Presenters
Associate Professor Lachlan McIver
Tropical Diseases & Planetary Health Advisor
Lachlan McIver is a rural generalist and public health physician with over fifteen years of experience working in remote, Indigenous and tropical communities in Australia, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. Lachlan did his PhD on the health impacts of natural disasters and climate change in Pacific island countries. He has worked for several years as a consultant for the World Health Organization on this topic, from the Western Pacific Regional Office to WHO Headquarters in Geneva. Lachlan’s current role is Tropical Diseases & Planetary Health Advisor for Médecins Sans Frontières at their Operational Centre in Geneva. Lachlan is also adjunct Associate Professor of Tropical Medicine at James Cook University and is a co-founder and Director of Rocketship Pacific, a small international health not-for-profit organisation focused on primary healthcare systems strengthening in Pacific island countries.
Associate Professor Lyn Fragar AO
Public Health Physician
Associate Professor Lyn Fragar is a Public Health Physician whose professional career has focussed on improving health service delivery and farm safety in rural Australia. Lyn is a Director of GP Synergy, Chair of the Rural Safety and Health Alliance and immediate past Chair of Hunter New England Health Service, which is leading the way in healthcare sustainability as one of only two health services in Australia that has joined the United Nation Race to Zero.
Dr Bob Vickers
Rural Generalist & Clean Air advocate
Dr Bob Vickers is a rural Generalist and advocate for local public health measures, particularly improving air quality in the Hunter Valley. He regularly speaks on the health impacts of air pollution from the fossil fuel industry and wood smoke, including appearing on the ABC’s Fight For Planet A, NBN News and The Project. Bob is also a spokesperson on safe medical working hours and workforce planning for rural and remote Australia.
Dr Anne Poelina
Academic & Managing Director of Madjulla
Dr Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa (Indigenous Australian) woman in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Poelina is an active Indigenous community leader, human and earth rights advocate, filmmaker and a respected academic researcher, with a Doctor of Philosophy (Health Science), Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Master of Education, Master of Arts (Indigenous Social Policy) a Signatory to the Redstone Statement 2010, she is a 2011 Peter Cullen Fellow for Water Leadership. In 2017, she was awarded a Laureate from the Women’s World Summit Foundation (Geneva), elected Chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council (2018), Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Fellow with Notre Dame University and a Research Fellow with Northern Australia Institute Charles Darwin University. Poelina is a Visiting Fellow with the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, Canberra Australia Water Justice Hub to focus on Indigenous Water Valuation and Resilient Decision-making.