Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership in Research

Presenter Bio's

Michael Newman

Michael Newman is a Galari Gibir (Lachlan River Man) of the Wiradjuri People, the People of the Three Rivers, Michael holds familial and cultural connection to Central West, Riverina-Murray and Capital Country areas of New South Wales.

Michael is a dedicated and dynamic leader with over twenty years of experience in enhancing the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people and communities across the gamut of human services by working across the sectors of Education, Training, NSW Police, Communities and Justice, and Aboriginal Affairs.

Michael has extensive operations and corporate governance experience having held management and director positions at the local, regional, state and national level.

As the Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Lowitja Institute, Australia’s only national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled health research institute Michael supports the strategic work across the operational teams of Workforce, Research and Knowledge Translation, Policy and Corporate Services. 

Michael also currently serves on the Ministerial Aboriginal Partnership Group (NSW Department of Communities and Justice), National Health and Medical Research Council Indigenous Advisory Group, Yilabara Board of Directors and Western Health Alliance Limited Board of Directors.

Michael has proudly devoted his career to elevating Aboriginal voices through enacting self-determination in service design and delivery, endlessly pursuing meaningful and impactful outcomes with and for Aboriginal people and communities.

Aunty Judith (Judy) Johnson

Aunty Judith (Judy) Johnson is a recognised Wiradjuri Elder in the Wagga Wagga community, with more than four decades of involvement in Aboriginal community leadership, governance, advocacy and community-controlled organisations across the Riverina.

Born in Griffith, NSW, Aunty Judy spent most of her life in Griffith before returning to Wagga Wagga in 2020, where she has strong ancestral and family connections. Her great-grandmother, Mary Manns, was from Wagga Wagga and her mother was born there. For Aunty Judy, returning to Wagga Wagga represented a return to the Country and community to which her family has longstanding connections.

Aunty Judy’s involvement in Aboriginal community-controlled organisations dates back to the early 1980s. In 1982, she became a founding member of the Griffith Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) and Three Ways Aboriginal Housing Corporation, remaining a committed and active member of both organisations. In 1987, she was elected Chairperson of Griffith LALC and subsequently served as Chair on numerous occasions.

During this period, Aunty Judy was involved in supporting the Regional Wiradyuri Land Council during the successful handback of Booberoi Station at Euabalong, NSW, to Wiradyuri people. She played an important role supporting the Regional Council, assisting with provisions and helping to ensure the wellbeing of those participating.

Her extensive community leadership has also included serving as Secretary of the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) in Griffith, Deputy Chair and Director of Dyrri-Bang-Gu Aboriginal Aged Care, and Board Director of the Griffith Aboriginal Medical Service.

Aunty Judy has dedicated many years to advocating for the health, wellbeing and cultural rights of Aboriginal peoples. Her work has included contributing to the development of Aboriginal cultural protocols and practices with Griffith City Council through the Aboriginal Community Working Party. This work supported government and non-government organisations to appropriately recognise Aboriginal peoples, cultures and heritage at official events and ceremonies, promoting understanding of Aboriginal cultural practices, and strengthen respectful relationships and partnerships with Aboriginal communities.

Her extensive experience within Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), together with ongoing governance training, led Aunty Judy to nominate for the Board of Riverina Medical and Dental Aboriginal Corporation (RivMed). She was successfully elected as a Director at RivMed’s Annual General Meeting in November 2024. She subsequently put herself forward to serve as Chair and was unanimously elected by her fellow Directors.

As Chair, Aunty Judy brings a strong understanding of community control, accountability and the responsibilities of an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. She has engaged with numerous RivMed, AH&MRC and NACCHO stakeholders and understands the importance of strong governance, transparent reporting, funding accountability and ensuring the organisation remains responsive to its members and community.

During her tenure as Director and Chair, RivMed has presented Annual Reports to its members, strengthening transparency and accountability to the community it serves.

Aunty Judy is known within her family and community for being forthright, direct and willing to speak up when something needs to be said. She is a mother, grandmother to more than 20 grandchildren and Nan to many others who regard her as family, as well as a great-grandmother to 15. Her lived experience, including the profound loss of a daughter to cancer, has contributed to the strength, compassion and determination she brings to her leadership and advocacy.

Her qualifications and professional development include a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment from Western Riverina Community College (2018), a Graduate Certificate in Wiradyuri Language and Culture from Charles Sturt University (2022), and NACCHO Governance Training (2025).

Aunty Judy continues to advocate for strong Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, cultural recognition, good governance and improved health and wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal people throughout the Riverina.

Dr Simone Sherriff

Dr Simone Sherriff is a Wotjobaluk woman and Senior Research Fellow at the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at Sydney University. She is a board of director for the Academy of Child and Adolescent Health and the Wurega Aboriginal Corporation. Simone has 16 years’ experience working in and with the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector in NSW on health research and the implementation of services around key priority areas for communities such as breastfeeding, food security and child health.

Cheree Toka

Cheree Toka is a proud Gomeroi Woman with a connection to Northwestern NSW, Gunnedah and Moree. Cheree is the Head of Priority Reform 4 – Aboriginal Data Sovereignty and Governance at the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW, where she leads the delivery of this reform under the NSW Closing the Gap Implementation Plan in Partnership with NSW Government. Cheree has led the Priority Reform 4 program for the past three years, overseeing its development and implementation across NSW.

Fiona Clark

Fiona Clark is a Proud Barkindji women from far western NSW, Fiona is a mother of 3 children, moved to Orange 15 years ago has been working at the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service for nine years. Fiona is the Clinical Administration Lead at Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS) and a dedicated advocate for Aboriginal health and wellbeing. Fiona has experience in dental, with extensive experience supporting community-led health initiatives, Fiona has contributed to a range of research projects, advisory committees and health programs focused on cancer care, kidney health, tobacco reduction, oral health and healthy lifestyles. She is passionate about ensuring Aboriginal voices are represented in research, policy and service development, and works closely with communities, researchers and health organisations to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal people across Western NSW.

Anne-Marie Mepham

Anne-Marie Mepham is a proud Wiradjuri woman, a Registered Nurse and Chronic Disease Coordinator at the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS). With more than 15 years’ experience in aged care, chronic disease management and Aboriginal health, Anne-Marie is passionate about improving health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through culturally safe, community-led care. She provides leadership across a range of chronic disease programs and has contributed to numerous research initiatives spanning kidney health, cancer screening, maternal and child health, burns prevention and health service improvement. Anne-Marie is Deputy Chair of the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council and was recognised as the 2024 Orange NAIDOC Female Person of the Year.

Plenary Session:

Driving Equity in Research: Supporting Regional, Rural, Remote and Indigenous Communities

We will be joined by Dr Natasha Friend and Dr Bronwyn Wyatt from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Equity Team. They will provide an overview of NHMRC’s equity policy activities, with a particular focus on gender, regional, remote and rural (RRR) equity and indigenous equity activities

This presentation will be followed by a session exploring the barriers faced by regional, rural and remote researchers with discussions on advancing equity across the research sector to complete the session.

Dr Natasha Friend is the Assistant Director Equity in the Research Quality and Advice Branch at the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Natasha helps lead NHMRC equity policy across priority areas including gender and rural, regional and remote equity. Natasha completed her PhD in the genetics of multiple myeloma at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. She has worked at both NHMRC and the Australian Research Council in several roles including grants administration, evaluation and policy.

Dr Bronwyn Wyatt is a Senior Policy Officer in the Research Quality and Advice Branch at the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), supporting initiatives that promote equity in and through health and medical research. Bronwyn has a PhD in Biological Anthropology from the Australian National University and previously worked as a Data Analyst at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare across a range of national health data programs.

 

Workshop:

