Board members


Meet our board members

 

Dr Lara Roeske

Dr Lara Roeske

Chair, RACGP Board of Directors and RACGP Specific Interests

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BMedSc, MBBS (Hons), FRACGP, DipVen, MAICD

Dr Lara Roeske is a GP and practice owner, and has held many senior positions at the RACGP, including Co-Deputy Chair of RACGP Specific Interests, RACGP Victoria Council member, inaugural Chair of the RACGP Specific Interests – Sexual Health Medicine Network, and former Chair of the Women in General Practice RACGP Victoria committee.

With a professional background spanning more than 15 years, Dr Roeske has worked in advisory roles to key stakeholders, on steering committees and guideline working parties, and has represented the RACGP across a range of domains relevant to sexual and reproductive health, cervical cancer prevention and translation of evidence into practice at state and national levels.

Nicole Higgins RACGP President

Dr Nicole Higgins

RACGP President
 

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MBBS, FRACGP, GAICD

Dr Nicole Higgins represents the depth and breadth of general practice. Growing up in rural Victoria and NSW and now living in Nth Queensland, Nicole is an active GP who is a business owner, director, supervisor, medical educator, and a working parent.

Having previously worked with Tropical Medical Training and RVTS in medical education and training, she has been recognised for her entrepreneurship and innovation in her workspaces. Nicole is the recent ex-chair of GP Supervision Australia and has had directorships from the old days of the Divisions of General Practice through to the PHNs. Nicole regularly talks on Women and Leadership and proudly mentors other GPs.

Nicole understands the challenges faced by GPs and their communities to ensure that their patients have access to quality and timely healthcare.

After 20 years in Mackay, Nicole describes herself as an accidental tourist who never left.

Dr Michael Clements

A/Prof Michael Clements

RACGP Vice President and Chair, RACGP Rural

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B.Econ(Hons) MBBS DAvmed MPH MHM FRACGP FARGP FRACMA FACAsM GAICD

Dr Michael Clements is an experienced Townsville based General Practitioner and practice owner with a background in health leadership and clinical and corporate governance.

Dr Clements has accrued a wide variety of skills and special interests in his time with the Royal Australian Air Force and then with QLD Health as Director of Medical Services at Ingham Hospital before opening his private practices in Townsville while concurrently working for the QLD Rural Generalist Training Pathway as an advisor.

Having worked in rural, remote and overseas clinical environments during and after his fellowship training Michael now gets his ‘rural fix’ by flying himself and other clinicians to remote towns in the Gulf of Carpentaria delivering GP clinics. Clinical interests include veterans’ health, mental health, chronic disease and palliative care.

Dr Tess van Duuren

Dr Tess van Duuren

Censor-in-Chief and Chair, Education and Workforce Committee

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MBChB, BSc(Hons) (Sports Med), FRACGP

Dr Tess van Duuren works in a large group practice in regional New South Wales where, as an experienced supervisor, she provides teaching and training to general practice registrars and medical students.

Tess has previously been a GP in South Africa and New Zealand, and navigated her way through the RACGP Fellowship exams as an international graduate.

Tess has a special interest in medical education and assessment. Since achieving Fellowship, she has served the RACGP and regional training organisations (RTOs) in a number of different roles, including Assessment Panel Chair, Censor, Senior Medical Educator Assessment Progression and Bi-College GP reviewer for the RACGP, and Director of Training and subsequently Director of Supervisor education in two different RTOs.

Dr Toby Gardner

Dr Toby Gardner

Chair, RACGP Tasmania
 

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BA (Psych) MBBS FRACGP

Dr Toby Gardner is a GP Practice Owner of two large group practices in Launceston and Director of their affiliated Urgent Care Centre.

Originally from the Gold Coast, he spent a number of years working in regional and rural areas in central Queensland before relocating to Tasmania with his young family in 2006, commencing GP training with General Practice Training Tasmania. He subsequently became a GP Supervisor and then Supervisor Liaison Officer with GPTT for over a decade, as well as being an active examiner with the RACGP over this time.

In 2021 he won the Australian GP Supervisor of the Year award, as well as Tasmanian General Practice of the Year. He has a part-time appointment with the University of Tasmania as a Senior Medical Lecturer responsible for their simulation programme, as well as teaching into the GP curriculum.

Toby is passionate about medical education, building the General Practice workforce in regional Australia and enjoys working in Urgent Care, maintaining an ongoing interest in development of professional standards for Urgent Care delivery in Australia through the establishment of the Urgent Care Special Interest Group.

