Institute for Health Transformation Board

Professor Owens is an Alfred Deakin Professor and Professor Julie Owens the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research at Deakin University. Her role is to provide academic leadership to advance Deakin’s distinctive research and research training both nationally and internationally. This includes research development, industry-focused research and commercialisation and research promotion. Prior to her appointment in 2018, she was Pro Vice Chancellor Research Strategy at University of Adelaide. Her previous roles there also included Associate Dean Research in Faculties of Sciences and Health Sciences, Head of School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health and Department of Physiology. Originally an ARC QEII Fellow and NHMRC Research Fellow, she continues to be engaged in research into pregnancy and early development and how exposures such as parental obesity, can programme the lifelong health of offspring, supported by various bodies, including NIH, NHMRC, ARC and others.

Frances is a well-known and respected Ms Frances Diver healthcare leader in Victoria, having held senior leadership roles for more than 15 years.

Having initially trained as a nurse and midwife, Frances has worked in a clinical setting in a number of metropolitan and regional hospitals

across New Zealand and Australia.

Frances joined the Department of Health and Human Services and was ultimately Deputy Secretary, Hospital and Health Service Performance, charged with the responsibility for the overall performance of the Victorian public health services, including service, quality and financial outcomes. Before joining Barwon Health as the CEO in April 2019, Frances was the CEO of the Country Fire Authority (CFA).

For three decades, Todd Harper has led Todd Harper organisations dedicated to global public health and prevention, including Cancer Council

Victoria, Quit Victoria and VicHealth. Todd is President of the NCD Alliance.

Since 2011, as Cancer Council Victoria’s Chief Executive Officer, Todd has led the organisation’s important work in cancer research, prevention, support and advocacy.

During this time Cancer Council has led research initiatives in tobacco plain packaging, screening campaigns, obesity prevention, been at the forefront of bans on solariums and campaigns on junk food, alcohol and smoking.

Todd has a bachelor’s degree in Economics, a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Promotion, a Master’s Degree in Health Economics, and was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Deakin University for ‘outstanding contributions and commitment to public health and for willingness to be innovative and brave in advocating for public health’.

Matiu founded One Good Street, a simple grassroots Matiu Bush initiative harnessing the power of community to encourage neighbour initiated care for older residents at risk of social isolation and loneliness. Matiu was named one of the top 25 most influential people in the Australian Social sector by Probono in 2020. Matiu is the Clinical Lead for the mandatory quarantine of returned travellers in Victoria, part of the DHHS COVID-19 response and has a Master's degree in Public Health and broad clinical and managerial nursing experience, including working in Tijuana, Mexico with Nobel Prize Laureate Mother Teresa in international border aid.

Matiu contributes to health system innovation through involvement with Better Care Victoria as a board member and as the Deputy Editor for the Journal of Health Design. As a proud Rotarian, Matiu mentors the next generation of undergraduate and postgraduate LGBTI science through the Pinnacle Foundation Mentoring Program.

Robyn Batten Robyn has held CEO and Executive Director roles in; local government, health and aged care across 4 Australian States and the N.T. Customer centred service delivery and major organisational transformation have been a key feature of her work over the past 10 years.

Robyn’s most recent executive roles were as the Executive Director of Blue Care (one of Australia’s largest aged care services with 10,000 staff across 260 sites in Queensland) and

simultaneously as the Executive Director of Australian Regional and Remote Community Services in the Northern Territory, a major provider or remote and indigenous services.

Robyn is currently a non-Executive Director of Uniting Vic Tas, the Executive Chair of Leap in! Robyn started her career as a registered nurse Ltd, non-Executive Director of the Australian and holds: Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Psychological Society and the Vice Chair of MIM Social Work, Master of Business Administration Pty Ltd. and Graduate and Fellow of the Australian

Institute of Company Directors.

Deputy CEO and Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer . Adj Assoc Prof Ann Maree Keenan Ann Maree is a forward-thinking health professional with business acumen and strengths in governance and safety and quality. She is

passionate about nursing and midwifery and the absolute critical role that nurses, and midwives have in providing quality, safe and compassionate care.

