Governance

Professor Maree Teesson AC FAHMS FASSA

The Matilda Centre

Distinguished Professor Maree Teesson AC is Director of the Matilda Centre and an NHMRC Leadership Fellow at the University of Sydney. Professor Teesson is Chair of Australia’s Mental Health Think Tank. Professor Teesson is a Former National Mental Health Commissioner (2018-2021), an Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Fellow, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales. Professor Teesson was announced as a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day 2018 Honours List, awarded a Westpac/Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence (Innovation), and awarded an Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Outstanding Mentor of Young Researchers. Professor Teesson has made a major contribution to Australia’s health and medical research effort in the field of mental health and substance use. In particular, she is known nationally and internationally for her research on the comorbidity between mental health and substance use disorders.

Professor Louise Baur AM FAHMS

The University of Sydney, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead

Professor Louise Baur graduated in medicine from The University of Sydney in 1981 and subsequently trained in general paediatrics in Sydney and London. She was awarded a PhD in the area of paediatric nutrition from The University of Sydney in 1993. Louise is Professor of Child & Adolescent Health at The University of Sydney, and a consultant paediatrician in Weight Management Services at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney. Louise is also a member of the Prevention Research Collaboration based at the University of Sydney. The latter group undertakes a range of policy-relevant research in the areas of obesity, nutrition and physical activity.

Professor Baur’s research interests include the prevention of childhood obesity, the antecedents of obesity and the metabolic syndrome in childhood, the complications of paediatric obesity and the effective management of obesity and related disorders in a variety of clinical settings.

Professor Baur is on the Editorial Board of Pediatric Obesity (and was its Founding Editor-in-Chief from 2005-2010). She has a range of roles with the World Obesity Federation, including President 2022-2024, and has previously served on the Board of World Vision Australia and Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network Governing Board.

In 2010, Professor Baur was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) “for service to medicine, particularly in the field of paediatric obesity as a researcher and academic, and to the community through support for a range of children’s charities”.

Professor Cheryl Jones FAHMS

The University of New South Wales

Professor Jones is an outstanding clinician scientist whose research spans population health, clinical, and laboratory research. She is internationally recognised as an expert in infectious diseases particularly in infections of the central nervous systems and mother to child transmission of infections. Professor Jones is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health UNSW (since June 2024). Previously she was the Dean and Head of Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, and Stevenson Chair in Paediatrics ,Head of the Department of Paediatrics at The University of Melbourne and Executive Director of the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health, a NHMRC recognised Advanced Health Research and Translation Centre. She is a Life Member of Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases. Her research has shaped global practice and policy in congenital infections, vaccinations and encephalitis.

Professor Susan Davis AO FAHMS

Monash University

Professor Susan Davis is Head, Monash University Women’s Health Research Program, Head of the Women’s Endocrine Clinic Alfred Hospital Melbourne and consultant Endocrinologist  Cabrini Medical Centre. She is Leadership 3, NHMRC Investigator.

Her research (over 450 research publications) spans basic science to clinical trials and has been pivotal in the understanding of sex hormones in women across the life span in multiple non-reproductive target tissues including the brain (cognition, mood, sexual function), cardiovascular system (lipids, vascular function and coagulation) and other tissues (fat, muscle, joint cartilage and bone).

Professor Davis was one of five founders of Jean Hailes for Women, one of Australia’s leading women’s health organizations. She is a past President of the International Menopause Society and a past President of the Australasian Menopause Society. She has received numerous prestigious research awards, most recently the Elizabeth Blackburn Award of the NHMRC (2023), Ross Hohnen Award of the Australian Heart Foundation (2022), and the Medal of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians for her outstanding contribution and leadership in endocrinology and women’s health (2022). She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to medicine, to women’s health as a clinical endocrinologist and researcher, and to medical education. In 2022 she was awarded.

