Rubana Islam is trained in medicine with expertise in health services research, mixed methods, and evidence synthesis. She was awarded the highly competitive University International Postgraduate Award (UIPA) for pursuing a PhD in Public Health from the University of New South Wales. Additionally, she earned a prestigious Chevening Scholarship from the British Government for a Master's program in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing jointly offered by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London School of Health Economics.

In 2024, Rubana joined Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy (MUCHE) as a Research Fellow. Here she is working on Health Technology Assessment projects commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).

Previously, Rubana has worked at renowned institutions such as the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research Bangladesh, the World Health Organisation as a consultant, and the Cancer Council NSW as a post-doctoral research fellow. She has taught courses in public health, health promotion, and cancer prevention at BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health, UNSW and Univeristy of Sydney respectively.

Rubana is passionate about health policy analysis for improving population health, with interests including health policy and financing, epidemiology, health promotion, non-communicable disease (NCD) and cancer prevention, social determinants of health, and digital health for health systems transformation.