Dr Sandy Reeder (previously Braaf) is a Senior Research Fellow working as a member of the Pre-hospital, Emergency and Trauma group (School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine) and additionally the Brain Recovery and Rehabilitation group (Central Clinical School). She is an Honorary Monash Partners Consumer and Community Engagement Fellow who supports, educates, and implements consumer and community involvement in health research.

Sandy’s research aims to improve long-term recovery after traumatic injury, with a specific focus on supporting people to navigate health information and services to improve their recovery experiences and outcomes. She has expertise in qualitative research, mixed methods, evaluation methods, and consumer engagement in research.

Sandy leads qualitative research programs in trauma recovery across two research groups. In 2014-2018 she was the project manager for the largest longitudinal study of recovery from major trauma undertaken globally. She also leads programs for consumer and community involvement in health research. In 2019-2021 she held a Health Services Research Fellowship in consumer and community engagement at Monash Partners Health Academic Science Centre. Her expertise in qualitative research and consumer engagement has been applied to longitudinal and mixed methods studies, clinical trials, machine learning, intervention development and implementation, and process and outcomes evaluations.

Sandy’s research is fully integrated with policy and practice via a long-standing relationship with key stakeholders in government, industry and community organisations. She has worked on many projects for the Transports Accident Commission (TAC), as well as with the Victorian Department of Health to develop education content on trauma recovery for the Better Health Channel.

Sandy is driven to ensure people recovering from traumatic injury can navigate health, insurer, and disability systems and services to achieve their optimal outcomes.