[3] Her doctoral research investigated the impact of transformative learning on nursing students for which she was awarded a PhD by the University of Nottingham in 1998.
[6] Her research concentrated on forensic psychology, and studied the impact of marginalised groups with severe mental health issues.
[6] She led the School of Medicine application for an Athena SWAN award and served a member of the assessment panel for the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
At the University of Western Australia Freshwater established the Public Policy Institute, which translates research into real-world solutions for the Indo-Pacific region.
[17] She has been invited as a keynote speaker in several international ranking event hosted by the Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).