Briony Hill (Glidden) is an NHMRC Investigator Fellow (EL2; 2026-2030), Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Head of the Health and Social Care Unit at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University.

She completed her PhD in Health Psychology in 2015 at Deakin University, Australia, exploring a psychosocial and behaviour change approach to weight gain in pregnancy. For her thesis, she was awarded an Alfred Deakin Medal for Doctoral Thesis and an Australian Psychological Society (APS) Health College Award for Excellent Higher Degree Thesis in Health Psychology. Briony received an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2016 and completed an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (2017-2022) and ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA; 2023-2025) in the areas of preconception wellbeing and weight stigma based in the Health and Social Care Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. 

Briony was the inaugural Chair and currently Co-Chairs the Health in Preconception, Pregnancy and Postpartum Early and Mid-career Researcher Collective (HiPPP EMR-C), is a founding member of the Stigma Expert Group of the Obesity Collective and an Executive member of the Body Positive Birth Alliance. 

Briony's research interests centre on weight stigma before (preconception), during (antenatal) and after pregnancy (postpartum). She is focused on addressing weight stigma across its broad range of contexts and settings.

Briony also has a strong interest in health behaviour change and psychosocial wellbeing (including depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms, and body image) and understanding the mechanisms that lead to the attainment of healthy nutrition and movement practices for women during their reproductive years.

She also applies an Ecological Systems Theory lens to her research to recognise the broader impacts of weight stigma that extend through the community, society, and government. As part of this work, Briony is one of growing handful of researchers globally pursuing research to understand how we can eradicate weight stigma at all levels to reduce the burden and blame on women across the reproductive life phase. She is an advocate for co-design methods in her research, to ensure relevant stakeholders have their say in the development and implementation of interventions to meet their needs.

Briony's current and past PhD students are central to this work: 

• Ms Pragya Kandel (conferred) explored the motivations for diet and physical activity behaviour change among preconception women.
• Ms Seonad Madden (conferred; Universty of Tasmania in collaboration with Monash University) co-designed a workplace digital health promotion intervention to asisst working women across the preconception, pregnancy and postpartum periods with their health and wellbeing.
• Dr Haimanot Hailu (conferred) and Ms Michelle Dever (current) investigated weight stigma against and experienced by women across the preconception, pregnancy and postpartum periods using a socioecological approach.
• Ms Chloe Tran (current) is investigating weight stigma against preconception women from the perspectives of healthcare providers.
• Ms Ravisha Jayawickrama (conferred; Curtin University) explored weight stigma in healthcare students.
• Ms Kym Blyth (current) is exploring access restrictions in maternity care for larger-bodied women.

Briony is currently supervising students across the field of health in preconception and pregnancy and postpartum, with a focus on weight stigma and psychosocial wellbeing.