She is an Advisor to the National Women’s Health Council Australia, Advisor to the NHS Menopause Improvement Programme Steering Committee (UK) and was an Advisor for the Australian National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030. She advocates for best clinical care via co-authorship of international Best Practice Guidelines and working with industry to ensure the health needs of women are understood. She has spoken before national and international regulatory bodies as an advocate and advisor. 

Professor Paul Scuffham FAHMS

Griffith University

Professor Paul Scuffham is a Professor in Health Economics, Director of the Menzies Health Institute Queensland, and Director of the Centre for Applied Health Economics at Griffith University. His research entails modelling the costs and benefits of health care interventions, the valuation of health outcomes and preferences for healthcare, and priority setting – all to enhance decision-making leading to better health for the nation. His research has influenced policy on matters such as the pricing of biologics and statins (amongst other drugs), the funding of genetic testing, and plain packaging tobacco law. He has published over 300 articles plus numerous reports to Government, is Associate Editor of Medical Decision Making, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Paul established the Australian Chapter of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research in 2008 and served as President for 5 years. That organisation brings together government, industry and academia to foster the development of excellence in scientific education and research in respect of health economics and outcomes research. He is one of only a few health economists in the Academy and served as chair of a Fellowship Selection Committee for two years and is a member of the AAHMS Reports Committee.

Professor Stephen Tong FAHMS

The University of Melbourne

Professor Stephen Tong is a clinician scientist at the University of Melbourne. He is an obstetrician at Mercy Hospital for Women, and an NHMRC Fellow. His research interest is translational – to develop diagnostics and therapeutics for pregnancy complications. He co-leads cohort studies and clinical trials running across many countries, including low, and middle-income countries. 

He has a focus on finding new treatments for preeclampsia and co-ordinates an international bench-to-bedside preeclampsia drug discovery program. Stephen co-leads many investigator initial trials and works with industry to develop new biological therapies. He also co-leads an international effort to develop biomarkers of placental health. He has published 300 papers, including original research, reviews and invited editorials in influential general medical and scientific journals.

Stephen is co-director of Mercy Perinatal and chairs the Advisory Board of the Robinson Research Institute. He is past research director of Mercy Health and served two terms on the advisory board of the Menzies Research Institute of Medical Research, and various Board sub-committees. He has received three NHMRC awards, including three NHMRC Achievement awards for top ranked Fellowship.

He has a strong passion for mentorship. Many of his former postdoc researchers and PhD students now hold associate or full professorial posts, in Australia and abroad. 

Professor Emeritus Michael Francis Good AO FTSE FAHMS

Griffith University

Professor Emeritus Michael Good is a Principal Research Leader at the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, Griffith University, Australia.  His group has developed candidate vaccines for the prevention of malaria and streptococcus and these have entered clinical trials.  He has published over 400 refereed scientific papers and book chapters.

He graduated MD PhD DSc from the University of Queensland and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research/University of Melbourne and undertook postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health in the USA.

He was the Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Vaccine Technology and a former Director of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research.  He served as President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes. From 2006-2012 he was Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

In 2008 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), in 2009 he won the Australian Museum CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science and received an honorary doctorate (DUniv) from Griffith University. In 2010 was named a Queensland Great and was awarded an NHMRC Australia Fellowship.  In 2011 he was named the Heart Foundation’s Researcher of the Year. In 2023 he won Dr John Raftos Award  from the National Foundation for Medical Research and Innovation.

Michael Good is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He is an International Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Professor Helen Marshall AM FAHMS

The University of Adelaide

Professor Helen Marshall AM is a clinician researcher and NHMRC Practitioner Fellow with specialist training in child health, public health and vaccinology. She is a Consultant and Professor in Vaccinology at the Adelaide Medical School and the inaugural Clinical Research Director, Women’s and Children’s Health Network. She is a Child and Adolescent Health theme leader and Deputy Director of the Robinson Research Institute at The University of Adelaide, South Australia. She is the Medical Director of the Vaccinology and Immunology Research Trials Unit, VIRTU, at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and Research Leader, Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Group in the Robinson Research Institute. She has previously been a member of the ATAGI, which advises the Federal Minister of Health on immunisation for the National Immunisation Program and currently undergoes vaccine evaluations for the ATAGI.