Digital Health, AI and Equity in Rural Settings

Presenters: Abe Warwick, Ged Hawthorn
  1. Visionflex: An interactive experience with a live connection from the workshop room back to the Visionflex demonstration suite in Sydney. You will watch a real consultation happen across several hundred kilometres, with live diagnostics coming back in real time. A mobile kit will be in situ so you can pick up and handle the devices themselves, including the examination camera, digital stethoscope and camera glasses.
  2. Pharma8: Improving Medication Safety and Buying Back Time for Rural Clinicians
    As a pharmacist inside NSW Health, Ged designed implemented and researched a virtual clinical pharmacy service that scaled to over 30 health services across Western NSW, bringing clinical pharmacist input to rural sites that had never had it before. That’s what equity in rural health actually looks like in practice: not a scaled-down version of a city service, but genuinely new access where none existed. However the research behind it told a harder truth: even at scale, the service was only reaching 1/3 of patients on discharge. In a fiscally constrained environment, more staff wasn’t the answer, smart technology was. That insight led Ged to found PharmaM8.
    Reconciling medications on discharge and preparing the required paperwork can eat 20–30 minutes of a clinician’s day, one of the most preventable sources of patient harm made worse by exactly the kind of time pressure rural and remote clinicians face every shift. In this session, watch unformatted, jargon-filled medication information be transformed in minutes into a verified, patient-friendly medication list and interim medication chart. Attendees will see how digital health and AI, applied carefully and with clinical scrutiny, can close the coverage gap by giving clinicians time back to spend more time in direct patient care.
Abe leads Customer Success at Visionflex, an Australian health technology company whose virtual care platform is used across aged care, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, remote and rural health services, mine sites and Antarctic research stations. He works with health services across Australia and New Zealand to turn telehealth equipment into models of care that actually get used, with a particular focus on remote and rural settings where workforce shortages make hub and spoke delivery the only realistic option. Abe is interested in the practical side of digital health equity, including what happens when technology is funded and installed without a model of care to support it.
Ged Hawthorn is a pharmacist and healthtech founder with a growing interest in rural health research. Ged helped design and evaluate a virtual clinical pharmacy service and then led the expansion to over 30 health services across rural and remote Western NSW. This work has contributed to six peer-reviewed publications, including a stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial (BMC Health Services Research) and a recent economic evaluation modelling the service’s return on investment (Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research, 2026). 
Ged‘s career has been built in rural and remote pharmacy, from sole pharmacist in charge of a remote-area pharmacy in Cobar, NSW, to Senior Regional Pharmacist with WA Country Health Service in Broome, where he worked in the region’s telechemotherapy unit, a unique model improving access to chemotherapy, while also covering medication supply across the entire Kimberley region, an area of over 420,000 square kilometres. He remains a practising Senior Clinical Pharmacist and Pharmacy Educator at Western NSW Local Health District, and is a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney and Charles Sturt University.
Across his public health career, Ged has built a strong record of innovation, leading new models of care and designing and implementing digital tools within NSW Health. This has been recognised with numerous awards at both local and state levels. He is now applying that same drive to innovate from outside the constraints of a slow-moving public system, Founding Hawthorn Healthtech and building PharmaM8, a digital health tool that cuts the administrative work and improves medication safety on transfer of care, a finalist in the 2025 Innovate with nbn Awards. He is a Board Certified Geriatric Pharmacist (American College of Clinical Pharmacy), a Fellow of Advanced Pharmacy Australia in Critical Care and Education (FANZCAP), and completed Cohort 3 of the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program in 2025.

Workshop:

Oral health is everyone’s business: Collaborative Oral Health Care in Rural Communities

  1. From Dental Chair to Primary Care: Integrating Oral and Systemic Health Associate Professor Shalinie King
    Rural Placement Programme Academic Lead, The University of Sydney Dental School, and Oral Health Programme Lead, Westmead Applied Research Centre

  2. Oral health advice in non-dental settings
    Dr Lauren Church
    Lecturer, The University of Sydney Dental School 

  3. Digital platforms to improve access to paediatric care (Vspec project)
    Associate Professor Mel Nott
    Principal Research Fellow | Three Rivers Department of Rural Health Charles Sturt University

  4. Caring and call to action for young smiles: International Recommendations for Children’s Oral Health
    Associate Professor Marco Benini Paschoal 
    Research lead in the Centre for Rural Dentistry and Oral Health at Charles Sturt University
Presenters:

Shalinie King is an Associate Professor with the University of Sydney Dental School where she is the academic lead for Rural Placements, and program lead for Oral Health Research at the Westmead Applied Research Centre (WARC). Shalinie is a practising clinician with experience working in both the public and private sectors, she has extensive teaching experience and recently completed a 12-month term as Director of Academic Education at the Sydney Dental School.

Her research interests include understanding the associations between oral health and overall health, developing and evaluating strategies to improve community access to basic oral health information focusing on the use of digital technologies to support oral health promotion. Her work aims to design and implement new models of care that integrate oral and overall health care and, that improve community awareness and knowledge about the importance of good oral health in contributing to better overall health outcomes.

Dr Lauren Church is a Lecturer with the University of Sydney Dental School, where she is third-year unit of study coordinator for the Bachelor of Oral Health. Lauren is a registered clinician with public and private sector experience and teaches BOH students in the acute care setting at Sydney Dental Hospital, where she fosters interprofessional learning between BOH and DMD students.

She recently completed her PhD at the University of Sydney. Her research examines the connection between oral health and cardiovascular disease, oral health education in hospital settings, and protocols for integrating digital oral health interventions into cardiac rehabilitation. Her work aims to shape compassionate, patient-centred clinicians and to advance oral health within broader public health strategies. Lauren is Deputy Chair of the Oral Health Association of Australia (NSW Branch) and NSW Oral Health Representative for the Public Health Association of Australia.

Melissa is a regionally based occupational therapist working with rural communities, health service users, families, health professionals and service providers. She has a strong background in collaborative and partnership-based research that focuses on translating evidence into healthcare practice, supporting health professionals to build sustainable research networks, co-design and co-production with community stakeholders, and evidencing impacts of healthcare initiatives.

AProf Marco Paschoal is an Associate Professor in Clinical Dentistry at Charles Sturt University, (Orange Campus) and a specialist paediatric dentist with a strong commitment to advancing child oral health through research, education, and clinical practice. His research focuses on developmental dental defects, particularly molar hypomineralisation, alongside cariology, and evidence-based approaches to paediatric dental care. He has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals and is passionate about translating research findings into meaningful improvements in clinical care and health outcomes for children and adolescents. Beyond his academic role, he has actively contributed to the advancement of oral health research through professional leadership and scholarly service. He serves as the IADR Western NSW Councillor and is an active member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry (ANZSPD) and the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry (IAPD). He also contributes to scientific publishing as a Board Member of Scientific Reports, an Editorial Board Member of BMC Oral Health, and a Guest Editor for BMC Pediatrics, supporting the dissemination of high-quality research and evidence-based practice worldwide.

Workshop:

Doing research that matters: How to plan program evaluation in rural health services

This workshop aims to provide an overview of key issues and considerations in planning and undertaking evaluation of health and wellbeing programs. Participants will be introduced to a simple step-by-step approach that can be applied successfully in many health program contexts. The workshop will draw on a case study of a Marathon Health program that has recently completed this evaluation process.

Read about the process: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajr.70068
Presenter: Matt Thomas

Matt Thomas is a clinical psychologist working in the role of Principal Practice Lead with Marathon Health, based in Bathurst, NSW. His role includes leading research activities focussed on evaluation of innovative rural health services and rural health workforce development.  He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at Charles Sturt University and in the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of NSW.

Workshop:

Innovating together: A practical workshop on co-designing for rural health research

This workshop aims to equip participants with knowledge and practical skills for engaging health consumers in research co-design and implementation. Facilitated by an experienced team of health consumers and researchers, this will be a engaging and dynamic workshop that unpacks the co-design process.
 
Facilitators: Carrie Hayter, Health Consumers NSW and Melissa Nott, Three Rivers Department of Rural Health

Carrie Hayter works to amplify the human rights and living experience of people who use aged care, disability and health care services and has over 30 years’ experience working alongside people who use aged care, disability and health services to improve and change service systems. Carrie has a Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) from the University of NSW, a Masters of Economics (Honours) from the University of Sydney, is a 2017 graduate of the Sydney Leadership Program, and a Distinguished Member of the Australian Association of Gerontology.  Carrie has living experience of Coronary Artery Disease and is a consumer representative on the St Vincents Private Hospital Consumer Advisory Committee, the St Vincents Private Hospital Clinical Governance Committee  and the Westmead Applied Research Centre in Sydney.  She is a Consumer Adviser on the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Consumer and Community Involvement Working group that is working to improve consumer and community involvement in research across the Institute. Between 2021 and 2024, she worked for Health Consumers NSW as the Consumer Engagement Manager, Health and Medical Research, working to build the capability and capacity of consumers and researchers to involve consumers and the community in health and medical research. Carrie’s vision is for all people and communities to live their best lives supported by service systems underpinned by human rights and evidence-based practice.   Find out more at https://www.carriehayter.com/.

Melissa is a regionally based occupational therapist working with rural communities, health service users, families, health professionals and service providers. She has a strong background in collaborative and partnership-based research that focuses on translating evidence into healthcare practice, supporting health professionals to build sustainable research networks, co-design and co-production with community stakeholders, and evidencing impacts of healthcare initiatives.

Workshop:

Strengthening the Rural Health Workforce Through Research

Research often begins with a simple question: Why does this happen? Could we do this differently?

Designed for clinicians with emerging curiosity about research, this interactive workshop explores how everyday challenges, observations, and quality improvement activities can become meaningful research opportunities. Through a researcher panel and practical group activities, participants will learn how to identify workplace problems, develop research questions, and take their first steps towards research that can improve rural health services and patient outcomes.

