Chair
Professor Kerin O’Dea AO
Professor O’Dea is Director of the Sansom Institute for Health Research at the University of South Australia. She is a nutrition scientist and public health researcher who has made major contributions to understanding the relationship between diet and chronic diseases. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2004 for ‘service in the areas of medical and nutrition research, to the development of public health policy, and to the community, particularly Indigenous Australians’.
Members
Professor Louise Baur
Professor Baur is Professor in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Sydney and a Director of the Prevention Research Collaboration in the School of Public Health, also at the University of Sydney. She is a consultant paediatrician at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, where she is Director of Weight Management Services. She is also Co-Chair of NSW Health’s Aboriginal and Population Health Priority Taskforce. Among a range of community activities, she is a Director of World Vision Australia.
Dr Kyllie Cripps
Kyllie Cripps is a Pallawah woman and a Senior Lecturer in the Indigenous Law Centre, Faculty of Law, at the University of New South Wales. She was awarded her PhD in 2005 for her thesis entitled ‘Enough Family Fighting: Indigenous Community Responses to Addressing Family Violence in Australia & the United States’. She is currently, one of only a handful of researchers in the country whose sole research is on Indigenous family violence, sexual assault and child abuse. She is regularly invited to provide advice to state and federal governments and also provides professional training for members of the academy and to professional bodies. Kyllie is committed to building the capacity of the Indigenous workforce in this area and regularly provides advice and support to Indigenous and non Indigenous organisations working in the sector.
Kyllie is currently leading an ARC Indigenous Discovery project ‘Building and supporting community led partnerships to respond to Indigenous family violence in Victoria’. She also teaches in the undergraduate and JD programs in the UNSW Faculty of Law.
Dr Marlene Kong
Dr Kong is currently working across Australia as a locum General Practitioner. She has expertise and interests in Aboriginal medical services, primary health care, maternal and child health, paediatrics, family planning and public health. She is Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and holds a Masters of Public Health, Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and certificates in Family Planning and Early Management of Severe Trauma. Dr Kong has worked with humanitarian organisations overseas and as a Medical Officer for the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association.
Professor Mike Daube
Professor Daube is Professor of Health Policy at Curtin University and Director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute of WA. He was previously Director General of Health for Western Australia and Chair of the National Public Health Partnership. He is currently Deputy Chair of the National Preventative Health Taskforce, President of the Public Health Association of Australia, President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, President of the WA Heart Foundation, Chair of the WA Alcohol and Drug Authority, and is on various other committees and editorial boards. He has been a consultant on public health issues for many international health agencies and governments.
Dr Tony Hobbs
Dr Hobbs is a Rural GP obstetrician in Cootamundra, NSW. He chaired the external Reference Group developing Australia’s first National Primary Health Care Strategy. He is the immediate past chair of the Australian General Practice Network. He is the current chair of the Riverina Division of General Practice and Primary Health. Dr Hobbs has a strong interest in Primary Health Care reform and has been involved in developing an innovative integrated Primary Health Care Centre in Cootamundra.
Professor Ian Olver
Professor Olver is a medical oncologist, CEO of the Cancer Council Australia, Clinical Professor, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney and Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Adelaide. He graduated from University of Melbourne, being subsequently awarded an MD for a project on clinical trial methodology. He also has a PhD from Monash University in bioethics. After serving on several ethics committees in Victoria and South Australia and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Ethics Committee, he chaired the Cancer Institute NSW Research Ethics Committee for multi-centre cancer trials and currently chairs the Medical Oncology Group of Australia Ethics Sub-committee.
Professor David Roder AM
Professor Roder works under contract for Cancer Australia, the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre and the Cancer Institute NSW and heads research at Cancer Council SA. He was previously Director of Epidemiology in SA, Board member of the International Association of Cancer Registries, and WHO consultant on cancer registration in Penang, Sarawak and Mongolia. He is a member of the national BreastScreen committees and Cervical Screening National Safety Monitoring Committee, and chairs the NSW Cancer Screening Advisory Committee and the Advisory Board of the Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia. He has authored approximately 160 journal publications and was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2000 for contributions to cancer epidemiology.
Mr Sebastian Rosenberg
Mr Rosenberg has worked in health since 1989, beginning as research advisor to the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer. He has worked in a variety of policy roles for both the Commonwealth and state governments. He has been Deputy CEO of the Mental Health Council of Australia since 2005, overseeing the publication of the seminal Not for Service report and preparing numerous subsequent papers into aspects of innovative mental healthcare. Mr Rosenberg is also a Senior Lecturer at the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney and is currently undertaking a PhD focusing on national mental health policy and accountability.
Professor Steve Wesselingh
Professor Wesselingh is currently Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University. He was previously Director of the Burnet Institute, which specialises in infectious diseases, immunology and public health. Initially trained as an infectious diseases physician, Professor Wesselingh was awarded an NHMRC Neil Hamilton Fairley Fellowship to continue studying the neuroimmunology of HIV at the John Hopkins University, Baltimore. He has a vision of high quality medical and public health research leading to appropriate biotechnology and health systems that will improve the health of people in Australia and the poorly resourced countries of the region.
Professor Melanie Wakefield
Professor Melanie Wakefield is Director of the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, at Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. She is also an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, with honorary professorial appointments at the University of Melbourne, University of Sydney and Deakin University. She is internationally known for her research on the effects of tobacco control policies and mass media campaigns on smoking behaviour, supported by grants from NHMRC, ARC and the US National Cancer Institute (NCI). She is a member of various Australian government advisory committees on preventive health, an Expert Advisor to World Health Organisation on tobacco control issues, and a former voting member of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Tobacco.