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 Portrait of Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle
Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle

Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle is a global health academic and Ph.D. candidate, focusing her research on climate change and health.

Focus

Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle is a Ph.D candidate researching the nexus between climate change, migration, and health. She has worked as a consultant for Government, WHO, UNEP, and various NGOs on climate change and health. Trish has a background in Emergency Nursing and Public Health with 15 years of clinical experience in primary and tertiary health care settings in Australia, the Pacific, Europe, and Africa, including in humanitarian settings. Trish has served as the Vice President of Médecins Sans Frontières, Australia, and currently advises the MSF International Board on climate change issues. Trish has tertiary qualifications in health professional education and teaches post-graduate global health and epidemiology in Australia and Germany. Trish is well-published in high-impact journals on a range of global health issues including climate change and health, health policy, emergency medical humanitarian assistance, and health workforce development.


Medical/Professional background

Trish has a double degree in Nursing and Health Promotion, post-graduate qualifications in Critical Care (Emergency/ICU) and Health Professional Education and a Masters in International Health. Her Masters dissertation was an analysis of the influence of new anthropometric guidelines on the admission to therapeutic feeding centers in Niger, Sudan, and Ethiopia. Trish is a certified research supervisor and has co-supervised Masters and PhD students at Monash University and the University of Heidelberg. Trish is also an experienced clinician and spent 15 years working with patients as an Associate Nurse Unit Manager and Clinical Nurse Specialist in emergency departments, intensive care units and primary health care clinics in Australia, Aboriginal communities, UK, Holland, Fiji, Germany, and South Sudan.