Australian Health Ethics Committee 2021–2024 – members

Chairperson

Professor Ingrid Winship is the inaugural Chair of Adult Clinical Genetics at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Director of Genomic Medicine, Melbourne Health. She is Group Director of Research at Epworth Healthcare. During her tenure as Executive Director Research at Melbourne Health (2006-2018), she launched the Melbourne Health Clinical Trials Centre, contributed to the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance and facilitated a range of programs to increase engagement for women in research. 

A clinician scientist in clinical genetics, cancer genetics and dermatology, Professor Winship’s work includes gene discovery and clinical research, service development and translational research, and developing new models of genetic services especially for adult patients with inherited predisposition to cancer.

In 2018–2021 she was a member of the Council of NHMRC and Chair of its Australian Health Ethics Committee (AHEC), having previously served as a member of both AHEC and NHMRC’s Human Genetics Advisory Committee. She has also advised the New Zealand Government as a member of its Health Research Strategy External Advisory Group.  

Professor Winship was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2020 for distinguished service to medicine, particularly to clinical genetics and research, to cancer prevention, and as a role model and mentor. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Australasian College of Dermatologists and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
 

Member with knowledge of the regulation of the medical profession

Associate Professor Stephen Adelstein is Head and Senior Staff Specialist of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Director of the Central Sydney Immunology Laboratory at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney's Medical School.

A practitioner member of the Medical Board of Australia, Associate Professor Adelstein has been involved in medical regulation since 2008, serving on the New South Wales Medical Board and as a past member of the Medical Council of New South Wales. He currently serves on NSW Health Pathology's Research and Innovation Committee, as well as on the Medical Board of Australia's National Registration Assessment Committee and Medical Training Survey Advisory Group.

In addition to his clinical and academic practice, Associate Professor Adelstein oversees undergraduate and postgraduate research.

He also serves on a range of governance committees including the Management Committee of the Institute of Personal Medicine and Bioinformatics, SLHD and Intellectual Property Committee, RPAH. Associate Professor Adelstein has been a member of AHEC since 2018.

Member with experience in medical research

Associate Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat is the Joint Head of the Personalised Oncology Division at WEHI (formally the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne.

She studies mechanisms controlling lung health and how those mechanisms are altered in respiratory disorders. Associate Professor Asselin-Labat's laboratory is specifically interested in the cellular interactions between immune cells and lung cells in the healthy lung and how these mechanisms go awry in lung diseases. The goal of her research is to understand how lung diseases occur to identify novel therapeutic targets.

Prior to her current appointments she was a Senior Scientist at the Knight Cancer Institute at the Oregon Health and Science University and a Visiting Scientist at Moores Cancer Center, University California San Diego, both in the United States of America.

Member with experience in nursing or allied health practices

Professor Mary Chiarella is Professor Emerita of the Faculty of Medicine and Health.

With qualifications in nursing, midwifery and law, she began her practice as a clinical nurse in the United Kingdom. Professor Chiarella established the world's first Doctor of Midwifery at the University of Technology Sydney, which has been completed by many of Australia’s and New Zealand’s current midwifery leaders.

As Chief Nursing Officer for NSW Health she helped achieve a significant increase in the number of Nurse Practitioners in NSW and initiated the development of the framework for the first publicly-funded home-birth midwifery program in NSW. Prior to this appointment she was the Foundation Professor of Nursing at Corrections Health (now Justice Health) at the University of Technology Sydney, where she was instrumental in developing key competence requirements for the organisation's nurses and in the (then) official recognition of a new scope of practice for Nurse Practitioners in NSW, the Justice Health Nurse Practitioner.

Professor Chiarella was formerly a member of the NSW Law Reform Commission Division Working Group on minors' consent to medical treatment and a founding member of both the Australian Bioethics Association and the Australian Institute for Health, Law and Ethics. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019 for her significant service to nursing and midwifery education and healthcare standards.

Member with experience in social science research

Associate Professor Alwin Chong is a Wakamin man from Far North Queensland.

He is Director of Arney Chong Consulting and Positive Futures Research. Prior to this, Associate Professor Chong was an Ethics Consultant to The Lowitja Institute, also serving as Program Leader for the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program 2 - Healthy Communities and Settings. He was also Director of the Positive Futures Research Collaboration at the University of South Australia.

A respected Aboriginal leader and advocate for Aboriginal health research that is culturally equitable. Associate Professor Chong has over 35 years of research experience, including as an Associate Professor at the Australian Centre for Child Protection and the Yaitya Purruna Indigenous Health Unit, both at University of Adelaide.

