Dr Mia Schaumberg is an experienced leader, mentor and academic with expertise in exercise, health, ageing and dementia prevention. Mia was awarded her PhD in exercise physiology at The University of Queensland in 2016, following which she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in exercise and dementia at the Queensland Brain Institute before joining the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2018. As an exercise physiologist by training, her research extends from laboratory studies through to community implementation and investigates the mechanisms and potential biomarkers underpinning the benefits of exercise and other lifestyle interventions for improving physical and cognitive functioning and psychosocial wellbeing, thereby reducing dementia risk in older people. Her work has a particular focus on rural and regional older adults and those at most risk of dementia, including socially isolated people, women, and older people with mental ill health and her expertise aligns closely with the Ageing with Grace Mission. 

Mia is a Chief Investigator of the Manna Institute for Rural Regional and Remote Mental Health Research and Training, where she collaborates widely across the Regional Universities Network, and undertakes community focused, lived experience and end-user informed research to improve mental health outcomes for vulnerable groups living in rural, regional and remote areas, with a focus on older adults. She is also contributing to international guidelines on ways of working with rural, regional and remote communities, as well as global challenges such as workforce development and care provision in isolated areas. She has provided expert consultation on programs for the Australian Sports Commission, Primary Health Network, and the Age-Friendly Universities Initiative. Internationally, she has given >10 invited presentations and reviewed multiple doctoral theses and grant applications.

Mia is a collaborative and highly connected leader with strong academic and industry links nationally and internationally that complement the Aging with Grace mission and vision. Mia publishes regularly in the field of healthy ageing, supervises doctoral, masters and honours students, lectures in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs in health, and consults and collaborates widely in the ageing and aged care sector. Her connections and expertise in the field of healthy ageing, including in obtaining research funding, leading and developing teams and designing and evaluating programs and interventions are skills that place her ideally to contribute to the Ageing with Grace Board.