Dr Jessie Sutherland leads an independent research program in reproductive health and fertility at the University of Newcastle, established in 2015. The goal of her research program is to eliminate preventable infertility on a global scale. To achieve this, her multidisciplinary team focusses on improving the reproductive health knowledge of young people and determining the underlying causes of infertility in women.
In recognition of her national research excellence, she is the dual recipient of an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award and NHMRC Peter Doherty Australian Biomedical Fellowship. In demonstration that her research is relevant, needed, and useful, she had secured over $1.8M in competitive independent funding from Government, Industry, and Philanthropy and published 40 scientific papers with >900 citations. She is the first Newcastle-based researcher to establish a formalised partnership agreements with Family Planning NSW, Sexual Health Victoria, and Your Fertility and secure seed funding and a collaborative commercial agreement from industry partner Cooper Medical Fertility Solutions. Dr Sutherland is also an advocate for equity and diversity in the University sector and is an Academic representative the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee.