Professor Kathy Eagar MA, PhD
Professor Kathy Eagar is Director of the Centre for Health Service Development (CHSD). she has over twenty five years experience in the health and community care systems, during which she had divided her time equally between being a clinician, a senior manager and a health academic. She has authored over 250 articles, papers and reports on management, quality, outcomes, information systems and funding for the Australian and New Zealand health and community care systems.
Professor Eagar leads a research team of 40 researchers covering 18 disciplines. They have a national reputation reflecting a track record of policy-relevant health services research and development and the translation of research findings into policy and practice. Their research interests lie in health service delivery, organisation and performance, care coordination and integration, health outcomes, health policy and management, health and community care financing and casemix classifications across settings.
Dr David Filby PhD(Monash)
David Filby is Executive Director, Health System Improvement and Reform with the South Australian Department of Health. He is responsible for strategic planning and policy development, including research policy; intergovernment relations; and health intelligence. Prior to this, David was Deputy Director-General, Policy and Outcomes with Queensland Health. David also chairs the National
Health Reform Agenda Working Group , which provides advice to all jurisdictions and Ministers on progressing the agreed national health reform agenda.
Associate Professor MaryLou Fleming PhD
MaryLou Fleming is currently the Head of School of Public Health at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She has experience in the areas of teaching and research in higher education and public health and health promotion for over twenty years. Her PhD research was in the social history of public health in Australia. Along with other colleagues from the School of Public Health at QUT, she has completed a range of program and policy evaluations in community and school settings, for non-government organisations and for Queensland Health and the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Research has included the Health Australia Project for the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Dissemination Research for the Health Advancement Standing Committee of the NHMRC. Her research experience includes adolescent health, heart health and cardiac rehabilitation, workplace health management, health promotion planning and evaluation in school and community settings and planning and policy research. She has experience in action research, and process, impact and outcome evaluation in health promotion and public health interventions. Together with Dr Elizabeth Parker (also of QUT) she has produced a textbook on Health Promotion in Australia.
MaryLou has been a member of a number of health-related committees in the non-government and government sectors including Health Promotion Queensland, Board of Governors St Andres's Hospital (Brisbane), National Heart Foundation, and she curently chairs the Quality Management Committee for Breastscreen Queensland.
Ms Deborah Gleeson
Deborah Gleeson has a Master of Public Health and a Graduate Diploma in Health Promotion. She is currently undertaking a PhD in health policy at La Trobe University. Her thesis is a study of policy process and policy capacity in the Victorian Department of Human Services. She has worked in health promotion roles in the Community Health sector; as a project officer for the Centre for Development and Innovation in Health; and as a research officer in the School of Public Health at La Trobe University. Deborah lectured in health promotion policy at the Australian Catholic University for five years and has tutored in health policy at La Trobe University. Her research interest centre around the ways in which policy and practice can be improved to more effectively address population health and inequalities in health. Deborah will be the Senior Research Fellow on the AIHPS ARC Linkage Grant.
Mr Robert Griew BAppSci(Canberra)
Robert has been a senior executive in Government health and community service agencies for most of the past 20 years. For the last 4 years he has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services, a position responsible for the delivery of acute, primary and population health services to the most dispersed population in Australia, of which 30% are Aboriginal people. As a member of the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council he has chaired and led the restructure of the National Public Health Partnership and the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. As a member of the Community Services Ministerial Advisory Council he has chaired the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Services Working Group and a joint initiative on Child Health and Wellbeing for both Health and Community Services Ministers.
Previous positions have included CEO of the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON), in which capacity he led for the Board a revision of the vision and identity of the organisation and represented ACON on multiple policy and representational forums. These included the NSW Committee on HIV/AIDS Strategy, the Executive of the AustralianFederation of AIDS Organisations and the Intergovernmental Committee on Hepatitis, AIDS and Related Diseases.