A former member of the South Australian Department of the Health's Human Research Ethics Committee and the Royal District Nursing Service Ethics Committee, Professor Chong's areas of expertise closely align with his commitment to Indigenous health and child protection. He also formally served on NHMRC's HoMER Aboriginal Sub-Committee and was on the South Australian Health and Medical Advisory Council.

A person who has expertise in religion

Dr David Kirchhoffer is Director of the Queensland Bioethics Centre, a collaboration between Australian Catholic University and the Archdiocese of Brisbane. He is also a member of the University's Research Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry and was appointed by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity as the Roman Catholic Commissioner on the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches.

Dr Kirchhoffer's primary research focus is on the meaning and relevance of the concept of human dignity, and contemporary understandings of the human person in contemporary ethics, in the fields of biomedical ethics, business ethics, social ethics, and personal ethics. His work has recently focused on the direction of the limitations of respect for autonomy.

Dr Kirchhoffer completed his doctoral studies in theological ethics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and was a post-doctoral researcher at the University's Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law. He also spent time as a senior visiting fellow at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at the National University of Singapore and a senior research associate of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Johannesburg.

Member with expertise relevant to the functions of the committee
Member-in-Common with Health Research Impact Committee

Professor of Anthropology at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Deputy Director of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University.

A cultural and medical anthropologist, Professor Kowal's previous work as a medical doctor and public health researcher in Indigenous health settings in Australia has led to two intersecting lines of theory and empirical research focused on Australian racial politics and the anthropology of biomedical research, genomics, bioethics, and public health. Her research has focused on Indigenous biospecimen collections including establishing an appropriate and ethical management strategy for the return of samples previously collected from Indigenous communities.

She is current President of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) and a past member of the National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science of the Australian Academy of Science and immediate past Convenor of the Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society Network. She previously served on the Expert Advisory Committee for the National Genomic Futures Mission, Department of Health.

Professor Kowal is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and a Fellow of the Australian Academy for Social Sciences. She was the recipient of a 2013 National Citation for Outstanding Student Learning for her contribution to Indigenous studies and 2015 recipient of the Academy of the Social Sciences Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research.

Member with an understanding of the concerns of people with a disability

Professor Jackie Leach Scully is Professor of Bioethics and Director of Disability Innovation Institute at the University of New South Wales.

With a background in molecular biology and further training in neurobiology, Professor Scully is a bioethicist specialising in disability and feminist bioethics. Her overarching research interest follows the socio-ethical response of various cohorts to technological innovation, with a particular focus on people with disability and other marginalised communities.

She serves on a range of Clinical Ethics Committees across Sydney and chairs NSW Health's Ethics Advisory Panel. She has served in a number of bioethics advisory capacities and is former Executive Director of the Policy Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre at Newcastle University, United Kingdom.

Member with an understanding of health consumer issues

Mrs Lillian Leigh is an experienced consumer advocate, who draws on her personal experience and her training as a practicing lawyer with over a decade's experience providing legal services to disadvantaged people in Australia. She is currently a corporate legal counsel of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

She is a member of the Cancer Australia Advisory Council and a consumer member of Cancer Australia's Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme Grant Review Committee, Cancer Voices NSW's Executive Committee, and Rare Cancers Australia's Patient Advisory Board.

In 2016, Mrs Leigh received a Patient Advocacy Award at the 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Vienna.

Member with experience in clinical medical practice

Dr Alex Markwell is a Senior Staff Specialist at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Emergency and Trauma Centre.

She is a Senior Lecturer with the University of Queensland and member of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) Council of Advocacy, Practice and Partnerships. She is the immediate past Chair of the Queensland Clinical Senate for Clinical Excellence for Queensland Health.

She is passionate about healthcare provider health, wellbeing, work-life flexibility, and is founding member of Wellness Resilience and Performance in Emergency Medicine. She is also a Past President of Australian Medical Association, Queensland.

Dr Markwell is a Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and a Fellow of the Australian Medical Association.

Member with knowledge of the ethics of medical research

Professor Eleanor Milligan is Professor of Ethics and Professional Practice at Griffith University’s School of Medicine. She is also Chair of the university’s Human Research Ethics Committee and past member of Griffith University Council.

Professor Milligan is actively engaged with local, state and national bodies making contributions in healthcare ethics and education, organisational culture and governance, and professional regulation. She has a deep commitment to public service and the role of ethics, regulation and governance in building strong, effective and sustainable organisations that deliver critical health and education services across our communities.