Dr Sian Goodson

Dr Siân Goodson

Chair, RACGP South Australia

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BMedSci, BMBS, MRCP, DRCOG, FRACGP

Dr Siân Goodson is a GP originally from the UK, who has practiced in the Northern suburbs of Adelaide for over 10 years. She has experience as a GP within the NHS, as a practice owner in Australia and is now working within a corporate group with a clinical leadership role.  

Siân is passionate about high quality medical education. She previously worked at the University of Bristol, UK coordinating and delivering Primary Care teaching for fourth year medical students. She is now a clinical supervisor for GPs in training.  Siân was the conference convenor for GP19 in Adelaide. 

Siân completed the RACGP Future Leaders Course in 2018, and this was the start of her involvement with the College. She was Deputy Chair of the SA Faculty Council, prior to becoming the Chair in 2022, and is also the inaugural chair of the SA Women in General Practice Committee.  

Siân remains convinced that general practice is the best career in medicine. 

Dr Sam Heard

Dr Sam Heard

Chair, RACGP Northern Territory
 

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Chair, RACGP Northern Territory
 

FRACGP

Dr Sam Heard is a GP who has a wealth of experience from inner city London, Darwin urban practice, remote locums, semi-rural practice at Coolalinga, 24-hour urgent care at the Palmerston Super Clinic and most recently in Central Australia working in an Aboriginal community-controlled health service.

Sam remains passionate about the GP profession and his patients but recognises that practice needs to be efficient and achieve the most benefit for the most people, which inevitably leads to focusing on areas of need and proven prevention.

Since 2017, Sam has been the Medical Director at the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, which has a staff of 400 across 11 clinics in Central Australia. In 2018, he took on the part-time role of Medical Director of the Central Australian site of the Flinders Remote Training Hub as part of the Congress appointment, in an Associate Professor role.

Dr Cathryn Hester

Dr Cathryn Hester

Chair, RACGP Queensland
 

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BE(Hons) MBBS DCH FRACGP GAICD

Dr Cathryn Hester is a GP and practice owner from Ipswich, Queensland. She is an experienced director and medical leader, with many years of corporate and clinical governance experience. She has been an active member of the RACGP since her fellowship in 2012, during which time she has been a College examiner, Qld Faculty Councillor, a Senior Lecturer for the University of Queensland and provided strong advocacy for primary care in a variety of forums. Cath also served on the RACGP Expert Committee for Funding and Health System Reform from 2021-2023. She is currently a non-executive director of the West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Bachelor of Engineering with honours in Medical Engineering. She is currently studying towards an EMBA through Polimi, Milan.

Rebekka Hoffman

Dr Rebekah Hoffman

Chair, RACGP New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory

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MMBBS, BSci(OT), MPH, MSurg, MSpMed, GDAAD, DCH, GAICD, FRACGP

Dr Rebekah Hoffman is a specialist GP and a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practice. She enjoys studying and the diversity of being a GP, having completed a broad range of additional qualifications across Women’s and Children’s Health, Sport Medicine, Surgery and Business Governance. Further to this, she also enjoys teaching, being a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wollongong in Medical Education, and regularly mentoring students studying medicine from a number of Universities in NSW.

 

Dr Hoffman has strong ethical and clinical governance beliefs, being a peer representative on the Medical Council and Professional Services Review panels, and also represents local GPs on a number of committees, boards, and faculties.

As a GP, she loves all of medicine, and the variety and challenge that general practice can provide, from pre pregnancy care to palliative care, every moment can be filled with such emotion and joy. She believes in practicing evidence-based medicine and utilising a preventive based, whole person approach to her practice. As such, she also believes in being involved in the research process, currently a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong, she has co-authored a number of peer reviewed publications.

Dr Hoffman believes in General Practice being a true family practice. As one of the practice owners of KFMP, she believes in giving the team the time to listen, understand, and values working together solve a complex concern. Where healthcare is designed make a difference to the community, by providing a safe space that families can all attend to improve their health and wellbeing.

Scott King

Scott King

Co-opted Independent Director and Chair, Finance Audit and Risk Management Committee

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MAICD

Scott is a professional Non-Executive Director with over 15 years’ experience and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Scott has a professional background as a qualified chartered accountant and has spent over 25 years in an executive role working with Board within the Financial Services Industry.

He is currently on the Board of the National Affordable Housing Consortium and is the Chair of Board Audit and Risk Committee. He has a vast experience in assisting board and management teams through periods of change whether it be of a strategic nature or areas of ever-increasing regulatory change.

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Dr Rebecca Loveridge

Chair, RACGP GPs in Training

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MD

Dr Rebecca Loveridge is the Chair and RVTS representative for the RACGP National Faculty for GPs in Training.

She is currently a GP Registrar working at Dhauwurd-Wurrung Elderly and Community Health Service in Portland where she also enjoys teaching medical students. Prior to this Rebecca worked at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne and completed her undergraduate accounting and medical studies at the University of Melbourne. Her clinical interests include mental, sexual and preventative health, and healthcare equity for our First Nations, rural and LGBTQI+ peoples.

Rebecca currently holds advocacy roles as Registrar Liaison Officer for RVTS and GP Registrar representative on the VACCHO GP Advisory Group. She was previously President of her HMO Society and involved with the Australian Medical Students' Association and the University of Melbourne Medical Students' Society. She is passionate about improving the training and wellbeing of GP trainees and junior doctors.

Dr Anita Munoz

Dr Anita Muñoz 

Chair, RACGP Victoria

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M.B.B.S (Hons), FRACGP, Grad Cert Clin Teach, MPH, GAICD

Anita Muñoz is a GP in private practice in Melbourne's CBD, and has a dedication to evidence-based medicine, lifelong learning and promoting the role of general practice in the health of patients, communities and in public health.

Dr Muñoz worked as a clinical editor and clinical advisor for six years with North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network, where she developed a passion for health system improvement, innovation, sustainability and equity. She sees general practice as the key to a rational health system that produces better outcomes for patients and practitioners.

Dr Muñoz has held advisory positions with Better Care Victoria and Safer Care Victoria, and has been a medical educator for over 10 years. She is particularly preoccupied with the wellbeing and experience of GPs in training, and in the development of a high-quality general practice workforce for the future.

Dr Karen Nicholls

Dr Karen Nicholls

Chair, RACGP Aboriginal Health and Torres Strait Islander Health
 

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B.Med, FRACGP, Dip Child Health

Dr Karen Nicholls is the current Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Faculty.

Dr Ramya Raman

Dr Ramya Raman

Chair, RACGP Western Australia
 

See bio

FRACGP, MBBS, Dip Child Health, BSSc (Psych)

Dr Ramya Raman is a Perth-based GP. Originally from Orange NSW, Ramya completed her medical training at the University of Notre Dame (UND), Fremantle. In 2020, Ramya was the recipient of the RACGP WA GP of the Year award. 

Her specific interests are in women’s and children’s health particularly on perinatal health and wellbeing. In 2020, Ramya was awarded the Aspire Award (City of Fremantle) to present her work on postnatal recovery at the WONCA Asia Pacific Conference. 

She is passionate about the provision of high-quality clinical care and believes training & education are essential components of GP development. To support this, Ramya is a Clinical Academic and Senior Lecturer at the School of Medicine, UND and has been a Medical Educator at Western Australian General Practice Education and Training (WAGPET). Ramya is a clinical supervisor for both GPs in Training and medical students. 

Ramya is actively involved with the RACGP, currently as the WA Faculty Chair and prior Deputy Chair. She has served as an examiner for the College and is a Medical Lead for the Education Committee RACGP WA.  

Dr Michael Stanford

Dr Michael Stanford AM

Co-opted Independent Director
 

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MBA, FAICD

Michael began his professional career as a medical doctor in Sydney, doing his training at UNSW. After three years as a hospital doctor, Michael moved into hospital management, completed his MBA at Macquarie University, and was granted specialist status with the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the RACGP.

Michael worked in executive roles in large health care service providers for 33 years, twenty-three of which were in Group CEO roles. The organisations Michael led included two of Australia’s largest public hospital networks (in Victoria), the ASX listed Australian Hospital Care and St John of God Health Care, which Michael built up to being the 3rd largest private hospital group and 18th largest private company in Australia.

Having held various non-executive director roles since 1994, Michael elected to change his career direction in 2018 and became a professional non-executive director. Those roles include: ASX listed companies Healthscope, Virtus Health and Australian Clinical Labs, a NZX and he currently chairs the boards of two major For Purpose organisations (Diabetes Australia and genU). Michael’s pro bono work includes chairing the Investment Committee for the Save the Children Australia Impact Investment Fund.

Michael has extensive networks and understanding of the healthcare ecosystem and very significant commercial experience. Michael was awarded the WA Citizen of the Year (Industry and Commerce) in 2010 and an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) in 2018. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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