Professor Marshall has published over 230 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and received > $35 million in grant funding. She was awarded the NHMRC “10 of the Best” research projects in 2016, the SA Science Award for Excellence in Research for the Public Good in 2011, the SA Science Award for Excellence in Research Collaboration in 2019 and a Member of the Order of Australia in 2022. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, the 2022 SA Australian of the Year, SA Woman of the Year, and Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment Leader of the Year.

Professor Sue Walker AO FAHMS

The University of Melbourne

Professor Sue Walker is the Sheila Handbury Chair of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Head of Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health at The University of Melbourne. Sue is also Co-Director of Mercy Perinatal – a three-pillar centre of excellence committed to clinical care, education and research in high-risk pregnancy. Her own research interests focus on improving the detection and management of fetal growth disorders, treatments for pre-eclampsia, and prevention of stillbirth.

Professor Asha Bowen OAM FAHMS

Perth Children’s Hospital and The Kids Research Institute Australia

Professor Asha Bowen is a clinician-researcher and is working across the Perth Children’s Hospital as a paediatric infectious disease specialist and heads the Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention team at The Kids Research Institute Australia (formerly Telethon Kids Institute). Prof Bowen holds affiliation with several Universities including the Division of Paediatrics, School of Medicine at the University of Western Australia, Honorary Fellow at Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Adjunct Research Fellow at the Institute for Health Research, The University of Notre Dame Australia and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town. This uniquely positions her for rapid translation of research results from bush to bench to bedside and beyond, with impact globally. Since 2010, Prof Bowen has held continuous people support NHMRC Fellowships including PhD (2010-14) [awarded by Charles Darwin University in 2015], Early Career Fellowship (2015-20), Emerging Leader Investigator (EL2) (2020-24) and Leadership 1 Investigator Award (L1) (2025-29). Since PhD completion, she has achieved >$100M in grant funding for over 90 research projects and published >230 peer-reviewed manuscripts as lead or senior author on >50% of these publications.

Prof Bowen has generated breakthrough new knowledge and health impacts in skin infection control for Aboriginal Australians. CI Bowen’s research focusses on reducing the burden of infectious diseases that lead to RHD, with studies spanning from bush (remote clinical trials: SToP Trial 2017-24, Missing Piece 2018-24), to bench (lab experiments on skin and throat pathogens, AMR experiments), to bedside (S. aureus bacteraemia trials to improve outcomes) and beyond (National Healthy Skin Guidelines, 2nd edition 2023).

In 2023 she became the first ever female President of the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases and was recognised for her outstanding research by Cosmos Magazines – 50 Women on the cutting-edge of science list. In 2024, she received the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to infectious diseases.

Professor Scott Bell FAHMS

Griffiths University

Professor Scott Bell is the Chair of Research, Gold Coast Health and Griffith University. He is a Senior Respiratory Physician with an interest in adult cystic fibrosis and was the Executive Director of Research, MetroNorth Health (2015-2000) and Chief Executive, Translational Research Institute (2000-2025).

Professor Bell has >300 publications and has received grant support >$25 million. His research interests include acquisition and transmission pathways for human infection. He has been principal investigator on pivotal CFTR modulator trials. Professor Bell was the Editor of the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis (2013-2020) and co-led the Lancet Commission on the future of CF care (published 2020).

Professor Russell Gruen FAHMS

The Australian National University

Professor Russell Gruen is Dean of the ANU College of Health and Medicine and a surgeon at The Canberra Hospital. Previously he was Professor of Surgery and Public Health at Monash University and Director of the National Trauma Research Institute, after which he led health technologies and international partnerships at Nanyang Technological University Singapore.

