Community Advisory Council Members

The Community Advisory Council consists of members from the community who are not registered health practitioners. 

Patricia Hall, Chair, Community Advisory Council

Ms Hall is a strong advocate for clear, inclusive communication strategies that engage disadvantaged people in appropriate health care. Ms Hall is a social worker by training and has experience in the areas of personal injury, human resource management and administrative law. She has been a community member on the Queensland Mental Health Review Tribunal since 2002 and on the Social Security Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal since 2004. During this time Ms Hall also served as an Official Visitor for the then Queensland Department of Corrections, as a community member on the Brisbane Royal Children’s Hospital District Health Council and as an Independent Merits Reviewer of off-shore refugee cases for protection.  

Patricia Jenkings

Dr Patricia (Trish) Jenkings is an advocate of social justice and building a safer, fairer and more sustainable world for all where diversity and inclusion are valued and respected.

Trish was awarded her PhD and BA with Honours from The University of Sydney: her thesis was a pioneering work with a focus on explaining Australia's dynamic growth as a thriving multicultural society. She has also completed a wide range of professional development courses both locally and internationally, to learn more about efforts to improve local health services. To provide a community voice, she has served on a range of local associations with a health focus including Cancer Australia, the Health Professional Councils Authority NSW and the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Trish is an experienced ministerial policy and research analyst who has helped community groups globally. For woman and struggling communities throughout Africa she has developed strategic programs, contributed towards educational reform, combatted child trafficking and in Nigeria, served on a board to provide free health and humanitarian services.

Ellen MacDonald

Ellen is passionate about community and consumer led change, working to ensure that the most important voices have the most influence. She is a strong believer in changing the narrative around the accessibility of services, and perceives that services are hard to access rather than consumers being 'hard to reach'. Ellen is passionate about accessibility and inclusion, particularly for the neurodiverse and Queer communities.

Ellen was diagnosed with young onset bowel cancer at 38 years of age and, at that time, felt thrust into a health system that was not built for her. She uses her lived experience and strong community connections to work towards change through her work in community services and through various boards, committees and grassroots groups in northern Tasmania.

She has a professional background in human services with experience in disability advocacy, community development, community engagement, research, governance and contract compliance. Her professional qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) and postgraduate studies in Human Services. 

Kelli Porter

Ms Porter is a senior executive with a diverse background across the not-for-profit, government and private health sectors in Western Australia. Her strengths lie in organisational leadership and governance, strategic development, change management, and community and stakeholder relationship development.

Ms Porter has particular expertise in the rural, regional and remote sectors, combined with a strong strategic focus on Australian health care and health workforce, including policy and reform, clinical governance and consumer engagement. Kelli is involved with various advisory committees and is currently the Deputy Chair and Non-Executive Director of a community based aged care organisation.

Hamza Vayani

Mr Vayani is not afraid of asking the difficult questions when it comes to maintaining confidence in delivery of accessible and clinically safe delivery of healthcare for the broader community. He believes public policy should be informed by the lived experience of healthcare services across the communities we serve in a way that is inclusive, evidence based and without fear or favour.

Mr Vayani has held several appointments in a range of senior management roles, advisory committees at state and national level. He has a demonstrated track record of being a strong advocate for culturally responsive, clinically safe and accessible healthcare services with a particular focus on people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Examples of key pieces of work he has led and facilitated include establishing a national network of consumers and carers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; and publication of a spotlight report at the request of the Australian government National Mental Health Commission that unequivocally exposed the lack of data collection and analysis about access, experience and outcomes to mental health and suicide prevention programmes being inclusive of people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. He holds an MBA Business (Health Services Management).

Liat Watson

Liat is an independent healthcare consumer representative and an Academy member with Safer Care Victoria’s Patient Safety Review Team, conducting reviews into the safety of Victorian health services and complex, adverse patient safety events. She also provides training to health services in incident review methodologies with a focus on just-culture, human-factors and systems-thinking.

Liat has worked with the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Healthcare in the development of the National Safety and Quality Health Service standards, provided input into the development of Australia’s My Health Record, and has sat on various state and federal working groups and committees. A past member of the Victorian Clinical Council and Safer Care Victoria’s Patient and Family Council, she is a current sitting member on the Victorian Perioperative Consultative Council and its surgical sub-committee.

Lisa Whop

Dr Whop is from the Wagadagam tribe and Panai Clan of Mabuiag Island in the Torres Strait, and is a Senior Research Fellow at Menzies School of Health Research. She is Australia’s leading authority on cervical cancer control in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. She brings years of research experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the health sector, is skilled in community engagement and frequently speaks at state, national and international meetings and conferences on the topic of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. As an advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and improved health outcomes she skillfully translates research into policy and health practice which centres the voices and experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

She holds the degrees of Bachelor of Medical Science (BMedSc), Master of Applied Epidemiology (MAppEpid) and Doctor of Philosophy (Epidemiology). Dr Whop is a committee member of the Cancer Australia Leadership Group on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Control and the Quality Committee of the National Cancer Screening Register Telstra Health, and a member of the Australian Epidemiological Association and Clinical Oncological Society of Australia. Dr Whop is a recipient of a National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Fellowship.

Peter Leslie

Melba Marginson

Maureen Woodward

Anton Cavalli