Presenters: Luke Marks and Sharon Laver

Luke Marks is a Research Coordinator, nurse leader, and PhD candidate with more than 24 years’ experience across rural and regional healthcare. His clinical background spans emergency, paediatric, community, renal, perioperative, intensive care, and nursing leadership roles. Luke currently leads initiatives focused on nursing and midwifery workforce development, leadership, research, advanced practice, and professional standards. Passionate about building research capacity within the healthcare workforce, Luke is the founder of the Nursing and Midwifery Research Excellence Centre (NaMREC), an Adjunct Senior Lecturer with Charles Sturt University, and is currently undertaking a PhD exploring leadership practice among Advanced Practice Nurses in regional New South Wales. A Wiradjuri man living and working on Wiradjuri Country, Luke is committed to supporting clinicians to translate curiosity, quality improvement activities, and everyday practice challenges into meaningful research that strengthens rural health services and improves patient outcomes.

Sharon is a Registered Nurse and academic at Charles Sturt University (CSU) with extensive experience in community-based nursing, health service management, and organisational development. Her experience extends from major metropolitan hospitals to rural and small remote Australian health services and has included major state level project work. Her research interests include transition to professional practice, rural nursing workforce preparation, development, retention, and capacity building. Sharon has been working with the Western NSW LHD Nursing and Midwifery Research Excellence Centre (NaMREC) to build research capacity and capability through a number of projects. If accepted, this workshop will be co-facilitated by NaMREC project participants and CSU partners.

Proudly sponsored by:

Workshop:

Things We Have Learnt the Hard Way: An Introduction to Mental Health Research for New Starters

Mental health research is full of unexpected challenges. In this interactive workshop, we’ll discuss some of the common pitfalls and practical solutions we’ve learned through experience. it focuses on the practical things that don’t make it into research methods textbooks. Join us to explore literacy-friendly participant information sheets, distress and wellbeing protocols, reducing research burden on participants and clinicians, recruiting realistic samples in rural communities, and choosing the right outcome measures. Bring your questions and examples from your own projects. Experienced researchers are encouraged to come along and share their learnings too.
Presenters: Professor Julaine Allan, Dr Nicole Snowdon, Dr Kate Freire
Proudly Sponsored by:

Plenary Session:

View Speaker Bio's
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership in research

We will hear from Michael Newman, Deputy CEO of the Lowitja Institute, who will provide an overview of the Institute’s work. He will be followed by Judy Johnson, Chair of the Riverina Medical and Dental Aboriginal Corporation, and Simone Sherriff, Senior Research Fellow at the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, University of Sydney, who will present a Lowitja Institute-funded research case study from Western NSW.


Cheree Toka, Head of PR4 of the Aboriginal Health & Medical Research Council of NSW, will then discuss the importance of strategic research and its role in improving Aboriginal health outcomes. The session will conclude with an opportunity for questions and discussion.


Following this, Christine Sweeney will introduce the Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS). We will then hear from Fiona Clarke, Clinical Administration Lead at OAMS, who will present research from the Antecedents of Renal Disease in Aboriginal Children and Young People (ARDAC) Kidney Health Research Program. Anne-Marie Mepham, Chronic Care Coordinator at OAMS, will then present Screen Your Way, a cervical screening self-collection project.

The session will conclude with a further opportunity for Q&A and discussion.

Networking Session:

In this session, you’ll work your way through a fun set of questions to discover new contacts and connections. It’s a networking adventure, with maps of where you travelled – and maybe even some treasure – at the end.

You’ll need to bring your mobile phone along to this session to take part.

 

Dr Anthony Brown

Dr. Anthony Brown is the Research Manager at Health Consumers NSW (HCNSW). HCNSW is the peak consumer group in the state, it is an independent, membership-based charity that works to ensure that health consumers (patients, carers, and families) are involved in the decisions that impact on them. Growing up in the Central West has given Anthony a strong connection to regional communities and a firsthand understanding of the factors that influence health and wellbeing outside major cities. Anthony is both a strong advocate for consumer involvement in research and an experienced researcher. Before joining HCNSW he was the Manager of the Men’s Health Information and Resource Centre at the University of Western Sydney, where he completed a doctorate (PhD) looking at retired men’s community engagement.

Dr Andrew Goodman

Dr Andrew Goodman is an Aboriginal man from Iningai Country in Queensland. Prior to his PhD, Dr Goodman spent more than 13 years as an Indigenous Healthcare Worker in Queensland, focusing on cardiac and healthcare services with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Currently, he is a Research Scientist with CSIROs digital health program, where he leads research initiatives focused on building the evidence base for digital health technologies that align with the priorities, interests, and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Central to his approach is the principle of “Relationships before Partnerships,” which emphasises trust, reciprocity, and accountability as the foundation for meaningful collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations.