Board of Directors
ASHM prides itself on a diverse board with representatives from various states and territories, as well as New Zealand. Read our board members' biographies and learn about their collective experience and skills.
President Dr Nicholas Medland (VIC)
MBBS; BA Hons; PhD; FAChSHM, FRCP(UK)
Nick is a senior researcher and NHMRC research fellow with the Surveillance, Evaluation and Research Program of the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales. His research specialities include use of large administrative and clinical data sets to address important public health questions. Specifically this include coverage of antiretroviral therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis and progress toward HIV elimination goals. He is also a sexual health physician with 22 years of clinical experience in HIV and sexual health medicine.
He has previously been a high caseload GP in Melbourne and has worked extensively in international/regional HIV programs in Asia, in particular in Vietnam. He also sits on the executive committee of the Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine and chairs the Australian STI Management Guidelines committee. In 2020 he has chaired the ASHM COVID-19 Asia Pacific Regional Advisory Group.
Vice President - Penny Kenchington (QLD)
MNsg (NP); Grad Dip PH; Grad Dip Hth Man; Grad Cert Forensic Nsg; Dip app Sc (Nsg) Memberships: ACNP, FAMSACA; ASHM; ESC; QNU
Penny has been working in the Sexual Health, HIV and Hepatitis health sector as a specialist nurse since 1995 and is currently the Nurse Practitioner at the Townsville Sexual Health Service. She has extensive knowledge and skills in BBV nursing, sexual health, women’s health, reproductive health, genital dermatology and forensic nursing.
Penny sits on ASHM’s nurse’s subcommittee, the ASHM’s Finance, Risk Management and Audit Sub-Committee and the new steering committee for the Integration of BBV/STI testing across the broader health workforce. She also is a member of the QLS Sexual health Clinical network Committee and the nurses sub-committee.
After helping with many years of lobbying Penny is now an HCV prescriber has finally become an HIV and HBV prescriber. She is committed to lobbying for fairer, more equitable sexual and reproductive health care for people in rural and regional communities.
Vice President Dr James McMahon (VIC)
PhD; Master of Public Health; Fellow RACP; MBBS
A/Prof McMahon is an Infectious Diseases clinician researcher, Head of Infectious Diseases Clinical Research at the Alfred Hospital and also an ID physician at Monash Medical Centre. His research interests are in clinical trials focused on HIV Cure, HIV treatment, the cascade of HIV Care and COVID-19
Directors
Dr Sam Elliott (SA)
MBBS; Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; FRACGP
Sam is a specialist General Practitioner with 30 years of experience in rural and urban General Practice. Over the last 22 years Sam has worked in HIV, Viral Hepatitis & sexual health medicine. He is a committed supervisor, educator and actively participates in primary care research.
Prof Charles Gilks (QLD)
Charles has been working in the HIV/AIDS field since the mid 1980s as a clinical academic, describing the clinical spectrum of AIDS in Africa, then conducting formative trials of disease prophylaxis and antiretroviral therapy. Aiming to get his research into policy and practice, he moved to WHO Geneva in 2001 to lead treatment and prevention scale-up, including 3by5. His team generated all treatment and prevention guidelines for resource-limited settings and published the landmark Lancet modelling study that sparked Treatment as Prevention.
In 2009 he moved to India as UNAIDS country coordinator to support the national response to HIV. He was appointed Head of the School of Public Health at The University of Queensland in 2013 and in 2014 became the first Queensland Professorial chair of HIV and STls. As a clinical researcher, he has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers, with 17,500+ citations. His Google H index is 67.
Dr Rupert Handy (NZ)
MB ChB 1993 Otago; FRACP 2005
Rupert is a New Zealand trained Infectious Diseases Physician. After undergraduate training at the University of Otago Medical School, he completed post-graduate training in Medicine and Infectious Diseases in Auckland. He also worked in the United Kingdom prior to his appointment as a Consultant Physician at Auckland City Hospital in 2006. His current practice interests include HIV medicine, infections of the immunocompromised host and antimicrobial stewardship. He is a member of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases, The Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine and the HIV Medicine Association. Rupert is a current member of ASHM’s Guidelines Sub-Committee.
Robert Monaghan (NSW)
Robert is the Managing Director of Monaghan Dreaming; a 100% Aboriginal owned consultancy Firm. He is a descendant of the Bundjalung and Gumbaynggir Nations on his grandmother’s side, his family and extended family are from the North Coast alongside the Clarence River at Baryulgil.
He has spent 25 years working within the Health sector with National, State and Local Governments working within the Aboriginal community-controlled sector.
Currently Robert is involved in research projects at University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Kirby Institute for the past 8 years in Aboriginal communities across Australia whilst completing a Master of Public Health degree and a PhD involving research in Novel initiatives to enhance Indigenous people's engagement in health services.
Robert has a diverse range of learnt and lived experiences that he attributes to working in and with communities that are passionate about the equality for Aboriginal people and culture. Throughout his career, he has been exposed to a diverse range of client groups, services models or practices, working environments and stakeholders in which has enabled me to apply high level of flexibly and proficiency in communication, innovation, management, research and technical expertise.
Dr Jason Ong (VIC)
PhD, MMed (Hons), MBBS, FAChSHM, FRACGP
Jason is a sexual health physician based at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre and an academic with joint appointments at Monash University, University of Melbourne and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His passion is to ensure access to comprehensive sexual health services to all who need it (in Australia and through his research in China and sub-Saharan Africa). He was based in London during 2017-2018 for his postdoctoral training in health economics.
His current committee commitments also include the Sexual Health Society of Victoria, Royal Australasian College of Physicians Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine, the Australasian Sexual Health Alliance, and the World Health Organization STI Guidelines Development Group.
He is the Special Issues Editor for Sexual Health and Associate Editor for BMJ’s Sexually Transmitted Infections and BMC Infectious Diseases.
Dr Catriona Ooi (NSW)
MBBS, FAChSHM
Dr Catriona Ooi is a sexual health physician and staff specialist working in the field of sexual health medicine (including HIV, STIs, viral hepatitis, transgender care etc) at Royal North Shore Hospital. She is also involved in research and has published in peer reviewed journals and has presented papers in Australia and overseas.
She is a Senior Lecturer with the University of Sydney Medical School and teaches both undergraduate and post graduate students. She has contributed to text books in sexual health medicine and has worked in HIV and STIs in Australia and overseas, in both developed countries and developing settings.
She has an interest in education and furthering the engagement of primary care professionals in the field of HIV and sexual health.
Dr Jacqui Richmond (VIC)
PhD, MPH, BN
Memberships: CAN, AHA, ASHM
For over 20 years, I have dedicated my career to leading education, resources, policy and research to strengthen the health workforce caring for people with Viral Hepatitis (VH).
Jacqui Richmond has worked in the viral hepatitis sector since 1998. Jacqui is a registered nurse and completed a PhD in 2006. She currently works at the Burnet Institute as the National Workforce Development and Health Service Delivery Project Manager for the Eliminate hepatitis C (EC) Australia partnership. This work focuses building the capacity of the health workforce to test, treat and manage the health care needs of people with hepatitis C.
The broad focus of Jacqui’s work is building the capacity of the health workforce to test, treat and manage the health care needs of people living with viral hepatitis. Over the past decade, Jacqui’s work has intersected directly with ASHM through a range of programs, culminating with the current position as Chair of the ASHM Nursing Board Committee and member of the Hepatitis B Board Committee. Jacqui also facilitates and teaches in the ASHM hepatitis B and C nursing courses and is involved in evaluating and continuously revising them in response to the changing needs of the workforce.