Holding community accountability and institutional rigour together

My pathway began with the UQ Indigenous Science Scholarship and a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, then entry into the University of Queensland’s Doctor of Medicine program — including clinical placements in general practice and in rural and remote medicine, among them a placement at an Aboriginal Medical Service in Charleville, Queensland.

During the MD I made a deliberate choice: to move from the clinical pathway into medical education and research, where I could influence how every graduating doctor is formed rather than treat one patient at a time. That decision led to a Master of Medical Studies (conferred March 2026), and now a PhD in development at UQ on medical education, curriculum development and professional identity formation.

I now hold two positions at UQ — Senior Research Assistant in the First Nations Cancer and Wellbeing Research Program within the School of Public Health, working on the NHMRC-funded CanCo prospective First Nations cancer cohort, and casual academic teaching into the medical and public-health programs. Over four years of teaching I have marked and shaped assessment for cohorts of around 500, and tutored incoming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical students one-on-one through the ITAR program.

That institutional work is paired with national and community roles: two elected terms on the AIDA board, inaugural co-chair of AMSA’s Indigenous Committee, co-author of the national policy on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health in the medical curriculum, a contributor to the AMC’s revised accreditation standards, and four years chairing a community-controlled organisation. The through-line is consistent: Aboriginal knowledges belong in the structures that decide how medicine is taught and how care is delivered.