Staff

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IEHU Director

  • A/Prof Mitchell Anjou AM, Director
    Academic Specialist; Associate Professor; Director (BScOptom MScOptom FACO)
    Mitchell D Anjou AM
    Email
    manjou@unimelb.edu.au
    Phone
    (03) 8344 9324
    Website
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    A/Prof Mitchell Anjou is an optometrist and public health practitioner whose motivating professional interest is the provision of eye care for people who have difficulty realising care. Mitchell is a Senior Research Fellow, Academic Specialist in the Indigenous Eye Health group. After completing his optometry and research masters degrees, he worked for the Australian/Victorian College of Optometry for over twenty years as Clinic Director and Senior Fellow in the Optometry Department of the University of Melbourne.

    Mitchell served for over 10 years on the Optometrist Registration Board of Victoria and is now an appointed member of the Registration and Notifications Committee of the Optometry Board of Australia. He is a Fellow of the Australian College of Optometry, founding member of the Public Health Optometry Group, Director of the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand and was honoured in 2013 as a Member in the Order of Australia award for significant service to optometry and public health.

Advocacy and Leadership

  • Lose Fonua, Associate Director
    Academic Specialist - Policy and Practice
    Lose (Rose) Fonua
    Email
    rose.fonua@unimelb.edu.au

    Lose (Rose) Fonua commenced work with IEHU on 13 September as an Academic Specialist in Indigenous Eye Health Policy and Practice. Lose is a Wiradjuri woman with experience in local, state and national health program delivery and management having worked most recently for Hearing Australia (National Head of Hearing Loss Prevention and National Manager of Capability Building, Hearing Assessment Program Early Years) and prior to that NSW Health (Statewide Program Lead NSW Aboriginal Knockout Health Challenge Program, NSW Centre for Population Health). Lose joins the Roadmap implementation team and is also contributing to work around Aboriginal leadership of Aboriginal eye health.

  • Emma Stanford, Associate Director
    Senior Research Fellow
    Emma Stanford
    Email
    esta@unimelb.edu.au
    Phone
    (03) 9035 8255
    Website
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    Emma Stanford has a BA, BSc and Graduate Diploma in Environmental Science from Monash University. Emma has several years experience working in health from a government, hospital and medical research perspective. Emma has worked as a policy adviser to two Federal Health Ministers, she has worked in communications at the Royal Women's Hospital and as Executive Officer for the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes. Emma is a Research Fellow in the Indigenous Eye Health Unit involved in the communications, policy development, advocacy and government liaison aspects of the work of the Group.

  • Shaun Tatipata, Associate Director
    Associate Director of Advocacy and Leadership. Academic Specialist: Indigenous Eye Health Leadership
    Shaun Tatipata
    Email
    shaun.tatipata@unimelb.edu.au

    Shaun Tatipata is a descendant of the Narrindjeri / Wuthathi people with family connections in the Torres Strait, Cape York and South Australia. He joined the Indigenous Eye Health Unit in January 2021 in the role of Academic Specialist: Indigenous Eye Health Leadership. Shaun’s professional career has been devoted to advancing the health and well-being of Indigenous Australians and has held Senior Management positions within the Community Controlled and Non-Government Sectors. Having originally trained as an Aboriginal Health Worker, Shaun gained extensive experience in delivering Primary Health Care and designing and implementing outreach programs in Indigenous communities. It was through these roles that Shaun developed his passion for preserving and restoring sight, and set out to focus on ensuring the delivery of culturally safe eye care services for Indigenous communities.

  • Makkaillah Ridgeway
    Administration Officer
    Makkaillah Ridgeway
    Email
    makkaillah.ridgeway@unimelb.edu.au
    Phone
    (03) 8344 0322

    Makkaillah hails from Newcastle in New South Wales and identifies as a Kamilaroi/Worimi Woman born on Arrernte land. Her background is in the arts, having specialised in sculpture and bronze work she completed her BFA in 2018 and went on to pursue further study in health and business administration. She is now working as an Administration Officer with the Indigenous Eye Health Unit team.

