Michelle Leech


Professor Michelle Leech MBBS PhD FRACP, is the Deputy Dean of Medicine at Monash University and an academic clinician-scientist. Professor Leech oversees the delivery of the Monash medical program and maintains an active research profile and clinical practice as a rheumatologist.

Education

Leech graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Monash University in 1987. She went onto residency training in internal medicine at Prince Henry’s Hospital and advanced physician training in rheumatology at Monash Health. Leech completed her PhD at Monash University’s Centre for Inflammatory Diseases and the Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians training program in 2000.

Career

Clinical

Professor Leech is a consultant physician and currently serves as Head of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinic at Monash Health.
In 2014, Leech was the Medical Director of Arthritis Australia. She has served on a number of National Rheumatology Advisory Boards, including Janssen-Cilag, Novartis, Abbvie, UCB, Cortical and MSD.

Research

Professor Leech is part of the rheumatology research group in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health.
Her research interests are focused on cytokine biology, glucocorticoid action and cell cycle proteins in the context of Rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis. She also maintains an active research profile in medical and interprofessional education. She has been the recipient of National Health and Medical Research Council and National Institutes of Health grants for her work.
Leech has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers, including papers in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Nature Reviews Rheumatology, The Lancet Rheumatology and Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Teaching

Professor Leech is currently a Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University, Nursing and Health Sciences, where she oversees the university’s medical program. This includes the undergraduate and graduate medical courses, as well as the medical program at the Monash Malaysia campus.
Prior to this appointment, Leech was director of the undergraduate medical program at Southern Clinical School.
In 2010, Leech received funding from the Department of Health and Ageing to develop interprofessional learning opportunities at Monash University and Southern Health.
In 2017, Monash University’s medical program moved from a Bachelor of Medical Science and Bachelor of Surgery to a Doctor of Medicine under Leech’s leadership.
Leech also serves on the Royal Australasian College of Physicians examination panel.

Current appointments