Gugu Badhun woman, Professor Yvonne Cadet-James has been appointed Director of the Jawun Research Institute at CQUniversity.

Hailing from the Upper Burdekin region of northern Queensland with a background as a nurse, midwife, educator and public health researcher, Professor Cadet-James brings more than 20 years of experience in health and education, and will lead the Jawun team in applied research focused on Indigenous communities.

Professor Cadet-James said her interest in nursing began at a young age.

"From a very early age I wanted to be a nurse," she said.

"At 16, I started my career as a Registered Nurse and later as a Registered Midwife."

Professor Cadet-James said she became aware of the health inequalities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

"I quickly comprehended that many First Nations people suffered from poor health and did not always have a good hospital or treatment experience," she said.

After two decades working in regional hospitals, Professor Cadet-James shifted her focus to Indigenous health research and policy reform.

Her work has included projects funded by the NHMRC, ARC, AIATSIS and the Lowitja Institute.

She also previously served as Chancellor of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.

She said the mission of the Jawun Institute aligns with her own goals.

"My personal and professional philosophy resonates with that of the Jawun Institute and CQUniversity overall, so this role was the ideal position for me," she said.

Her focus will be on capacity building and supporting self-determination in communities.

"My vision going forward is to continue to work collaboratively with communities through a nation building approach which strengthens capacity for self-governance and self-determination," she said.

"To achieve this will also mean strengthening the research capacity and capability of CQU researchers, particularly First Nations researchers."

Professor Cadet-James has worked with Jawun in previous roles, including in education, research and mentoring.

"Over many years I have worked with several Jawun staff, both in previous and current roles, and I have been involved in Jawun education and research activities over the last five years," she said.

"I am very excited to take up this role and thank everyone for their warm welcome and support.

"I am very fortunate to be able to build on the outstanding leadership and achievements currently at Jawun."

She will be based at the Institute's Far North Queensland location, but said her leadership would extend across CQUniversity's research programs.

"I am excited about the work currently in place at Jawun through the clusters which are at various stages of development," she said.

"This leaves open the opportunity to further this work through grant opportunities and/or add other topic areas to those clusters or develop new clusters."

Current research areas at the Institute include linguistics and culture, community-led mental health and genomics, collaborative research for community wellbeing, and disaster management and public health.