Professor Susan Sawyer AM MBBS MD FRACP FAHMS is an academic paediatrician who holds the Geoff and Helen Handbury Chair of Adolescent Health, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne (2005-). She is Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the RCH and MCRI, a World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Adolescent Health. Susan was made a member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2020 and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2025.

Susan was inducted into the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll in 2013 in recognition of her contribution to adolescent health and medicine. In 2011, she was awarded the Victorian Premier’s Award for Excellence in Mental Health.

In 2016, she was the recipient of the University of Melbourne Engagement Award (Department of Paediatrics) that recognised sustained community engagement, policy impact and public advocacy, and in 2018, she was the recipient of its Postgraduate Teaching Award. She was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2025.

Sawyer trained in medicine at The University of Melbourne (1980-85), followed by specialist training in paediatrics at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) (1987-92), subspecialist training in respiratory paediatrics at the RCH (1991-93) and post-doctoral training at the Harvard School of Public Health and Children’s Hospital Boston, USA (1993-95).

Sawyer is widely published (>430 peer review papers, H-index 102, >50 book chapters and an edited book). She leads the Child to Adult Transition Study (CATS) that has been annually tracking the health and educational outcomes of 1200 children since they were first recruited in Grade 3 in 2012 (Wave 14 was completed in 2025). CATS data enables description of changing health profiles with age, timing and tempo of puberty and its impact on health, and knowledge of the impact of contemporary health risks on health outcomes using target trial methodologeis (eg social media effect on mental health).

Susan has supervised 18 PhD students and multiple masters and honours students in a variety of health topics (eg mental health, eating disorders, sexual and reproductive health, substance use, tuberculosis), themes (eg quality health care, puberty, chronic illness, transition to adult healthcare, paediatric palliative care, models of care) and contexts (eg global adolescent health, school health).

Sawyer co-led two series on adolescent health for The Lancet (2007, 2012) and was a lead commissioner for the 2016 and 2025 Lancet Commissions on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. She is currently co-leading a new Lancet Commission on the health and wellbeing of China’s adolescents.

Sawyer has played a major role in national, regional and international capacity building efforts to help build the field of adolescent health and medicine. She was president (2017-21) of the International Association for Adolescent Health, a past board member of the US Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and a past chair of the Specialist Advisory Group on Adolescent Medicine for the International Pediatric Association. Sawyer was the Inaugural chair of the Australian Network of WHO Collaborating Centres (2020-23). She currently chairs the Victorian Government Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Committee (2009-).