Becky Freeman PhD

Becky is an early career research fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. Her primary research interests include tobacco control, obesity prevention, and how online and social media influence public health. She has been employed as a Research Fellow since November 2006. During this time she has published research: examining how tobacco plain packaging reforms were implemented in Australia, analysing legislation banning smoking bans in cars, reviewing and critiquing the regulation of tobacco promotions on new media, evaluating social media as an advocacy tool and assessing how new media can both advance and hinder public health policy. In her current role, she also acts as an expert advisor to both government agencies and civil society on tobacco control policies and using social media for advancing public health. Prior to pursuing her research interests in Australia, Becky worked for both government and not for profit organisations in Canada and New Zealand. She has over fourteen years of experience working in the tobacco control field. She is an established authority on the potential of the Internet to circumvent tobacco advertising bans and has pioneered research methods in tracking and analysing online social media content. She has prepared technical reports for the World Health Organisation outlining how to monitor and regulate tobacco industry advertising and interference in tobacco control policy. Becky has also served as an advisor to the WHO expert panel on tobacco industry interference in tobacco control. She is the Associate Editor of New Media for the international journal, Tobacco Control.