Consumer Statement Advisory Committee (CSAC)

Member-in-Common with Consumer and Community Advisory Group

Adjunct Professor Darryl O'Donnell is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO). AFAO leads Australia's national effort to end HIV and supports stronger civil society responses to HIV in Asia and the Pacific.

Adjunct Professor O'Donnell has 25 years' experience working in HIV community, research and public sector roles. From 1999 to 2013, he worked for the NSW Government, including as the Director responsible for state-wide HIV, sexually transmitted infections and viral hepatitis policy and programs. He joined AFAO in early 2016. In addition to his community roles, he holds an Adjunct appointment as Professor at the University of NSW.

Member-in-Common with Consumer and Community Advisory Group 

Harry Iles-Mann has been living with complex chronic physical and mental ill health and disability since early childhood. He had his first major surgery at 16 and has undergone three more to date – including 2 full liver transplants. 

As a professional he is a health consumer advocate, lived-experience engagement and co-design consultant, youth mental health ambassador, speaker, and committee member. He pairs his lived-experience of the Australian health and medical sector with professional expertise in advocacy and health strategy to provide insight into lived-experience driven reform and innovation of health care system and service design and delivery in strategy, policy, and decision-making. 

Mr Iles-Mann holds or has held membership, and some chairing responsibilities, of multiple state, territory and Commonwealth health advisory steering and consumer committees. He draws on his skills in communication, co-design and health consumer engagement to develop and apply effective strategic and policy reform in health and facilitates dialogue and co-creation between cross-sector stakeholders. 

Member-in-Common with Consumer and Community Advisory Group

Lillian Leigh is a lawyer with extensive experience in social justice, consumer protection, and dispute resolution. As a health consumer with lived experience in cancer, Lillian serves on Cancer Australia's Advisory Council, Cancer Voices NSW's Executive Committee, as well as on advisory boards of various not-for-profit organisations including Rare Cancers Australia and the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance. Lillian is a non-executive director of the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia and co-chairs its Consumer Panel. Lillian is also a Mentor for the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (IASLC) Supportive Training for Advocates on Research & Science (STARS) program which equips patient research advocates globally to provide consumer perspectives to lung cancer research and policy, as well as accurate scientific translation to lung cancer patients and caregivers.

Deb has worked in the public health and prevention space at all levels of government – Federal, State and Local – and not for profit sectors to contribute to the health and well-being of communities. She has worked to capture the voices of all parts of community including access and inclusion, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, children and young people, those with mental health challenges, and those connected with health and community services. Deb has been the Chair of Advisory Groups in both NSW and WA and led project teams focussing on including the voices of those who are impacted by services, programs and research. She has always worked connecting institutions, organisations, government, and community with a well-being focus, and was a representative on WA Sustainable Health Review with this in mind.

Deb’s role leading the Western Australian Health Translation Network’s Consumer and Community Involvement Program (CCIProgram) is to connect researchers in WA Universities, Medical Research Institutes, Government, Health Service Providers and Funders with people with lived experience to support and encourage best practice research. Deb is passionate about ensuring research can impact policy, practice and the wellbeing of communities and enjoys bringing people together to make a difference.

Adam Johnston is a solicitor, holding a Masters of Laws from the University of New England, Armidale, and a Graduate Diploma from the Australian Institute of Company Directors. During his studies, he was a Senate Intern, and a delegate to both the 1998 Constitutional Convention on a Republic and the 2001 Corowa People's Conference. He is a former long-term Member of the Government Solicitors Committee of the Law Society of NSW and has worked in various complaint handling roles for the NSW Ombudsman and the Energy and Water Ombudsman NSW (EWON). He serves on a number of advisory and governance committees as a Consumer Advisor to Northern Sydney Local Health Service, is a member of Health Consumers NSW and CHF. He is also currently the Deputy Chair of the RACP Ethics Committee, a member of the NSW Ministry of Health’s Ethics Advisory Panel, a PhD (Law) Student at Macquarie University and a member of the Northern Sydney LHD Board.