He has made substantial contributions to care for the severely injured, and strengthened research infrastructure with a national trauma registry, a prehospital clinical trials network, and novel evidence-based medicine capabilities. He is recognised for influential work on professional ethics, and interdisciplinary research with strong emphasis patient benefit.

Professor David Mackey AO FAHMS

The University of Western Australia

David A Mackey AO is an ophthalmologist researching genetic and environmental factors causing eye diseases, particularly Myopia, Glaucoma and Optic nerve diseases. He is Professor of Ophthalmology with the University of Western Australia and the University of Tasmania. 

He is the Vice President of the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology and Chair of the Professors group of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

Distinguished Professor Dianne Nicol FAHMS

The University of Tasmania

In 2021, Professor Dianne Nicol stood down from her positions as Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Law and Genetics (CLG) at the University of Tasmania in Australia, but continues as Distinguished Professor Emerita. Dianne has a background in science as well as law, with a PhD in cell biology. She was elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2016 and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2020.

The broad theme of the CLG’s research is the regulation and governance of biomedicine, human genetics and genomics, and stem cell technology. The CLG team was established more than 25 years ago and has broad range of international collaborators. Professor Nicol’s current research focuses primarily on the regulation and governance of personalized medicine, genomic data sharing, biobanking, genome editing and other emerging health technologies, together with commercialisation of biotechnology and patenting of biotechnological inventions.

Professor Nicol is Chair of the National Health and Medical Research Council Embryo Research Licensing Committee and co-lead of the Regulatory and Ethics Workstream of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health.

Professor Sarath Ranganathan FAHMS

The University of Melbourne

Professor Sarath Ranganathan is an internationally renowned clinician scientist specialising in paediatric respiratory medicine. He is Head of the Melbourne Medical School and a consultant respiratory physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital, where he served as Director of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine from 2012 to 2020. He was also a Group Leader at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute until this year.

He holds several international leadership roles in paediatric respiratory medicine. He serves as non-executive Director of Lung Foundation Australia and Chair for the Australian Cystic Fibrosis Centre for Research Excellence Steering Council. Sarath has published over 350 papers, secured more than $60 million in research funding, and helped shape national and international guidelines in areas including cystic fibrosis and childhood lung disease.

Professor Helena Teede AM FAHMS

Monash University

Professor Teede is a clinician, academic, and leader committed to research and translation, delivering measurable changes in policy and practice. She is nationally and internationally recognised for excellence in health and medical research, exceptional leadership, and community engagement. Focusing on improving women’s reproductive health, she has spearheaded the development of the first evidence-based guidelines on PCOS in the world, pioneered interventions for preventing obesity in women, and established one of only four national Diabetes Centres of Excellence. Having raised a family and maintained an active academic and clinical career, she is a role model for women in her profession.

Professor Andrew Wilks FAA FTSE FAHMS

Andrew Wilks is a serial entrepreneur with 25+ years on the “dark side”, following a highly successful academic career as a cancer researcher at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. There he discovered and named the first two members of the JAK family of protein kinases (JAK1 and JAK2), and worked to elaborate the JAK/STAT pathway, a key intracellular signaling pathway that drives proliferation and cell fate in hemopoiesis and inflammation.  He has been a founder of more than a dozen biotech companies, including ASX-listed Cytopia (1997) and the SYNthesis Group (2008), and is co-inventor of a number of clinically-trialed drug candidates, including the recently FDA- and TGA-approved JAK inhibitor Momelotinib, now known as Omjjara. He is founder & MD at SYNthesis Bioventures, an ESVCLP focused on the life science and biotech space. Andrew holds Adjunct/Honorary Professorships at Monash University and the University of Melbourne. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS). He has received a number of significant awards, including the ATSE Clunies Ross Medal (Entrepreneur of the Year) and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation (with Dr Chris Burns)(2024).