Systems Reform

  • Kylie Clarke
    Project Officer
    Kylie Clarke
    Email
    kylie.clarke@unimelb.edu.au

    Kylie is a proud Gunditjmara, Wotjobaluk, Ngarrindjeri and Muandik woman who lives on Wadawurrung Country, Geelong. She has led community engagement initiatives in education, the arts and in health & wellbeing spaces and pathways for mob.

    Inspired to contribute to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health and to a growing workforce of mob in eye care, Kylie connected with IEHU in 2020. She has since co-created spaces for young fullas to yarn with Aboriginal eye health leaders and is now on board to lead the ‘A Place for Mob and a Place for Me in Optometry’ pathways project.

Health Promotion and Community Engagement

  • Walter Bathern
    Trachoma Community Engagement Officer
    Walter Bathern
    Email
    walter.bathern@unimelb.edu.au

    Walter Bathern is an Aboriginal man who has been living and working in the Alice Springs region his whole life.

    Walter joined IEHU in 2020 as Trachoma Community Engagement Officer. Walter has extensive experience in community engagement and consultation, previously working as a Parks & Wildlife Indigenous Ranger and also as an Intensive Case Manager at NAAJA Through care supporting and identifying the needs of clients in correction services, so they can enter back into the community. Walter also speaks and understands a number of the Central and Barkly region languages such as Arrernte, Luritja and Pitjantjatjara.

  • Rachael Ferguson
    Communications Officer
    Rachael Ferguson
    Email
    rlf@unimelb.edu.au
    Phone
    (03) 9035 8243

    Rachael Ferguson has a Diploma of Arts - Applied Photography, Certificate in Vocational Photography and in 2019 Rachael completed her Certificate IV in Digital Design.

    Rachael has a keen interest in health promotion and social media/marketing. Rachael's work at the IEHU involves creating and developing high quality and engaging resources used for social media campaigns, presentations, posters, reports, brochures, flipcharts and other online and  printed media environments. In 2021 Rachael transitioned to the role of Communications Officer.

  • Fiona Lange
    Health Promotion Project Officer
    Fiona Lange
    Email
    fiona.lange@unimelb.edu.au
    Phone
    (03) 9035 8241
    Website
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    Fiona Lange has over 20 years’ experience in health promotion and social marketing, and 13 of these at the Indigenous Eye Health Unit Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, working to eliminate blinding trachoma as a public health problem in Australia. Fiona is skilled in developing health promotion resources with trachoma stakeholders and Aboriginal communities. Her work has a strong emphasis on engaging and maintaining excellent working relationships at all levels. Fiona is committed to strengthening and supporting innovative pathways for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership in public health. She is optimistic that long term intersectoral collaborations and partnerships will lead to the sustainable elimination of trachoma in Australia in the next few years.

  • Lesley Martin
    Trachoma Community Engagement Officer
    Lesley Martin
    Email
    lesley.martin@unimelb.edu.au

    Lesley Martin is a Central Australian Arrernte Woman by decent, Lore & Culture.

    Lesley has lived in the Northern Territory for all her life and has also worked and lived in a number of remote communities. Lesley has been working in the Trachoma space since 2019 and enjoys visiting communities and engaging with the people from the communities. Lesley believes it is time to share the importance of community health and well-being through education, acceptance and solving the issues in health, education and environment.

  • Carol Wynne
    Translation Research Scholar in Health Promotion
    Carol Wynne
    Email
    carol.wynne@unimelb.edu.au
    Phone
    (03) 8344 3984

    Carol Wynne commenced in the role of Translation Research Scholar with the Indigenous Eye Health Unit (IEHU) at the University of Melbourne in 2014. Carol's has over 10 years experience working in Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory and Victoria – with a particular focus on grassroots level community development and health promotion. She has also worked for local government, and various NGOs, in Ireland, South East Asia, Mongolia and Africa. Carol has a strong interest in public health and completed her MPH at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2005. In her role with IEHU, Carol is working with the IEHU team to support regional implementation of the Roadmap to Close the Gap for Vision across Australia.

