Dr Holly Northam OAM, (PhD, RN, RM, M CritCareNurs, SFHEA) is Professor in Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University. Holly has a conjoint appointment with the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) as Director of the Leaders of Indigenous Nursing and Midwifery Education Network (LINMEN).

Holly is Convenor of the Canberra restorative Community; an affiliate of the University of Canberra; a Churchill Fellow (2006); a 2022 Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy of the United Kingdom; and the inaugural international visiting fellow at the Restorative Research, Innovation and Education Lab, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Holly brings extensive clinical experience to her research, leadership and teaching. A strong social justice focus underpinned by her professional identity as a nurse and midwife informs Holly’s research and teaching approaches using the lens of hope and restorative practice to identify and support people who are vulnerable to poor laws, policies and practices in health and other institutional settings.

Holly was at the University of Canberra from January 2010- Feb 2025 in various roles including Head of Discipline for Nursing at UC (2018- 2021) and the elected academic representative on the UC Council and Academic Board (2018-2020). Holly is a Director on the board of Donor Families Australia. Holly played an instrumental role in establishing the ACT Organ and Tissue Donation Service- now DonateLife ACT. Holly's PhD study, ’Hope for a peaceful death and organ donation’ identified that more must be done to alleviate suffering caused by communication failures in healthcare.

Holly uses opportunities to ‘nudge’ neutrality and reframe the social justice responsibility held by academics in academic /student relationships – especially for Indigenous students. Evidence to support the transformational impact and outcomes of this shared work is evidenced in Holly and her 'Restorative Healthcare Team' being awarded the 2021 University of Canberra Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Category: Approaches to teaching and the support of learning that influence, motivate and inspires students to learn. Creating relationships of trust and hope for reconciliation and a new social contract of health equity for Australians.