Dianna is the Unit Coordinator for Introductory Epidemiology for the Master of Public Health. Her research interests include diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Dianna began her career in science as a bench scientist studying viruses in the Children's Respiratory Virus Unit at the Macfarlane Burnet Centre. After 5 years studying the molecular biology of rubella virus and a PhD entitled "Characterization of rubella virus replication complexes", she left virus research and extended her bench training to genetics in the chromosome research group at the Murdochs Children Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital. Her project involved creating human artificial chromosome using marker chromosomes.

In 2000, she embarked on a career change and began a Master of Public Health (part time) at Monash University and in January, 2001 was appointed as a research fellow in the Epidemiology Modelling Group. Her current project involves preparing a proposal for a study of cardiovascular disease in elderly Victorians.