Teresa De Santis
Bio
Teresa is a proud Tiwi woman, working and living on Larrakia Country in the Northern Territory, she works as an Aboriginal Health Practitioner Coordinator (AHP) in Population and Primary health care for NT Health. Motivated to commence training by wanting to work to achieve better health outcomes for her mob, over the last 20 years she has worked as an AHP both in Darwin and remotely, completed an Advanced Diploma of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait islander Primary Health Care and a Diploma of Leadership and Management.
Teresa has been an integral part of the NT Hepatitis B research program for 5 years, she has been pivotal in the co-design, development and implementation of the Accredited First Nations Workers hepatitis B course and is an ongoing course presenter and facilitator. She is an author on multiple peer reviewed papers and an invited member of the Commonwealth commissioned team establishing a roadmap to liver cancer control for Australia. In both settings Teresa has been invited as a cultural and HBV content expert, she is also a long-term member of the Menzies Infectious Diseases Indigenous Reference Group.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Teresa pivoted her cultural, clinical and research knowledge to become a member of the COVID-19 Resource Action and Information Group and Co-chair the NT COVID-19 Aboriginal Workforce Group. COVID-training packages were co-designed using the frameworks developed during the HBV program to ensure cultural safety. Teresa continues to generously contribute her cultural knowledge to ensuring that messages are communicated in a culturally safe way.
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