Additional previous positions;include being the first Head of the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health in the Commonwealth Department of Health after the Aboriginal health program transferred from ATSIC to the Department in 1995. From this time Robert has stayed closely involved in Aboriginal health. Robert has also had experience in consulting, including running his own health consultancy, which specialises in public and Aboriginal health policy and organisational development. This has included previous consulting engagements to review services in Central Australia and local evaluation work for the Wilcannia Coordinated Care Trial. He has undertaken research, written and spoken on Aboriginal health policy.
Professor David Hill AM
Professor David Hill the Director of the Cancer Council Victoria and is one of Australia's leading public health researchers, and is widely recognised as a leading international expert in social marketing and public health campaigns.
There would be few Victorians whose lives haven't been touched in some way by Professor Hill's work. When Professor Hill first started full-time at the then Anti-Cancer Council in 1966, half of Victoria's adult men and more than a quarter of Victorian women smoked.
In 2002, when Professor Hill took on the role of Director, the situation was vastly different, and Professor Hill's work has been integral to many of these changes. Most forms of tobacco advertising and sponsorship are banned. Less than one in five adult Victorians smoke. Many Victorians live, work and play in smokefree environments. Go to the beach today and you see hats, SPF 30 and long sleeves everywhere.
Professor Hills PhD is in psychology from the University of Melbourne. He has authored and co-authored a large body of scientific articles and reports in the medical, public health and psychological literature. He is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, an Adjunct Professor at Deakin University and an Honorary Professor at Monash University. In 2001 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for 'services to the promotion of community health, particularly in the development of cancer awareness and prevention programs'.
He holds sneior positions on major national committees, including the NHMRC's Research Committee, of which he is Deputy Chair. In 1996, the Federal Minister for Health invited him to chair the Ministerial Tobacco Advisory Group to establish the first comprehensive national anti-smoking campaign launched in Australia. He was subsequently chairman of the National Expert Advisory Committee on Tobacco which was responsible for developing the National Tobacco Strategy to which all states and territories committed in 2004. He is a member of the Victorian Ministerial Taskforce for Cancer and chairs its Data and Information Working Group.
Ms Alison Hughes
Alison Hughes has nearly 30 years experience in health and aged care covering the areas of service and strategic planning, policy formulation, research, program evaluation and health administration. For the last fourteen years, Alison has been Director of Planning Paradigms Pty Ltd. providing health consulting services to commonwealth, state and local governments, academic institutions, health services, peak associations and non-government organisations.
Prior to being a Consultant, Alison held senior positions in the Department of Health and Community Services managing the Community Health, Home and Community Care (health component) and Palliative Care Programs. She was also one of the foundation staff who helped establish the North Eastern Metropolitan Region of Health, when the Victorian Health Commission was regionalised in 1984/85.
Alison has lectured in the Master of Health Administration (international) and Bachelor of Science at La Trobe University since 2002 and has tutored for five years in the Master of Public Health. Alison is an urban geographer by training and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from
Monash
University . She is currently undertaking a PhD in health policy capacity at La Trobe University and is the APAI on the AIHPS ARC Linkage Project Developing new methods for building health policy capacity in .
Alison’s interests are in health services planning and policy analysis and development, particularly in the areas of primary health, acute health, aged care, palliative care and the interface between community-based and institutional services.
Professor Vivian Lin DrPH(Berkeley), MPH(Berkeley), BA(Yale)
Vivian Lin is the Chair of Public Health (and Head of School from 2000-2004) at La Trobe University. She was previously the Executive Officer for the National Public Health Partnership. She has held senior positions within the NSW Health Department, the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, and the Victorian State Health Department (and its successors, where she had responsibility for policy, planning, and program development across a wide range of health issues. Vivian is the president of the Chinese Medicine Registration Board of Victoria and chairs the Australian Network of Public Health Institutions (ANAPHI). She has been undertaking consultancy and research assignments for the World Bank, UK Department for International Development, World Health Organization, and AusAID for over a decade. Vivian received her educational qualifications at Yale (BA), and UC Berkeley (MPH and DrPH). Her research interests are in political economy of health, health system development, and policy implementation. Her recent books include: Health Planning: Australian Perspectives (with Eagar and Garrett) and Evidence-based Health Policy: Problems and Possibilities (co-edited with Gibson). She is Advisory Editor for Health Policy for Social Science and Medicine, the book review editor for Australian New Zealand Journal of Public Health, and an invited member of the Public Health Committee of the Australian Medical Association.