IEHU Honorary Staff

  • Professor Hugh R Taylor AC
    Melbourne Laureate Professor Emeritus
    Professor Hugh Taylor AC
    Email
    h.taylor@unimelb.edu.au
    Website
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    Melbourne Laureate Professor Emeritus Hugh Taylor has retired from being the head of IEHU in 2022 which he started in 2008. Between 2000 and 2008 he was Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne and the Founding Director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia. Prior to that, he was a Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Institute at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with joint appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology and International Health.

    Professor Taylor's research interests include blindness prevention strategies, infectious causes of blindness and the development of health policy. His current work particularly focuses on Aboriginal eye health and the elimination of trachoma. Professor Taylor has written 30 books and reports including a book on trachoma, and more than 700 scientific papers. He has received multiple international awards and prizes. In 2001, he was made a Companion in the Order of Australia. He has been President of the International Council of Ophthalmology, Vice President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, and Chairman of Vision 2020 Australia.

  • A/Prof Kris Rallah-Baker
    Honorary
    Associate Professor Kris Rallah-Baker
    Email
    kristopher.rallahbaker@unimelb.edu.au

    Associate Professor Kristopher Rallah-Baker is a specialist ophthalmologist based on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

    Inspired by his mother, who was one of Australia’s first Indigenous health workers, and then by the work of Fred Hollows, Kris completed his undergraduate Medical Degree at the University of Newcastle, followed by specialist ophthalmology training with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists and was offered a Fred Hollows Foundation Fellowship in 2017. Kris spent time working closely with Indigenous populations in Alice Springs, as well as time overseas in the Pacific Islands.

    Kris is Australia’s first and currently only Indigenous ophthalmologist. He was the founding member of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association and immediate ex-President, former AMA Federal Councillor, Director on the Federal Board of the Royal Flying Doctors Service, technical advisor to the Fred Hollows Foundation and Chair of the Vision2020 Indigenous Committee.

    His ophthalmic interests include cataract, glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, and diagnosis and treatment of macular degeneration.

    Kris join IEHU in 2020 as an honorary staff member, providing technical and practical guidance to the Indigenous Eye Health Unit .

  • Dr Guy Gillor
    Academic Specialist – Indigenous Eye Health Policy & Practice
    Dr Guy Gillor
    Email
    guy.gillor@unimelb.edu.au
    Phone
    (03) 9035 8831
    Website
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    Guy Gillor is an Academic Specialist: Indigenous Eye Health Policy and Practice (Senior Research Fellow) at Indigenous Eye Health Unit, University of Melbourne. Guy 's work focuses on equity and self-determination in health, health systems reform, policy and advocacy. Prior to joining the Unit in 2019, Guy worked with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) and the Aboriginal Medical Service Western Sydney among other roles. Guy holds a PhD from the University of Western Sydney, his dissertation traces the early history of the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services movement in Australia. Before moving to Australia in 2007, Guy worked for Physicians for Human Rights in his native Palestine/Israel, advocating for equitable access to health services.

  • Emma Tovey Crutchfield
    Honorary Fellow
    Emma Tovey Crutchfield
    Email
    Em.ToveyCrutchfield@unimelb.edu.au

    Emma Tovey Crutchfield is a junior doctor working in Melbourne, Victoria.

    Emma has a keen interest in ophthalmology and has forged an early commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health. This interest stems from several elective placements in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations and later in the Ophthalmology Department at The Royal Darwin Hospital.

    During her internship, Emma established and led a monthly hospital-wide audit meeting of First Nations healthcare delivery at a major metropolitan hospital. In addition, she worked closely with the Aboriginal Health Liaison Officers to educate interns on cultural safety.

    Emma joined the IEHU in 2023 as an honorary staff member. In this role, Emma actively contributes to the unit’s peer-reviewed research, engages in funding applications, and provides a junior doctor’s perspective.

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