Dr Stephen Corporal is an Eastern Arrernte (Northern Territory) man on his mother’s side with family connections to many other First Nations Peoples, He was born Bwgcolman (Palm Island) in Townsville and now lives on Jagera Country in Southeast Queensland. He has been around Southeast Coast for many years and worked in and been on Boards of community organisations in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. 

After working in community for many years he ended up going to Uni and completing a Bachelor of Social Work and Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) degrees at UQ in 2003. After which he then worked as a Social Worker at Centrelink while completing a Masters of Social Policy at JCU in 2005. 

Stephen started work at the University of Queensland in 2005 at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit. He enrolled in a PhD about Indigenous Superannuation in 2007 at UQ. He withdrew from the PHD to focus on Recruitment pathways of Indigenous students into the UQ School of Medicine where he was seconded to.

Stephen worked as a Project Officer at Griffith University Health Executive to work on setting up pathways into health courses including medicine. He worked as a Lecturer at Griffith University teaching First Australians and Social Justice and other Social Work courses. Stephen completed this PhD looking at Identity, Roles and Expectations of Indigenous Health students. 

Stephen completed a Prof Cert in Indigenous Research and Grad Cert in Indigenous Leadership and Research at University of Melbourne.  

Stephen was employed at QUT as a Research Fellow on a data literacy of clients of a local Indigenous Health Service as we as a Sessional Lecturer in the Health Faculty.  Stephen then spent time as the Senior Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement Officer at Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA). 

Stephen is currently a visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Data Science at QUT and is employed the University of Melbourne as a Senior Research Fellow in the Indigenous Data Network researching Data ecosystems and Alcohol related family violence. 

I have been on the Board of Indigenous Allied Health Australia and the IAHA NT WD for approx. 10 years because I have an ongoing commitment to increase the Health Workforce of Indigenous people. I hope to continue this when elected on the IAHA Boards as I know we have a way to go with Cultural Safety and addressing racism within the health systems where our members work, and our community are patients and clients.