Nick Coatsworth is a Consultant Physician in infectious disease medicine at Canberra Hospital, a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Medicine at The Australian National University Medical School, and a PhD scholar at ANU School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet).

With extensive experience in humanitarian and disaster relief programs, he attained his undergraduate degree in medicine at the University of Western Australia and has a Masters Degree in International Public Health from the University of Sydney.

Nick began his humanitarian career with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in 2004. He has worked in Congo-Brazzaville, the Republic of Chad, and the Darfur region of Sudan. He was President of MSF Australia in 2010-11 and served on the board of directors for six years. Nick led the second Australian Medical Assistance Team to Tacloban City in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, and was Executive Director of Australia’s National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre from 2014 to 2016.

His PhD thesis will examine the foreign policy response of the Australian Government to Public Health Emergencies of International Concern in order to understand the extent to which population health objectives are prioritised in decision-making during pandemics. It will identify opportunities and barriers for policy makers to ensure that decision making during a pandemic has a public health focus.