Dr Flavia Santamaria is a Lecturer in the School of Access Education (SAE) at CQUniversity (Rockhampton Campus) and is also a Researcher working on koala projects with the Flora, Fauna and Freshwater Research Group and the Koala Research-CQ at the School of Health, Medical & Applied Sciences.

Flavia is passionate about education in all of its facets and enjoys teaching adult students because of their enthusiasm and commitment to their own future.
Flavia's PhD, carried out in Victoria at the former University of Ballarat (now Federation University), studied the impact of translocation on the health, tree species selection and movement of radio-tracked koalas relocated from French Island to forests around Ballarat.

Both in Victoria and Queensland, she has worked on projects that included GIS mapping and surveys of koala habitat and koala surveys.

Flavia's current and future research focus on:

• the impact of anthropogenic environmental changes on koala populations, including the potential pressure caused by environmental stressors on the health of koalas
• detection and prevention of disease in koalas
• using the koala as a flagship species in educating communities for sustainability

Completed projects

• 2021: Determination of the over time decay of cortisol metabolites in the faecal pellets of koalas in Central Queensland
• 2020: Quantifying koala faecal cortisol metabolite baseline using enzyme immunoassay and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
• 2018: Determination of faecal cortisol metabolites and excretion lag time in koalas: paving the way for a targeted, non-invasive stress monitoring tool
• 2017: R1-Koala Research CSAR17023- Koala habitat health - remote sensing based, landscape-scale habitat management toolkit, initial climate change scenario assessment & local habitat health checks

Other interests

Protection of the environment by engaging with various community groups.