Awards judging panel
Colleen Hayward (Co-chair)
Mick Gooda (Co-chair)
Kerry Arabena
Dr Ngaire Brown
Dr Mukesh Haikerwal
Bill Humes
Dr Cindy Shannon
Dr Paul Torzillo
Judging panel profiles
Colleen Hayward (Co-chair)
Associate Professor Colleen Hayward is Manager of the Kulunga Research Network at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. A senior Noongar woman with family ties throughout southwest Western Australia, she has an extensive policy and management background in health, education, training, employment and housing, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services agency, and was previously deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia. A well-respected advocate for Indigenous rights, Colleen was awarded the prestigious Premier of Western Australia’s Multicultural Ambassador Award in 2006 for her commitment to progressing human rights and addressing racism. In 2007, Colleen was a finalist in the Telstra Business Women’s Awards for WA.
Mick Gooda (Co-chair)
Mick Gooda is Chief Executive Officer of the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health. He is a Gangulu man from Central Queensland and has an extensive work history in the public and community sectors involving the development of policy, delivery of programs and advocacy in Indigenous affairs throughout Australia. He has built up a comprehensive experience of working and delivering results in remote, rural and urban environments, based on an extensive knowledge of the diversity of circumstances and cultural nuances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. He worked in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission for most of its life and was its last employee.
Kerry Arabena
Kerry Arabena is a descendant of the Merriam people in the Torres Strait. A qualified social worker with an extensive background in community development and public health, Dr Arabena is Executive Director of Family Planning ACT – its youngest ever and only Indigenous State Director. She has chaired numerous boards and committees, including the International Advisory Committee for Sexual Health and Family Planning Australia and the National Indigenous Australians Sexual Health Committee. She is a Fellow of the Sir Gustav Nossal Leadership in Health Reform. A remote area specialist, her expertise is in strategic planning, training and facilitation, and coordinating public health programs.
Dr Ngaire Brown
Dr Ngiare Brown is an Aboriginal woman from the South Coast of NSW and one of the first identified Aboriginal medical graduates in Australia, graduating from the University of Newcastle. She has a clinical background in acute care and community primary care, including stints at Aboriginal community-controlled services. Dr Brown has worked in policy and medical education, has been the Indigenous Health Advisor to the Australian Medical Association and was the foundation CEO of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association. Until recently, Dr Brown was Assistant Director, Indigenous Health at the Menzies School of Health Research. She is now pursuing further studies in health and human rights with the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and remains linked to Menzies in a senior advisory position.
Dr Mukesh Haikerwal
Dr Mukesh Haikerwal is General Medical Practitioner in Hobson’s Bay in Melbourne’s western suburbs. He was president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) from 2005-2007 and vice-president from 2003-2005, and president of the AMA (Victoria) from 2001 to 2003. While president he chaired the Taskforce on Indigenous Health, released two report cards and consulted widely with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities seeking to understand and promote better health. Educated in the United Kingdom, Mukesh trained as a specialist GP. He has been awarded Honorary Fellowships of the AMA and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Bill Humes
Bill Humes is retired and living in the south west of WA after having been CEO of Ngunnawal Aboriginal Corporation. Bill also served as Deputy Regional Council Chairman of ATSIC’s Queanbeyan Regional Council. In 1996 Bill won the NAIDOC Community Person of the Year. Bill was born in Wandering, Western Australia in 1945 and is a Nyoongar of the Wilman nation in the south west of the state.
Dr Cindy Shannon
Professor Cindy Shannon has extensive expertise in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research. She is the head of the Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Queensland and director of Shannon Consulting Services, a company specialising in providing management, policy and workforce services and support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Her primary interest is in health services research. Cindy is a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council and chairs its Indigenous Health Research Advisory sub-committee.
Dr Paul Torzillo
Paul Torzillo started his involvement in Aboriginal health as a volunteer driver with the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern in 1971. He worked on the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program with Fred Hollows. He helped establish Nganampa Health Council in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands in central Australia in 1983. He is currently the medical director of that organisation. He has worked with the World Health Organisation in the area of child health over the past 10 years. He is also a senior respiratory physician and intensive care physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney.
