ACRE researcher awarded prestigious Fulbright scholarship

A pharmacist is the latest recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and the first in her field to be awarded the opportunity. Myfanwy Graham is a Research Associate with the Australian Centre for Cannabinoid Clinical and Research Excellence (ACRE).

Professor Jennifer Martin, Director of ACRE, said this influential opportunity puts Ms Graham’s career on an entirely new trajectory.

“The Fulbright Scholarship is held in high esteem by international researchers,” Professor Martin said.

“Myf is the first Australian in her field to be awarded this opportunity. We are immensely proud to see an Australian health researcher recognised by her international peers and, of course, proud that she is part of the team at ACRE and the University of Newcastle.”

For Ms Graham, the award is a significant achievement, consolidating years of work to implement ‘real-world projects’ that draw together leading researchers and showcase Australia’s research achievements.

“Building mutual research linkages between Australia and the United States helps to bring together leading researchers in this space and helps us deliver research results into clinical practice,” Ms Graham said.

“Our research looks at patient outcomes, current clinical practice, and policies and regulations in the U.S. and Australia. Strong research collaborations in the space have the potential to produce important change - not just clinically, but more broadly as well. When you have brilliant researchers working around the world, the impact of bringing them together can be immense.

“I want to help draw together the communities of researchers around the world to consolidate the dedicated work we all do and build on it so we can learn and share knowledge because, at the heart of it, it all comes back to the patient and the hope that translating this research can help patients and their families.”

In heading to the US in 2022, Ms Graham is retracing her mother’s footsteps.

“'As a child, I lived and attended school in the US for a year while my mother was working as an exchange teacher. It was then that I developed a life-long love of meeting people from different cultural backgrounds and this is a large part of why I am drawn to collaborative research in the US,” she said.

“A significant part of the Fulbright scholarship is the cultural ambassador component so my family will also have the opportunity to be immersed in a different culture and take on an ambassadorial role for Australia.”

Ms Graham will be heading to Los Angeles in 2022 and working with Professor Rosalie Pacula, the Elizabeth Garrett Chair in Health Policy, Economics Law in the Sol Price School of Public Policy, and the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy Economics at the University of Southern California (USC).

• Myfanwy Graham will head to the U.S. in 2022 to undertake a binational comparison of medicinal cannabis policy and patient outcomes.
• Awardees take part in an academic and cultural exchange, pursuing research or study at a U.S. institution, experiencing life abroad and bringing back their knowledge and experience to share with their communities in Australia.
• Established in 1945, a Fulbright award is more than a scholarship – it is, in the words of Senator Fulbright, a means of fostering “leadership, learning, and empathy between cultures… It is a modest program with an immodest aim – the achievement in international affairs of a regime more civilised, rational and humane than the empty system of power of the past.”