Associate Professor Sean MacDermott is Director of the John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research at the La Trobe University Rural Health School. He is a health services researcher specialising in ageing, with a focus on rural and regional Australia. His work spans aged care workforce development, dementia care, and service innovation, with a strong emphasis on applied research and evaluation that informs policy and practice.
His work takes a systems perspective to understanding how social, economic, and environmental forces interact to shape ageing in rural and regional communities, with a particular interest in how these dynamics influence access to care, workforce sustainability, and community capacity.
Sean works in close partnership with health services, government agencies, and community organisations to co-design and deliver research that has practical impact for older people and those who support them. His work includes programs supporting people living with dementia and their carers, as well as broader efforts to strengthen rural health systems and address inequities in access to care.
Through his leadership of the Centre, he continues to build strategic partnerships and deliver high-quality research that advances healthy ageing and strengthens rural health and care systems.