Cheneal Puljevic

Dr Cheneal Puljevic is an ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow at the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame at the School of Public Health. Her current research focuses on the drivers and deterrents of illicit tobacco use. Her other research interests include smoking cessation among disadvantaged populations, drug checking (pill testing), alcohol-fuelled violence, and substance use harm reduction.

Cheneal is also the Bachelor of Health Sciences Honours (HLTH6014) program director and course convenor, a core research team member for the Global Drug Survey, an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Drug Policy, a Deputy Editor for Drug and Alcohol Review, and the Queensland Research Lead for The Loop Australia, a not-for-profit organisation aiming to implement drug checking (pill testing) services and partner operating organisation of CheQpoint, Queensland's first fixed-site drug checking service. She is the co-chair of the School of Public Health's Early Career Researcher committee.

Cheneal was previously employed as the Research Operations Manager for the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame (0.8FTE; 2021-2022) and as a Research Fellow (0.2FTE; 2018-2022) at the Centre for Health Services Research. In the latter role, she was the Program Manager for the Global Substance Use and Mental Health unit, where she conducted and managed a number of research projects related to substance use, including the Queensland evaluation of the Tackling Alcohol-Fuelled Violence Policy (QUANTEM), a NIH-funded project on the impacts of roadside breath testing, and several projects using data from the Global Drug Survey (on topics such as changes in alcohol and cannabis use following COVID-19 restrictions, perceptions of alcohol warning labels, cannabis use patterns, and patterns of methamphetamine "cooking").

In 2024, Cheneal was awarded the School of Public Health's award for the top-performing Level C in a research-focused position; in 2023 she was awarded the School of Public Health's Rising Star award, and in 2022, she was awarded the School's prize for the top performing Level B academic in a research-focused position. In 2020, she was awarded the Australasian Professional Society for Alcohol and Other Drugs (APSAD)'s Early Career Award. In 2019, she was awarded the Centre for Health Services Research's Outstanding Early Career Researcher award.

Cheneal completed her PhD in 2018 at Griffith Criminology Institute at Griffith University, with her thesis focusing on smoking cessation among people who have experienced incarceration. She completed an Honours degree in Psychology at the University of Cape Town in 2011, with her thesis focusing on screening and brief interventions for alcohol-related injuries at an emergency centre.

Cheneal is available to supervise honours, Masters and HDR students on a variety of topics; please get in touch to discuss.