Consumer Advisory Council

Kym Holden is an advocate for asthma education, for people with asthma and those who care for them. The need for continuing education has been reinforced by many discussions with the public.

She has a long association with the Health Consumers Forum and ACT Asthma. Ms. Holden was involved in the territory-based organisation merging with Asthma Australia. Reinforcing the Asthma Australia consumer message to government is an important task for the Consumer Advisory Council.

Ms. Holden has a strong family link to asthma. She says the importance of asthma education was highlighted following a personal experience with asthma that required her to be hospitalisation in the intensive care unit. She is keen for more Australians to avoid the issues she and her family faced by more timely asthma education.

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Jessica is a passionate Dentist and Pharmacist based in the ACT, and as a person who has lived with asthma since she was a child, she can appreciate some of the unique challenges of achieving and maintaining good asthma control. Her experience in community pharmacy and in public health service has demonstrated the successful outcomes that can be achieved through grass-roots engagement and proactive communication. In particular the challenges to receiving comprehensive and timely healthcare faced by members from a non-English speaking background. She believes her background and experience will provide unique insights to the Consumer Advisory Councils outputs which will promote deeper engagement and ultimately better health outcomes.

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Helen Murray is a retired nurse who has worked as a service provider in both public and private sectors, in paediatric practice and in aged care.

She has served as a committee member, a researcher, and an advocate, notably for people living in regional and remote areas. She has undertaken a number of volunteer roles in community organisations, sporting and arts groups.

Ms. Murray developed asthma as an adult and commends the services of the former Asthma Foundation in South Australia.

Mary is a qualified company director, company secretary and scientist, she started her working life at the ACCC where she began her passion for consumer protection.  She continues that focus as the Chair of the Competition and Consumer Committee for the Law Institute of Victoria. Her past roles include Group General Counsel for EBOS Limited, where she was proud to contribute to healthcare service delivery through community pharmacies. In addition to consumer protection and healthcare service delivery, Mary is passionate about collaboration.  She was part of a team that won an Australian Institute of Project Management – Victorian ICT Team of the Year Award in 2016 and was internationally recognised by the Association of Corporate Counsel as Global Counsel of the Year in that same year.

As part of the Consumer Advisory Council, she hopes to continue to raise awareness and knowledge of asthma, supporting the organisation in achieving better outcomes for all.

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Sundram was born in Malaysia he maintains his conversational language interest in Tamil (mother tongue) and Malay (national language of Malaysia).  He was the Foundation Chair of the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council, and served two terms as the Victorian Multicultural Commissioner. He has also been on the Ministerial Advisory Council for Responsible Gambling in Victoria, and maintains his interest and passion to advocate for CALD communities. Sundram has held senior academic positions including Adjunct Professor with University of Manipal, India and Associate Professor at James Cook University in the School of Medicine and Dentistry. He has been a local and international consultant on community engagements and has conducted Intercultural Education for health professionals and organisations. He has conducted health education training and workshops for health professionals in Australia, Japan, Indonesia, China and Malaysia. He still presents at international, national and regional conferences upon invitation. Sundram has completed several projects on multicultural aspects, and publishes widely in journals, magazines and in books. Currently he is about to launch his autobiography, ”One Dream, Four Countries”. Sundram was awarded the Centenary Medal from the Commonwealth Government for his work with migrants.

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Judy is a registered consumer with the Consumer Health Forum (CHF) of Australia and as such, is a member of several Committees.

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Simone is an experienced CEO, lawyer and governance professional. She has worked across a variety of sectors including legal, health, advertising, banking and the arts.

She is currently CEO of the ACT Law Society, the peak body for solicitors working in the ACT. Previously, Simone was CEO of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine and worked as in-house counsel and company secretary for the Advertising Standards Bureau.

Simone previously served on the boards of the former Asthma Foundation ACT and the Australian Multiple Birth Association. As a parent to children with asthma, Simone also has personal experience with the challenges facing people with asthma.

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