She is a Fellow of the Australian College of Health Service Managers (FCHSM, CHE) and serves on the boards of Metro South Hospital and Health, the Australian Medical Council and the Medical Board of Australia (Qld), where she also chairs the Notifications Committee.

Professor Milligan was a member of AHEC from 2012 to 2015, where she led the development and implementation of Australia's first NHMRC clinical ethics capacity building guidelines.

A person who has expertise in philosophy

Professor Ainsley Newson is Professor of Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics, the University of Sydney. She is an authority on the ethical and legal issues that arise in human genomics, genetics and reproduction. Her research considers how genomic technologies should be used well, in research, clinical and population health settings.

She serves on the NSW Health Ethics Advisory Committee and Newborn Screening Expert Advisory as well as the Ethics Committee of the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Professor Newson has worked in bioethics for over 20 years, holding academic positions in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Professor Newson served as a member of the NHMRC Mitochondrial Donation Expert Working Committee from 2019–2020. She holds a range of editorial roles including Editorial Advisor, BMC Medical Ethics (Nature), Editorial Board, Health Care Analysis (Springer) and Editorial Board, Public Health Ethics (OUP).

She was awarded the Award for Excellence in Research by the Mito Foundation in 2019, for her research project to conduct a citizens' jury on mitochondrial donation in Australia. Ainsley was named "Young Australian of the Year in the UK" in 2010.

Member with expertise relevant to the functions of the committee

Emeritus Professor Peter O’Leary is a clinical biochemist at Pathwest Laboratory Medicine (WA) and is Chair of the Human Research Ethics Committee and Adjunct Professor in the Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Western Australia.

Between 2011–2019, Professor O’Leary was employed at Curtin University in the Faculty of Health Sciences, as Deputy Director of the Centre for Population Health Research, where he led a research program on population genetic screening and health policy. Prior to taking up an academic role, he was the inaugural Director in the Office of Population Health Genomics at the WA Health Department, where led policy development and evaluation of national health initiatives such as cancer genetic testing, prenatal screening for fetal anomalies, newborn bloodspot screening, organ donation and genetic research ethics. From 1988–2014 he was Biochemist at Princess Margaret and King Edward Memorial Hospitals. He returned to Royal Perth Hospital between 1996–2010 and in 2014, he was appointed as Consultant Biochemist, at PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA, QE2 Medical Centre.

Professor O’Leary has been a member of AHEC and has served on the Australian Research Council's Medical Research Advisory Group and as a reviewer for the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science Genomics Health Futures Mission Projects – Ethical, Legal and Social Issues stream. Professor O'Leary is a Foundation Fellow, Faculty of Science of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.

Member with experience in public health research
Member-in-Common with Research Committee

Professor David Preen is the Chair in Public Health at the University of Western Australia's School of Population and Global Health. He holds honorary positions at Swansea University, United Kingdom.

Professor Preen has been involved with conducting public health and health services research using population-based linked data for over 15 years to study areas including cancer service delivery, pharmaco-epidemiology, chronic disease management, health of marginalised populations, and methodological advances using data linkage.

He has an established national and international reputation as a leading linked data researcher working at the evidence/policy/practice interface to improve community health and healthcare policy. His research program, combined with a strong evidence policy translation focus, is working to improve health, social and economic outcomes for vulnerable populations.

He is the University of Western Australia’s Node Director for the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Medicines Intelligence.

His work has been recognised through the Peter Reizenstein Prize from the International Journal of Quality in Health Care and the Editor's Choice Award from the Medical Journal of Australia. He has been a member of the NHMRC Assigners Academy and has been an associate editor or editorial board member for multiple international journals.

Member with expertise in law
Member-in-Common with Embryo Research Licensing Committee

Adjunct Associate Professor Bernadette Richards is a bioethics and health law expert at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology and the Adelaide Law School, Adelaide University. She is also a Senior Research Scientist at Singapore-ETH Centre, a joint initiative of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Singaporean National Research Foundation.

An active researcher with a focus on ethics and medical law, Associate Professor Richards has completed major projects on organ donation, consent to treatment and legal issues around innovative surgery. Additional areas of focus include health data governance, issues around Advance Care Planning, access to innovative treatment, the role of Artificial Intelligence in diagnosis and the role of medical device representatives in surgery.

Associate Professor Richards has been a member of ERLC since 2015 and has served as the member in common with the Australian Health Ethics Committee since 2018. She is a member of the NHMRC Dietary Guidelines Governance Committee and Chaired NHMRC's Mitochondrial Donation Expert Working Committee (2019–2020).

She is President of the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law and is on the editorial board of the Medical Law Review.