Professor Eileen Willis has a research interest in the area of Indigenous public health policy particularly access to health care and domestic water. She also has research expertise in the impact of health reform on working time. Research projects have included the impact of Excelcare on nurse's caring time, and enterprise bargaining and working time for health professionals. She has conducted research on the gynaecological cancer workforce, and the development of a community mental health professional's working time tool. She is currently engaged in two research projects examining the impact of rationalised care in the public hospital system and international nurses. Dr Willis has attracted funding from government and private organizations to do small scale in-depth qualitative studies on attitudes, values and aspirations to social policy of various population groups. She was the foundation editor of the international journal, Health Sociology Review, and currently serves on the editorial board. She is also on the foundation editorial board of Leadership and Policy Quarterly

Professor Eileen Willis has a broad research interest in the impact of social policies on the health of populations and health care systems. In the past decade this interest has led to research in two broad areas; work-place policy for health professionals and water sustainability. Her current research in the area of patient care and the health workforce has dealt with the future needs of the gynaecological workforce including patient views of workforce continuing education (Cancer Australia 2008),  the Aboriginal patient journey in the acute hospital sector (SA Health Department 2008), and the experiences of international nurses in the public sector. She has published research papers on multidisciplinary care, the Indigenous patient journey, women's experiences of gynaecological cancer, working time for health professionals, and rationalised care in the public sector. Dr Willis has developed and published work on the use of qualitative methods in sensitive situations and on the role of supporting sciences in health professional curriculum. She was a member of the advisory committee of the  national body of Ambulance Services; the Council for Ambulance Authorities, chaired 3 accreditations visits for Paramedics, and is currently Chair of the Paramedicine Accreditation committee for the Paramedicine Board/AHPRA.

Professor Eileen Willis has attracted over 4 million in research funds from the government and private sector. This research has tended towards complex collaborations between government departments and the private sector exhibiting her capacity to project manage.