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Associate Professor
Paula Dootson
Faculty of Business & Law,
School of Management
Biography
Paula Dootson is an award-winning, cross-disciplinary researcher in the QUT Business School. She works closely with communities to understand how people receive, interpret, personalise, and act on critical information, particularly during times of uncertainty. She designs human and digital interventions to improve how people receive, understand, and act on information. Paula also helps organisations build business cases to scale solutions rooted in community needs and behaviours. While much of her work is grounded in the context of disasters, she also applies this expertise in domains such as revenue collection, fines, public health, and public record-keeping.To date Paula has received over $5.5 million is funding, working closing with industry and government partners to rapidly translate and utilise research findings. Her research innovation and industry engagement has been recognised through awards such as the CRC Association Award for Research Innovation, the Emergency Media and Public Affairs (EMPA) Australia Award for Excellence in Emergency Communication, and the Natural Hazards Research Australia Award Team Award for lifesaving research. She has a strong track record of traditional and non-traditional research outputs including publications in journals across multiple disciplines, such as Safety Science, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Journal of Services Marketing, Disasters, Journalism Practice, UNSW Law Journal, and Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. Her work is republished and promoted on the UN Prevention Web, World Economic Forum as an Agenda Contributor, the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience, and APO Analysis & Policy Observatory.
Paula's research addresses Sustainability Development Goals #11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), #13 (Climate Action), and #3 (Good Health and Wellbeing). Her work is also aligned with the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Sendai Framework Target G (Substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to people by 2030) and Priority 4 (Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction).
Paula is a top-10 QUT author on The Conversation and she actively engages in externally disseminated podcasts and news media.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Personal details
Positions
- Associate Professor
Faculty of Business & Law,
School of Management
Keywords
Disasters, Risk communication, Consumer behaviour, Technology Adoption
Research field
Strategy, management and organisational behaviour, Marketing, Policy and administration
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy (Queensland University of Technology)
- Bachelor of Business (Public Relations with Distinction) (Queensland University of Technology)
- Bachelor of Business (Honours) (Queensland University of Technology)
Teaching
Paula is an internationally accredited educator, as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, now known as AdvanceHE. Current courses:
- BSB105 The Future Enterprise (QUT Business School, undergraduate)
- Executive Education short courses via QUTeX
Guest lecturer:
- PUN453 Disaster Response & Recovery (QUT School of Health, postgraduate)
- DXH601 Integrated Experience Design (QUT School of Design, undergraduate)
- IAB202 Business of Information Technology (QUT School of Information Systems, undergraduate)
- GS73 Master of Business Administration (Digital MBA) (QUT Business School, postgraduate)
Past courses:
- MGN599 Innovation in Practice (QUT Business School, postgraduate)
- BSB114 Marketing (QUT Business School, undergraduate)
- AMB200 Consumer Behaviour (QUT Business School, undergraduate)
- AMB201 Marketing and Audience Research (QUT Business School, undergraduate)
- AMB263 Introduction to Public Relations (QUT Business School, undergraduate)
Publications
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/paula.dootson
Awards
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2025
- Details
- "Predictions in public: Understanding the design, communication and dissemination of predictive maps to the public" won the award for delivering practical guidance that emergency management agencies can readily implement to improve public information during bushfire emergencies, ultimately enhancing community safety and resilience. The project highlights opportunities for strong project delivery using a co-design approach between researchers and end-users, demonstrating a new model for university-government collaboration in disaster research. The project's 'Design Principles' address a critical gap in existing resources, embedding guidance and consistency in map design into the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience's national doctrine on public information and warnings. Bushfire risk at the rural-urban interface is tackling a complex challenge of significant interest following the California fires earlier this year. The project focuses on challenges facing Hobart and dem
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2024
- Details
- Resilience Australia Award Finalist - National Research for Impact Award, a category within the Resilient Australia Awards program, that recognizes research contributing to disaster resilience. Specifically, it acknowledges research that has, or is expected to have, a significant impact on knowledge, capability, and practice related to disaster resilience.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2022
- Details
- Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award – Innovation and creative practice excellence.Classroom to BoardroomAssociate Professor Paula Dootson and Mrs Gemma AlkerClassroom to Boardroom integrates research, teaching and industry partnership to provide first-year Business students with the opportunity to work on digital transformation problems with real world partners and experts from QUT research centres.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2020
- Details
- Emergency Media and Public Affairs (EMPA) Australia Award for Excellence in Emergency Communication, Research Category for "Addressing Conflicting Cues During Natural Hazards: Lessons from emergency agencies."The award recognises published research that advances emergency communication by:- Improving community preparedness and/or resilience- Increasing the effectiveness of communication during an emergency response;- Enabling agencies to better support communities recovering from an adverse event.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrluKVdrqn0
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2019
- Details
- Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award – Leadership Excellence for an initiative that aligns QUT academics who are researching the topic of trust, ensuring that synergies are identified and that the research is conducted in a coordinated and collaborative fashion.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Named one of Australia's Top Thinkers in the 2017 Conversation Yearbook
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- Outstanding Achievement in Research Collaboration Award, International ScienceAdvisory Panel for Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, for:-delivering significant value towards improving the Emergency Management sector's ability to communicate with the public during natural disasters;-outstanding engagement with end-users;-building a tremendous foundation for ensuring that this important research influences future practice; and-the excellence of the project and its worthiness for ongoing support.
Supervision
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