Professor Robyn McDermott MBBS(Syd) FAFPHM(RACP) MPH(Harvard) PhD(Syd)
Robyn McDermott is Pro Vice Chancellor for the Division of Health Sciences at the
University of
South Australia. Robyn joined the University in August 2004. Before that she worked for 9 years in far north Queensland, first as Medical Epidemiologist for the Queensland Health Tropical Public Health Unit in Cairns, then from 2001 as Professor of Public Health Medicine at
James
Cook
University . Prior to Queensland, she worked as Senior Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research in the Northern Territory, following 15 years as a primary care doctor and health services manager in remote parts of and south-east
Asia . She has worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization, AusAID, the Australian Department of Health and Ageing, PriceWaterhouse Coopers and KPMG. She has served as immediate past President of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, chair of the working party on research and workforce development for the Queensland Public Health Forum, council member of the National Heart Foundation of Queensland and on various expert advisory committees.
She has co-ordinated and taught Masters level courses in Epidemiology and Health Economics while in the Northern Territory, and a new masters course in chronic disease and public health at
James
Cook
University , as well as contributing to undergraduate teaching on the new JCU Medical Course.
Her principal research interests are chronic disease prevention and management, particularly diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and health systems research. Most of this recent work has been done in north Queensland, particularly in the
Torres Strait
Islands and
Cape York . She has several NHMRC Project Grants and has served on NHMRC advisory committees. She has published in peer-reviewed Australian and international journals, including inter alia, the Medical Journal of Australia, British Medical Journal, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Health Policy, Diabetes Care, Diabetologia, Social Science and Medicine.
In
South Australia she serves on the Health and Medical Research Advisory Council of South Australia, the National Advisory Group on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Information Development, the Food Standards ANZ Scientific Advisory Group on Health Claims Substantiation, and contributes to the work of Health Reform SA.
Mr Mitch Messer
Mitch Messer is the Chair of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia. He is also Executive Director of Cystic Fibrosis Western Australia. He is President of Cystic Fibrosis Australia and Secrtary/Treasurer of Cystic Fibrosis Worldwide. Mitch has been involved in health consumer issues in a broader way through the Health Consumers' Council (WA) and also its predessor organisations the Health Consumers' Network and Health Advisory Network. During his involvement with these groups he has served in the postiion of Chairperson, Treasurer and Board member. He is the Deputy Chair of the Genetic Support Council WA (Inc).
He has been involved in many committees and working groups dealing with a range of issues including aged care, pharmaceuticals, genetic services and lung transplant. He is currently a member of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee and the Australian Pharmaceutical Advisory Council.
Professor Brian Oldenburg BSc (Hons)(NSW), MPsych(NSW), PhD(NSW) 
Brian Oldenburg (BSc (Hons); MPsych; PhD) has been recently appointed in the role of Chair of International Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University. He is the immediate past Professor of Public Health, School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Brian is also the Regional Director of the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium of Public Health (APACPH). His research focus spans the social/behavioural sciences and public health, with the major focus being on health policy, global health and the primary and secondary prevention of non-communicable diseases and associated social and behavioural risk factors across the life-course. This includes many intervention trials conducted in health care settings, work organisations, schools and other community settings over more than 20 years. His current research interests also include; socio-economic health inequalities, social disadvantage and research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, as well as, a broader interest in translational and policy-relevant research. He is also a senior research collaborator on public health intervention trials currently underway in both Australia and internationally. His research productivity is evidenced by over 300 publications, more than half of which are in peer-reviewed publications. He has also co-authored many important book chapters as well as national reports examining aspects of Australian health trends, health policy, socio-economic determinants of health and building capacity in the Australian public health workforce.
