Professional Advisory Council

Rosemary has worked in health, aged care and social policy and services in senior executive roles in both Victorian and Commonwealth health departments and in the non-government sector. She is Professor of Health Policy at Victoria University and Director of the Australian Health Policy Collaboration, a national network of leading population health and chronic disease experts that works to translate research to policy information and influence to drive progress in preventing and reducing chronic diseases.

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Professor Kingsley Coulthard is a nationally recognised advocate for equity of access, for children, to safe and effective medicines. His major interests have been respiratory disease, especially asthma and cystic fibrosis.

He commenced his pharmacy career at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital in 1971, working in paediatrics in Australia and overseas until his retirement as Director of Pharmacy at the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital in 2010.

He remains involved with the practice of pharmacy by doing country locums and also in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate health professionals. He has a long-standing relationship with Asthma Australia and also delivers asthma updates on behalf of National Asthma Council Australia and Pharmacy organisations.

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Professor Anne-Marie Feyer is an expert in health and social care research, practice and policy who has worked across academia, the private sector and in consultancy.

As a senior academic, Anne-Marie successfully established a nationally and internationally recognised centre of excellence in research and its sustainable funding base.

Professor Feyer was a senior partner in a global professional services firm and led the development of a national health advisory business, to become the first global thought leadership Board member based in the Asia-Pacific region.

As a non-executive director, Anne-Marie chairs the Governance and Nominations Committee for a metropolitan Primary Health Network.

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Professor Peter Gibson is as a doctor who cares for people with respiratory diseases and is a clinical scientist investigating the mechanisms and treatment of asthma, COPD, cough, and other airway disorders.

He is a concept leader who has developed innovative approaches around inflammatory subtypes of asthma and cough; airway biomarkers; neurogenic mechanisms, laryngeal dysfunction and related treatments for refractory cough; multidimensional assessment and management of complex airway disorders such as severe asthma, airways diseases in the elderly, and asthma in pregnant women.

His peers have awarded Peter several research medals and elected him as the president of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (2015-2016).

His research and clinical practice serve to bring research developments into focus as effective health care interventions that improve the health of people suffering from breathing disorders.

Associate Professor Tracey-Lea Laba, is a health systems researcher and NHMRC Early Career Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, UTS Business School Sydney.

She has expertise in health economics, drug utilisation and policy research. Her research broadly focuses on value and equity in access to medicines. She is the first person to sit on both the Drug Utilisation and the Economics sub-committees to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. As a registered pharmacist, she also trained in hospital and community pharmacy as well as pharmaceutical industry.

Dr Laba is passionate about improving health and wellness. Her ambition is to shape the way Australians with chronic diseases, such as asthma, can more readily and equitably access high-value, affordable healthcare that will help them live the best life they can.

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Professor Sharyn Rundle-Thiele is a social marketer and behavioural scientist. She is the Founding Director of Social Marketing @ Griffith, which is the largest university based group of social marketers in the world. She is Founding Co-Editor of the Journal of Social Marketing, one of the worlds’ leading behaviour change journals.

She has led projects that have changed behaviours for 10,000’s of people in areas including health, the environment and for complex social issues. Sharyn has led programs that have increased healthy eating, changed adolescent attitudes to alcohol drinking, reduced food waste,  increased dog’s abilities to avoid koalas, and many more. 

She has published more than 150 books, book chapters and journal papers. Awards and appointments including The Philip Kotler Social Marketing Distinguished Service Award, Australian New Zealand Marketing Academy Fellow acknowledge her innovative, high-quality practice and science and her leadership. 

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Dr Tim Senior works as a General Practitioner at the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service in South West Sydney, and is a clinical senior lecturer at Western Sydney University.

He is the Medical Advisor of the RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and founded the Environmental Impacts in General Practice network in the RACGP NFSI.

He writes on General Practice, the social causes of ill health and successfully crowdfunded Wonky Health, a column on the Croakey health website, on the health effects of policy decisions.

He won the Gavin Mooney memorial essay prize for an article on the language used in climate change campaigning.

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Associate Professor John Blakey is a Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth. His subspecialty interest is in asthma and related conditions. John has a strong record of quality improvement and service development activities, particularly relating to the use of newer connected technologies. His discipline-bridging collaborative research has been published in leading journals, and he has ongoing studies relating to the prediction of future asthma attacks.  

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Louisa Owens is a Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician at Sydney Children’s Hospital with a special interest in asthma management and the epidemiology of respiratory health of children. She is also a conjoint lecturer at the University of New South Wales.

She gained scholarships from both the University of Western Australia and the Asthma Foundation of Western Australia for her Doctor of Philosophy thesis, “The impact of early life factors versus lifestyle on the respiratory health of young adults”.

Dr Owens attained her medical degree at Trinity College Dublin, before completing paediatric training in Ireland. She undertook a Fellowship in Respiratory medicine at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth, Western Australia.

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Chris has been involved in Health Informatics for over 20 years. Trained in Rural and Remote Medicine and General Practice, he worked for 13 years in rural Victoria. He assisted with the early adoption of GP desktop systems in the area,  and in developing distance education programs. Since moving to Melbourne in the year 2000, he remains a practising clinician in emergency, anaesthetics and general practice. 

He completed a PhD on ‘Doctors, Patients and Computers, the New Consultation’ in 2008, and has written extensively on the adoption and use of computers in the consultation environment. As Clinical Adviser (research) to Outcome Health, he is working with data management and quality assurance activities. He advises national bodies on policy issues pertaining to informatics and change management. He was the clinical design lead for the first three releases of Australia’s national health record (myHR) and has adjunct academic appointments at Monash, Melbourne and Macquarie universities.  

His extensive wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion in the health sector is evident through the 100 plus refereed  journals and books that have been published. Dr Chris is a member of the Professional Advisory Council (PAC) at Asthma Australia.

Find him on LinkedIn