Professor Christina Mitchell AO is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.  She graduated with a degree in Medicine from Melbourne University and undertook general physician and haematology training fellowships. She obtained a PhD from Monash University on the anticoagulant activity of protein S. 

Professor Mitchell practiced as a general physician from 1990 to 2000 and as a specialist haematologist from 1990 to 2011 in the Department of Haematology at Box Hill Hospital. In 2000, she was appointed as Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the School of Biomedical Sciences at Monash University, a role she held until she was promoted to Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences in 2006.  In 2011, she was appointed as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.  During her tenure, she has overseen unprecedented growth in research and education activity, revenue and impact.  She has a long-standing commitment to the development and integration of the medical curriculum at Monash University. 

Professor Mitchell’s research focuses on the characterisation of the metabolic pathways that regulate phosphoinositide signalling in human cancer.  She leads one of the top phosphoinositide research groups world-wide, and is the top researcher in her field in Australia.  She was instrumental in pioneering a field that impacts all aspects of a cell’s life, an area that has expanded to >185,000 papers.  Professor Mitchell has published 175 papers to date, including in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Communications, New England Journal of Medicine and PNAS.  She has been awarded over $30 million as Lead CI from funding bodies such as NHMRC, ARC, National Breast Cancer Foundation, and mRNA Victoria.  In 2023, she was awarded an NHMRC L3 Investigator Grant. 

Professor Mitchell has received numerous accolades, including the Sir John Monash Distinguished Professorship at Monash University in 2010.  In 2014, she was named a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.  In 2015, she was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and received the Lemberg Medal for Excellence in Biochemistry from the Australian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.  She was bestowed with the Order of Australia (AO) in 2019 for her services to health and medical research and education.