease epidemiology.

Elizabeth’s PhD research program on the Australian, Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab) at Monash University and the Baker Institute highlighted the CVD and mortality risk of not only diabetes but also of intermediately elevated blood glucose. Findings were cited in Australia’s Health in 2010 (AIHW) and placed hyperglycaemia on the national public health agenda, providing an important rationale for developing diabetes prevention programs across the country. Elizabeth’s PhD work also contributed to large international consortiums: The Emerging Risk Factor Collaboration, headed by a group at Cambridge University; and specifically as a means of validating the Globorisk international CVD risk score. Additionally, she has published with researchers from the University of Singapore, and collaborated with researchers of the Strong Heart Study, a cohort of First Nation Americans. Elizabeth established and now leads a national consortium of researchers, government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community stakeholders to improve CVD risk assessment in Indigenous Australians — the Cardiovascular Risk in Indigenous People (CRISP) study.

Elizabeth also holds a Senior Research Fellow position at Menzies School of Health Research and is Head of the Diabetes Epidemiology Group within the DIABETES across the LIFECOURSE: Northern Australian Partnership led by Professor Louise Maple-Brown, and is the Team Leader on the follow-up of the Pregnancy And Neonatal Diabetes Outcomes in Remote Australia (PANDORA) study. In this Partnership Elizabeth is committed to improving our understanding of the health outcomes of diabetes in pregnancy in both mothers and their children. Elizabeth is available to supervise higher degree students in Epidemiology and Public Health.