Professor Amanda Thrift is Head of Stroke & Ageing Research, Monash University, and is a Past President of the Stroke Society of Australasia. She gained her PhD from Monash University in 1995. Her research is directed at preventing stroke and vascular disease, particularly in disadvantaged settings. She has more than 300 publications on these topics, with over 40,000 citations. In 2017, in recognition of her work, she was awarded the Stroke Society of Australasia Excellence in Stroke Award; the highest honour awarded by this society. Professor Thrift has extensive research experience in conducting large scale longitudinal cohort and epidemiological studies. She was the Principal Investigator of the highly successful North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study. This study provided much of the evidence base for policy decisions around stroke in Australia. Her current portfolio of research include implementation studies of primary prevention of stroke and vascular disease in Australia and low- and middle-income countries. She identified that group-based education and monitoring delivered by health workers was effective in improving the control of blood pressure in rural India. This provides a means to manage blood pressure in regions that are hard to reach and where there is poor access to traditional healthcare.