Dr Pennay is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Melbourne and a PhD in Health Sciences from the the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology. This PhD utilised ethnographic methods to understand the social, cultural and economic contexts of alcohol and party drug use in the night-time economy. In 2014 she commenced an NHMRC funded Early Career Fellowship to explore young people's drinking practices. She is particularly interested in the social contexts and cultural practices associated with alcohol and other drug use, as well as policy responses.