Robin takes a critical social gerontology perspective in her work as a gerontology lecturer with a commitment to practice linked education. This perspective enables understanding of both individual and societal aspects of ageing, along with a commitment to human rights, social justice and inclusive policies, practices and services to support people as they grow older. She is committed to gerontology education as a means to build specialist knowledge and skills of practitioners in the health, aged care, human services and community sectors in Australia that will, in turn, enable her students to work in partnership with older adults to improve their experience of ageing.

She has taught gerontology to multidisciplinary cohorts of students from nursing, allied health, human and community services, aged care and medical professions since 2005 and also held Course Coordinator/ Director roles for the Master of Gerontology articulated set of courses from 2007 –  2017.

Robin has substantial experience as a social worker in clinical practice with older adults, with a focus on mental health and health promotion, prior to her academic career.

Her thesis for her Master of Social Work (Hons.) examined gerontology higher education in local, Australian and international contexts.

She teaches and researches in a range of areas, including:

• collaborative models of practice with older adults
• leadership for professional practice in ageing services
• social and environmental perspectives on ageing, including social determinants of health
• age-friendly communities
• challenging ageism
• gerontology curriculum

Robin also has a focus on developing  interactive and practice linked curriculum for education in ageing and has recently authored, with CSU Educational Designer, Leanne White, a free, online, self-paced course hosted on the Open Learning platform for Charles Sturt, titled Understanding Ageing.

She is a founding member of the Leadership in Healthy Ageing (LiHA) Network which links Charles Sturt gerontology with industry partners across northeast Victoria and further afield.

(More information on LiHA here)