Tammy has been working in the public health field for over 20 years and has diverse interests in the communicable and non-communicable disease field. She spent the first 10 years of her career coordinating community-based public health/health promotion programs in culturally and geographically diverse settings including injury prevention and youth health development in Western Australia, suicide prevention in Western Samoa, and injury prevention in north Queensland. Tammy was part of the coordination team who were successful in certifying Cairns as a WHO Safe Community in 2009.

After this point, Tammy's shifted focus to the public health emergency field, as a health promotion advisor in the first emergency operation centre established in Queensland to respond to a large dengue fever outbreak in north Queensland (2008-2009).

In 2010/11, Tammy began working at JCU and progressed her work in the public health emergency field at a global level. In 2015, she was part of a team engaged by WHO, Geneva, to conduct research informing the development of the best practice guidelines- Framework for a Public Health Emergency Operations Centre. Since this time she has been an advisor/consultant to WHO's EOC-NET.   In 2021, Tammy led the research underpinning the updating of the WHO Framework for a Public Health Emergency Operations Centre exploring the barriers, enablers and challenges of using a PHEOC to respond to PHEs including COVID-19. Tammy was also part of the writing team updating the Framework.

Drawing on her social science and community engagement expertise in dengue fever prevention, Tammy is leading a PhD project looking at community empowerment and Aedes mosquito management. In 2021, she was selected to be part of the World Health Organisation's new Technical Advisory Group for Arboviruses, to assist with the implementation of a new Global Integrated Arbovirus Initiative - https://www.who.int/groups/technical-advisory-group-arbovirus-(tag-arbovirus)/about. 

Teaching - In 2020, she led a team to winning a JCU Teaching Citation Award for connecting oral health promotion theory to practice: enhancing dentistry student learning through authentic, real-world experience and collaborative, inspirational teaching.

Teaching

• HS2406: Health Promotion in Dentistry (Level 2; CNS)
• TM5525: Communicable Disease Control (Level 5; TSV)
• TM5547: Public Health Program Planning and Evaluation (Level 5; CNS)

Interests

Research

• Mosquito borne disease, community engagement
• Public Health Emergency Operation Centres

Research Disciplines

• Public health (4206)
• Epidemiology (4202)

Awards

• 2020 - 2020 JCU Citation Award : Connecting oral health promotion theory to practice: enhancing dentistry student learning through authentic, real-world experience and collaborative, inspirational teaching.
• 2017 - Best Paper 2017 - Journal of Tropical Medicine and Health : Impact of the Lymphatic Filariasis Control Program towards elimination of filariasis in Vanuatu: 1997-2006.

Memberships

• 2017 to 2021 - WHO Collaborating Centre for Vector-borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases
• 2014 to 2021 - WHO EOC-Network Member, WHO advisor/consultant
• 2015 to 2019 - Public Health Association of Australia, Oral Health Working Group; Queensland Representative (2016&2017)
• 2016 to 2017 - Australian Health Promotion Association Member

Other

• 2020: Research Consultancy - Chief Investigator World Health Organisation, Contribution, enablers and challenges of using an Emergency Operation Center in Public Health Emergency
• 2021: Research Consultancy - Chief Investigator World Health Organisation, Cross sectional survey exploring key shortcomings and opportunities to improve the WHO Framework for a Public Health Emergency Operations Centre
• 2021 - Poster Presentation: The buzz factors influencing community engagement in Aedes aegypti management in north Queensland. Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service Symposium, Cairns.
• 2021 - Oral Presentation: The buzz factors influencing community engagement in Aedes aegypti management in north Queensland. Australian Mosquito Association Conference
• 2019 - Poster Presentation - EOC Research Gaps and Opportunities @ EOC-Network Annual General Meeting
• 2018 - Teaching Consultancy: Deadly Sex Project Planning Workshop
• 2016 - Teaching Consultancy: Health Promotion 5 Day Short Course
• 2015 - Co-Chief Investigator: WHO Summary Report and Glossary.
• 2014 - Co-Investigator: WHO Systematic Review of Public Health Emergency Center Policy, Plans and Procedures. Contract funding
• 2014 - Australasian Tropical Health Conference, Cairns. Presentation : Using a disaster management system to respond to public health emergencies

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Allen T, Crouch A and Topp S (2021) Community participation and empowerment approaches to Aedes mosquito management in high-income countries: a scoping review. Health Promotion International, 36 (2). pp. 505-523
• Stevenson L, Allen T, Mendez D, Sellars D and Gould G (2020) Is open defaecation in outdoor recreation and camping areas a public health issue in Australia? A literature review. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 31 (3). pp. 525-532
• Allen T, Taleo F, Graves P, Wood P, Taleo G, Baker M, Bradley M and Ichimori K (2017) Impact of the Lymphatic Filariasis Control Program towards elimination of filariasis in Vanuatu, 1997-2006. Tropical Medicine and Health, 45 (8). pp. 1-11

Other research outputs

• Allen T, Topp S and Crouch A (2019) Mosquito-borne disease and community engagement in high-income countries: scoping review. [Presented at Global Health Security 2019]. 18-20 June 2019, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• Allen T, Furler D, Drury L, Pinese C and Singh H (2016) Barriers and enablers to conducting health promotion in private dental practice. [Presented at the 23rd National Conference of the Australian Health Promotion Association]. 19-22 June 2016, Perth, WA, Australia
• Spencer R, Allen T, Sellars D, Ryan B, Banner G, Aimers B, Leggat P, Franklin R, Zhang H, Du P, Chen T, Liu Y, Yang R, Chen J, Li Q, Ni D, Sun H, Niu Y, Liao K, Wu H, Wang C, Wang Y, Efstathiou P, Mandi P, Agrafa I, Karyoti V, Andreou S, Lipskiy N, Tuten D, Tyson J, Burkholder J, Rzeszotarski P, Abernathy R, Li J, Krishnamurthy R, Sergienko E, Cox P, Xu Z, Markoff J and Chungong S (2015) Summary report of systematic reviews for public health emergency operations centres. Plans and procedures; communication technology and infrastructure; minimum datasets and standards; training and exercises. WHO Press, Geneva, Switzerland [Report]

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.