Ann Maree has over three decades of healthcare experience including as a senior healthcare executive where she combined nursing leadership with operational accountability. She has experience in health service capital programs and has led the development and implementation of patient models of care. Before progressing into management, Ann Maree worked in a variety of

clinical areas, including renal nursing and infection control. She has an adjunct academic appointment with Deakin University.

Professor Brendan Crabb AC PhD FAHMS FASM is an infectious disease researcher with a special interest Professor Brendan Crabb in . His research group develops and exploits genetic approaches to better understand malaria parasite , principally to help prioritise vaccine and drug targets.

Although a molecular by training, Professor Crabb’s interests include addressing technical and non-technical barriers to maternal, newborn and child health in the developing world. In recent years, under the banner of Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, he has established a major research field site in East New Britain in Papua New Guinea, principally to identify the underlying drivers (including malaria) of low birth weight and stunting in relatively calorie- rich, yet resource-poor settings.

Since 2008 he has been the Director and CEO of the Macfarlane for Medical Research and Public Health (Burnet Institute), a research institute that Professor Crabb has steered to have a Prior to 2008, Professor Crabb was a Senior focus entirely on the health of neglected Principal Research Fellow in the NHMRC and an populations. He is the past-President of the International Fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes Institute in the US. He is an experienced educator (AAMRI), the peak body for independent medical having been a full-time teaching and research research Institutes in Australia. Professor Crabb has academic at the University of (1996- played critical roles in transformative government 2000) and has been immersed in education at policy and funding initiatives, including in the secondary and tertiary levels ever since. generation of the $20b Medical Research Future Fund. In 2015, he was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia’s highest civilian honour, for He is currently a Fellow of the Australian Academy of contributions to better understanding infectious Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) and of the diseases and their impact on poor and vulnerable Australian Society for Microbiology (FASM), serves on communities, and for fostering medical research as the governing Council of the National Health and an advocate, mentor and administrator. Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia.

Internationally, he currently serves on the International Advisory Boards of the Sanger Institute (UK) and on the WHO Advisory Committee (MALVAC) in Geneva. In his home state of Victoria, is President of the Victorian Chapter of AAMRI.

Between 2002 and 2009, she was awarded three internationally competitive fellowships including the inaugural Career Development Fellowship from the Heart Foundation and the NSW Office for Science and Medical Research. In 2009, Professor Huxley relocated to the United States where she became a co- investigator on the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis in the Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Minnesota. In 2013, Professor Huxley returned to Australia to take her the Chair in Epidemiology at the University of Queensland, before moving into the role of Head of School of Public Health at Curtin University in Perth in 2015. Her research has two main foci; the first is on the determination and quantification of major and modifiable risk factors for chronic disease and sex and ethnic disparities in these relationships; and the second area is in evaluating the health impact of climate change and air pollution. She has published more than 200 research articles, has a H-index of 62 (Web of Science) and currently holds several competitive National Health and Medical Research Council research grants as Principal or Co-Investigator in areas related to obesity, diabetes and women’s health.

Professor Anna Peeters Anna is Director of the Institute for Health Transformation and Professor of Epidemiology

and Equity in Public Health at Deakin University. She is a Board Member for the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and Obesity Australia, and Past President of the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society. In 2014 she was awarded the prestigious World Obesity Federation Andre Mayer Award for research excellence in obesity and a Churchill Award for innovative work in equity and population prevention. She works to build the evidence for effective and equitable policy and practice to improve health outcomes.

Kate Morrissy (ex-officio) Kate is the Executive Officer for the Institute for Health Transformation, commencing in the role in September 2019. Prior to joining Deakin, Kate was the Executive Director of Strategy and Sustainability at Barwon Child, Youth and Family. Kate has an extensive background in quality and strategic management of health, holding leadership positions at Barwon Health, Monash Health and the Department of Human Services.