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AHEC member details
Chair
Dr Sandra Hacker AO
Dr Hacker chairs the board of Northern Health, Melbourne. She is a psychiatrist in private practice and her primary area of clinical interest is in severe trauma. Her clinical work involves mostly long-term psychotherapy with adults affected by severe childhood sexual assault. Dr Hacker was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2005 for her services to the medical profession
Members
Professor Jill Astbury
Professor Astbury is Research Professor in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Victoria University, and Co-Chair of the Coordinating Group of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, an initiative of the Global Forum of Health Research. Her research investigates how social position, gender and the violation of human rights impact on women’s mental health and underpin gender disparities in rates of psychological disorder.
Mr Graham Douglas-Meyer
Mr Douglas-Meyer is an artist from Western Australia who, since his initial diagnosis with HIV in 2001, has been actively involved in the community on a range of topics and for a number of Non Government Organisations. He is Chair of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) and represents the National Association for People Living with HIV/AIDS in Australia on the AFDO as well as on a number of Centrelink committees. He is also a board member of Arts Access Australia, the peak organisation of state bodies dedicated to disability and discrimination in the arts, especially around mental illness and homelessness. Mr Douglas-Meyer and his husband Damian were married in Toronto in 2004 and live with their small family in Perth.
Rev Dr Gerald Gleeson
Rev Dr Gleeson is a Catholic priest and Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Sydney College of Divinity, teaching at the Catholic Institute of Sydney. He was educated at the University of Cambridge and the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), and is a research associate at the Plunkett Centre for Health Ethics at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. He has a special interest in the ethical issues involved in end-of-life care and in the use of reproductive technologies. He is also Parish Priest at St Patrick’s Church, Summer Hill.
Professor Paul Griffiths
Professor Griffiths is a philosopher of science with a focus on the biological sciences. He was educated at Cambridge and the Australian National University, receiving his doctorate in 1989. He is University Professorial Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Centre for the Foundations of Science at the University of Sydney and holds an adjunct appointment at the Economic and Social Research Council Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis) at the University of Exeter, UK. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and President-elect of the International Society for History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology.
Professor Clifford Hughes AO
Professor Hughes is CEO of the Clinical Excellence Commission in NSW. He spent 25 years in a cardiothoracic unit in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney as a Senior Partner and Head of the Unit. He led five medical teams to China, performing cardiac (open heart) procedures in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh. He was a member of the Australian Council on Safety and Quality in Health Care and Chair of the Therapeutic Device Evaluation Committee. He was Secretary and then Chair of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons as well as Chairman of the Ethics Committee. Professor Hughes was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1998 for ‘service to cardiac surgery, international relations and the community’.
Professor Helen Milroy
Professor Milroy is a descendant of the Palyku people in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. She is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Bentley Family Clinic and Families At Work residential program, and Director for the Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health at the University of Western Australia. She is a past president of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association, a current member of the National Advisory Council on Mental Health and a board member of Headspace, a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation Development Team and of the newly-appointed Western Australian Indigenous Implementation Board.
Professor Margaret O’Connor AM
Professor O’Connor has held the Vivian Bullwinkel Chair in Palliative Care Nursing at Melbourne’s Monash University for six years. She is responsible for the Palliative Care Research Team at the university’s School of Nursing and Midwifery and manages a number of clinical research projects. She sits on many state, national and international committees related to palliative care and is well published in her research areas. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2005 for services to the development of palliative care in the State of Victoria.
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 Margaret Otlowski
Professor Otlowski is Professor of Law at the University of Tasmania and Deputy Director of the Centre for Law and Genetics. She has longstanding experience in health law and bioethics, publishing extensively in the field, and has been engaged by Commonwealth and state governments and agencies as a consultant and member for various committees, working parties and tribunals (currently the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal). She has practical experience in ethics; serving on the Royal Hobart Hospital Ethics Committee, chairing the University of Tasmania Social Sciences Ethics Committee and the subsequent State-wide Committee, and is currently on the Royal Hobart Hospital’s Clinical Ethics Committee.
Associate Professor Peter Sainsbury
Associate Professor Sainsbury is Director of Population Health in the Sydney South West Area Health Service and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at Sydney University. He was president of the Public Health Association of Australia (2000-2004) and a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council (2002-2006), NHMRC’s Australian Health Ethics Committee (2006-2009) and the NHMRC Embryo Research Licensing Committee (2007-2009). His qualifications and experience cover medicine, health planning, sociology, health services management and public health. His professional interests include inequalities in health, social relationships and health, the experience of illness, urban development and health, mental health promotion and social policy.
Professor Loane Skene
Professor Skene is a Professor of Law in the Melbourne Law School and an Adjunct Professor in the Medical Faculty at the University of Melbourne. She has served on numerous Commonwealth and state advisory committees, especially concerning genetics and the law. In 2005, she was Deputy Chair of the Lockhart Committee on Human Cloning and Embryo Research. She has published extensively in Australia and overseas. In 2003, she was awarded a Centenary Medal for ‘Service to Australian Society through the Exploration of Legal and Ethical Issues of Health Care’.
Mr John Stubbs
Mr Stubbs is Executive Officer of Cancer Voices Australia and a regular speaker at medical conferences and seminars on cancer advocacy, clinical trials and health related issues. He holds a number of board and committee appointments at both the Commonwealth and state level. He holds degrees in accounting and arts and has 30 years experience in the public and private sectors, including 10 years operating his own management consultancy business. He was recently appointed an Honorary Associate of the School of Medicine, University of Sydney for his work on clinical trials. Mr Stubbs has contributed to a number of booklets, edited consumer booklets for the Cancer Council and contributed to government policy on cancer, cancer services and the value of consumer involvement.
Associate Professor Merrilyn Walton
Associate Professor Walton is Associate Professor of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney. She is a leading patient-safety academic and works nationally and internationally in the field. In addition to journal articles, she is the author of three books. Associate Professor Walton is immediate past chair of the NSW Prevocational Training Council (PVTC) and remains on both the PVTC and the Management Committee of the NSW Institute for Medical Education and Training. She is also a member of the oversight committee for the Health Professional Registration and Accreditation Agency. She is a visiting professor and affiliate of The Buehler Center on Aging, Health and Society at Northwestern University in the USA.
Dr Nikolajs (Nik) Zeps
Dr Zeps is involved in translational research in breast, gastrointestinal and gynaecological malignancies. He is chair of the National Research Advisory Group of Cancer Australia, the Research Group of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia and the Biological sub-committee of the Australasian Gastro-intestinal trials Group. He is the Australian representative on the Consent and Data Access Advisory Committee of the International Cancer Genome Consortium. Dr Zeps works for St John of God Pathology and Radiation Oncology at Perth’s Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. He is an adjunct senior lecturer in the Schools of Surgery and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Western Australia.