Philippa Smith, AM
Philippa has had extensive experience both inside and outside government covering a range of public policy issues.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s Philippa’s leadership roles included her work with ACOSS (The Australian Council of Social Services) and the Australian Consumers Association.
In 1985 she helped initiate a review within the Commonwealth Department of Health as to the level of consumer involvement in health policy and administration. As an outcome the Consumers Health Forum was funded by the government and Philippa became the inaugural chair of the Forum to form a peak not for profit body (bringing together consumer ,disability ,self help ,welfare ,and environmental groups ) on common issues related to health and to help create a coordinated consumer voice and perspective on health issues.
In the mid 1980’s Philippa established the Health Complaints Unit in the NSW Department of Health – the first of its kind in .
Her appointment on a variety of health advisory bodies has deepened her knowledge and interest on health issues. Most recently she chaired a steering committee for the NSW Department of Health on Health Manpower Needs 2020.
In the 1990’s Philippa was appointed to the statutory position of Commonwealth Ombudsman which amongst other matters reviewed accountability structures and administrative procedures as they related to health delivery.
Philippa is currently CEO of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), the peak industry body for all sectors of the superannuation industry and all types of funds.
Mr Michael Tennant
The Policy Branch provides advice to the Minister and Queensland Health Executive on emerging and priority state-wide health service, system and clinical policy issues. It leads and coordinates ongoing development of the strategic policy framework to support the health reform agenda. The Branch coordinates Queensland Health’s contribution to a range of intra-governmental and intergovernmental policy priorities and represents the Department’s interests in relevant policy forums. It coordinates and supports strategic partnerships, and intra-governmental and intergovernmental relations. The Branch also has a role in developing organisation wide policy research, analysis, development, review and evaluation capacity, by providing policy support to other Queensland Health business units.
Mr John Walsh BSc(Sydney), FIAA, AIA(London)
John Walsh is a partner in the Risk and Value practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which he joined at the end of 1991. During the past decade he has worked in a variety of roles as a consulting actuary in general insurance, accident compensation and the health industry. In 2001 he was nominated as Actuary of the Year by the
Institute of
Actuaries of Australia
.
John’s experience has led to a great deal of professional and committee work with government in discussing options for future health and disability financing and delivery models. In particular, his current work involves looking at options for accident compensation planning, health and disability services resource allocation, long term care and workforce development. He is particularly interested in resourcing models which take into account the expected demand (i.e. “risk”) of the target population. This work includes engaging with State and Commonwealth governments in developing options for more effective service delivery in the health, disability and ageing sectors.
As well as public sector funding and policy development John has extensive experience working with private sector clients, and at the intersection of public-private service delivery. His private sector clients have included major health and general insurers as well as private companies and industry associations.
Professor Andrew Wilson
Professor Andrew Wilson was appointed in December 2005 to the position of Executive Director, Policy, Planning and Resourcing for Queensland Health. His portfolio responsibilities include the planning aspects of health workforce, funding and health care services as well as overall policy co-ordination and relationships with the Australian government.
He was previously Deputy Executive Dean and Director of Research for the Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Public Health in the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland. Prior to that appointment he was Director of Clinical Policy and Practice and then Chief Health Officer for NSW Health. He is a member of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee and chair of the Economic Sub Committee of the PBAC and of the Repatriation Medical Authority.
He is a public health physician with research interests in all aspects of the application of epidemiology to clinical medicine, public health and health service planning and evaluation. Specific interests include prevention and management of chronic disease, evaluation of the effectiveness and responsiveness of health care systems and the impact of social environment on health and health care behaviour.
