Ms Donna Murray is a proud South West Wiradyuri and Wonnarua nation citizen with strong kinship ties across the Murrumbidgee region and Hunter Valley, NSW. Donna is a member of the South West Wiradyuri Clan Corporation and the Wonnarua Nation Aboriginal Corporation where she is actively engaged in strengthening Wiradyuri and Wonnarua nation building.

Donna is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) and was a recipient of the National 2021 Pro Bono Impact Awards in recognition of her contributions to social change. Donna has formal qualifications in community development, management and Indigenous governance and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors bringing over 30 years’ experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs across various sectors.

Donna is actively involved in the education sector as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and commits to sessional lecturing at Charles Sturt University and the University of Arizona through the Native Nations Institute. She is a current Director on Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia, the national peak organisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and suicide prevention and the Chairperson of Thirrili Ltd a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide postvention service.

Donna works closely with key stakeholders and community participating on several national and state committees focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and education, aged care, disability, workforce development, cultural safety, and health policy and system reform. She has a genuine commitment to community development and Indigenous nation building working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples supporting cultural priorities, practices and aspirations of families, communities and nation groups.

Dr Summer May Finlay (CSCA, TAE, BSocSC MPHA, and PhD) is a Yorta Yorta woman who grew up on Awabakal country (West Lake Macquarie) and is a passionate advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Her passion is what has driven her to work in a number of public health fields including social marketing, communications research and policy. She has worked for a range of organisations in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health, not-for profit, university, and for-profit sectors. She is currently employed at the University of Wollongong as a Senior Lecturer.

In addition to working as an academic, she also works as a freelancer for organisations such as Croakey Health Media and the Commonwealth Department of Health. She is Co-Chair of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW Ethics Committee, and Co-Chair of the World Federation of Public Health Associations Indigenous Working Group Summer was previously Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Vice President for the Public Health Association of Australia and was the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Special Interest Group Co-Convener.

She has received three awards from the Public Health Association of Australian for her work in public health and Indigenous health (Presidents Award 2017, Fellowship 2020, and Presidents Award 2021). You can follow her on twitter via her handle @SummerMayFinlay.

Jaki was born and raised in Garamilla (Darwin) on the beautiful lands of Larrakia Nation. Jaki is a proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, with ancestral links to the Yadhaigana and Wuthathi Peoples of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, traditional family ties with the Gurindji and Kungarakan Peoples of Central Western Northern Territory and extended family relationships with the people of the Torres Straits and Warlpiri (Yuendumu NT).

Jaki has some 30 years’ experience in government and non-government/international development sectors, which includes leadership roles across The Fred Hollows Foundation for the past eleven years. Jaki’s roles in The Fred Hollows Foundation included eye health programming, strategic leadership, partnerships and advocacy across the Indigenous Australia Program, the Pacific, Timor Leste, Philippines and Indonesia. Jaki’s current role, as Director Social Justice and Regional Engagement, sees her leading The Foundation’s positioning in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples having the right to sight, good health and self-determination, with a more specific focus on supporting implementation against the Uluru Statement from the Heart (Voice, Treaty, Truth), allyship accountability and health equity more broadly. Jaki is also supporting the Strategic Partnership with FHFNZ and convenes the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) Indigenous Peoples Special Interest Group.

In 2022 Jaki completed a Masters of Social Change Leadership through the Atlantic Fellowship for Social Equity (AFSE) and is a Global Atlantic Fellow. Her social change project focuses on Allyship Accountability from an Indigenous perspective and Jaki continues to understand what the non-negotiables are for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. In 2023 Jaki was awarded the Australian Council for International Development’s (ACFID) Outstanding Contribution to the Sector Award for her championing health equity, supporting strategic eye care relationships in Australia and across the Pacific, helping drive the agenda of the Allies for Uluru Coalition and elevating the voices of First Nations people (in Australia and internationally).

Jaki has a personal and professional commitment to do whatever she can to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are leading decision making, and also advocating for the right to sight, good health and self-determination for Indigenous Peoples globally.

Ms LaVerne Bellear is a proud Bundjalung woman from the North Coast NSW. Her career encompasses over 30 years in health administration in both the public and not for profit sectors. LaVerne is the current Chief Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Medical Service Cooperative Limited (Redfern).

LaVerne has held several senior leadership and directorship roles, with a particular focus on Aboriginal Health reform and improvement. LaVerne is a board director for Sydney Local Health District; is the current Co-Chair for the Sydney Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Health Partnership and a Board Director for Thirrili Ltd. Her involvement in previous appointments have shaped Aboriginal health strategies locally and nationally. LaVerne is a former Director of the National Aboriginal Community Control Health Organisation (NACCHO,) and former Director and A/CEO of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council.

Greg Pratt is an Aboriginal man and descendant of the Brown family of the Noonucal tribe of the Quandamooka people of Stradbroke Island. He is a family man, a husband and father to four (three boys and one girl). He spent much of his childhood years with the Ghughuyalanghi people of Cape York, growing up in the township of Laura. With the support of his community and his family, Greg undertook study at the University of Southern Queensland, where he later graduated with a degree in psychology.

Karl Briscoe is a proud Kuku Yalanji man from Mossman – Daintree area of Far North Queensland and has worked for over 20 years in the health sector at various levels of government and non-government including local, state and national levels which has enabled him to form a vast strategic network across Australia.

Karl’s vision for his people is to see dramatic improvement in the premature mortality rates of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, not only in communities but the entire nation, ensuring the life expectancy rates of our people are equivalent or better than that of non-Indigenous Australians.