Dr Margaret Cargo
Senior Lecturer in Health Promotion
Dr Margaret Cargo arrived at UniSA from Montreal in September 2007. Her previous appointments were as Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University and Researcher, Psychosocial Research Division at the McGill-affiliated Douglas Hospital Research Centre where she continues to hold adjunct appointments. She completed a PhD in Health Care and Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia, funded by national scholarships from the National Health Research and Development Program, Health Canada. She was awarded a Medical Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship, held in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Université de Montréal.
Dr Cargo is Vice-President of the South Australia branch of the Australia Health Promotion Association. She was an invited member of the Canadian Institute of Health Research Aboriginal Peoples’ Health Peer Review Committee. From her work in community-based diabetes and obesity prevention she was invited to present to the Government of Canada’s Standing Committee on Health, Study on Childhood Obesity. She also participated on panels and symposia on Aboriginal health, healthy living for children in low socio-economic communities, participatory research and community-engaged scholarship in Canada and the United States.
Dr Cargo has expertise in: 1) the process evaluation of quasi-experimental evaluations and Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) targeting physical activity and obesity in clinical, school and community settings; 2) theory-driven evaluation; 3) understanding community mobilisation processes for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and suicide in Aboriginal communities; and 4) collaborative partnerships aimed at bridging the knowledge-to-action gap in public health. She has partnered extensively with Aboriginal communities, public health units and non-profit organisations in Canada and Australia to understand how environmental factors and situational circumstances bear upon program implementation and impact hypothesised program outcomes.
Her research with Aboriginal populations has been done with a strong commitment to building the capacity of Aboriginal community researchers and advancing the notion of collective protections in Aboriginal community health research. She seeks to move her research agenda forward by forming partnerships with policy-makers, program managers, practitioners and program beneficiaries in evaluating theory-driven interventions that target childhood obesity and Aboriginal social and emotional well-being.