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Odette Best is a member of the Gurreng Gurreng Nation and holds a Boonthamurra Nation bloodline with adoption ties to the Koomumberri people. This translates to ties across Woorabinda Mission in central Queensland, the Gold Coast and Stradbroke Island. She commenced her registered nurse training at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in the late 1980s and holds a Bachelor of Health Sciences (double major in Aboriginal Health and Community Development), a Master of Philosophy and a PhD. Odette has worked for 35 years in Indigenous health. Clinically, she worked for a decade as sexual health coordinator at the Brisbane Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Service and within the women’s and youth prison systems across Brisbane. In 2000, she moved into discipline teaching within nursing in the tertiary sector. Odette’s leadership in Indigenous health and Indigenous nursing research is acknowledged globally, and she is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing, a Churchill Fellow and a Fellow of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives. Odette’s last role was as Pro-Vice Chancellor: First Nations Strategy. Odette is semi-retired and continues research in spaces of Aboriginal women and menopause and Aboriginal women’s labour force historiographies and remains supervising PhD students. Odette is also a native beekeeper. |