Holly Seale

Associate Professor Holly Seale is an infectious disease social scientist at the School of Population Health at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

She has over 15 years of experience and 150 publications focused on improving confidence and engagement of different at-risk groups with immunisation and other prevention strategies. She is the Deputy Chair for the Collaboration on Social Science and Immunisation.

The research she leads focuses on promoting acceptance and uptake of immunisation while applying a “whole-of-life” lens. It incorporates innovative research focused on groups that traditionally have received less attention and continue to have suboptimal uptake: children and adults with chronic medical conditions, culturally and linguistically diverse communities (focus on both migrants and refugees) and occupational groups including hospital healthcare providers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic she has focused her efforts on examining the strategies that will enhance communication and engagement with people from CALD backgrounds with a particular focus on acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine.

She also works to address issues impacting on patient and family engagement with infection prevention and control strategies across Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and South Korea. Within this program, she explores the patient, provider and system factors that influence engagement and acceptance of infection prevention strategies and formulates and develops approaches/interventions to improve acceptance and compliance. Most recently, she has expanded this work to include a focus on antimicrobial resistance and stewardship.