Community Engagement Consultant and Advisor

Anne McKenzie has held professional and voluntary roles as a consumer advocate for almost three decades. She has worked in research organisations to increase community involvement in research since 2004, when she commenced at The University of Western Australia and Telethon Kids Institute.

Anne currently provides consultant services to a range of organisations including universities, health and research organisations, government and non-government agencies and consumer organisations.

Anne is a member of Health Consumers Council WA and the Consumers Health Forum of Australia. She serves on key national health and research committees and is regularly invited to present at national conferences and seminars. In 2015 Anne was appointed to the Order of Australia for her advocacy work. She received the NHMRC’s 2021 Biennial Award for Consumer Engagement and the Advocacy Achievement Award from Australasian Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine in 2022.

Member-in-Common with Consumer and Community Advisory Group

Associate Professor Monica Moran is a registered occupational therapist and Associate Professor with the Western Australian Centre for Rural Health.

In her current role, she works directly to support the development of rural health workforce through the creation of authentic student learning experiences, the development of support strategies for rural health teams, and research and evaluation of health and community programs in rural and remote Australia.

Associate Professor Moran holds Adjunct Professorial appointments at Queensland University of Technology, Central Queensland University and the University of Derby in the United Kingdom. Associate Professor Moran is Past President of the Australia and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators, a peak organisation providing mentorship and professional development to health professional educators in academic or clinical settings.

She was a contributor to the WHO Framework for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (WHO, 2010) and participates in interprofessional projects and research activities at local, national and international levels including longitudinal evaluation studies.

Dr Shyamsundar Muthuramalingam (Shyam) has a PhD in chemistry and is a renal transplant recipient with lived experience of Haemodialysis (HD) and kidney disease. Dr Muthuramalingam discovered a passion for consumer advocacy and research implementation as a person with lived experience and research training and is now a leader in developing, implementing and evaluating consumer and community engagement strategies across a range of policy-setting bodies including Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA), South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), The George Institute for Global Health and Kidney Health Australia (KHA).

Dr Muthuramalingam coordinates and leads the “The Network” of ~ 120 passionate kidney patients across Australia and New Zealand.  Shyam is advancing “The Network” by bringing together consumers with lived experience to be involved in kidney disease research.

Shyam is creating lasting connections between researchers and consumers and provides pathways for consumers to be involved in setting research agendas, ‘doing’ research, communicating results and translating them into practice to improve patient care and outcomes. Dr Muthuramalingam also represents the community voice as a consumer member of the National Clinical Advisory committee at KHA and the Australian Medical Council, appointed by the directors to represent the community voice in the accreditation of medical degrees by Australian Universities.

Dr Jack Nunn is the founder and Director of the charity 'Science for All', working to involve people in doing research by building partnerships between the public and researchers. He is also the Public Involvement Strategic Lead for La Trobe University, a member of the Australian Government committee MSAC-ESC, Co-Chair of the UNESCO Citizen Science & Open Science Community of Practice and a member of the Cochrane Council. Recent projects include leading the co-design of Standardised Data on Initiatives (STARDIT).

Member-in-Common with Consumer and Community Advisory Group, and Health Research Impact Committee

Ms Yvonne Parnell recently retired after 15 years as CEO of Future Living, a not-for-profit provider in the disability sector.  

She serves as the Consumer Representative Board Member of the South Metropolitan Health Service in Western Australia and more recently appointed as a Member to the WA Health Sustainable Health Review Recommendation 4 Steering Group and the Safety & Quality Strategic Plan Executive Committee.

Ms Parnell also recently served as the Consumer Member on the National Goals of Care Collaborative Steering Committee for WA Health and the Thoracic Surgery Committee for the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce.

Prior to this she has been a Consumer Representative Member on the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency WA Dental Committee and a Member on the North Metropolitan Health Service Governing Council. Ms Parnell holds a post graduate qualification in disability.

Lara is a Gundungurra woman with living experience of her own illnesses, injury and disability and as a carer for her son and her family. Lara practices consumer advocacy as an extension of truth telling and healing, which are important cultural obligations under the mentorship of elders and community.