Advisory Board

Professor Brendan Crabb AC PhD FAA FAHMS FASM is an infectious disease researcher with a special interest in malaria. His research group develops and exploits genetic approaches to better understand malaria parasite biology, principally to help prioritise vaccine and drug targets.

Although a molecular scientist by training, Professor Crabb’s interests include addressing technical and non-technical barriers to maternal, newborn and child health in the developing world. In recent years, under the banner of Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, he helped establish a major research field site in East New Britain in Papua New Guinea, principally to identify the underlying drivers (including malaria) of low birth weight and stunting in relatively calorie-rich, yet resource-poor settings.

Since 2008 he has been the Director and CEO of the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health (Burnet Institute), a research institute that has a focus on infectious diseases and maternal and child health, especially for populations most in need. Burnet has played a major role in the COVID-19 pandemic, including advising governments and advocating strongly for public health action.

Professor Crabb is President of both the Australian Global Health Alliance and the Pacific Friends of Global Health, bodies that advocate for better health equity. He is the past-President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI), the peak body for independent medical research Institutes in Australia. Professor Crabb has played critical roles in transformative government policy and funding initiatives, including in the generation of the $20b Medical Research Future Fund.

He is currently a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) and of the Australian Society for Microbiology (FASM). He served on the governing Council of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia from 2016 – 2021. Internationally, he currently serves on the International Advisory Boards of the Sanger Institute (UK) and on the WHO Malaria Vaccine Advisory Committee (MALVAC) in Geneva. Professor Crabb was the Co-Founder of the 1st Malaria World Congress and of the Molecular Approaches to Malaria Conferences.

Prior to 2008, Professor Crabb was a Senior Principal Research Fellow in the NHMRC and an International Fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the US. He is an experienced educator having been a full-time teaching and research academic at the University of Melbourne (1996-2000) and has been immersed in education at secondary and tertiary levels ever since.

Helen Evans AO served as Deputy CEO at Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance based in Geneva from 2009 until her retirement in 2014.

Prior to joining Gavi, she served as Deputy Executive Director at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, also based in Geneva, between 2005 and 2009.

She has a depth of experience in national and global health policy and strategy development, infectious diseases and working in public private partnerships to deliver results. In the early 1990s Helen managed the National Communicable Diseases Program in the Australian Department of Health. For the seven years prior to moving to Geneva she headed up the Australian Government Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.

Now living in Melbourne she currently has an honorary appointment as Associate Professor at the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne, is a board member of The Fred Hollows Foundation, the Burnet Institute, and the Australian Global Health Alliance and is a member of the Independant Advisory Panel (IEP) of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Darryl O’Donnell is a public health professional with 30 years’ experience working in community, research, public and private sector roles. Darryl is the Director and Principal of Praxis Insights, a management consulting company. He was the CEO of Health Equity Matters, formerly the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, for the period from 2016 to 2023. Prior to that, he was a senior public servant. He has held governance roles in community organisations including, currently, as a Board member of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia and Advisory Board member of the Australian Global Health Alliance and Pacific Friends of Global Health. He is a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Consumer and Community Advisory Group. Darryl holds Masters degrees in Research and Public Policy and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of NSW.

Emeritus Professor Janice Reid AC was Vice-Chancellor and President of Western Sydney University from 1998 to 2013, leading the merger of three former dual-campus colleges to build a multi-campus university of over 40,000 students.

In addition to her appointments to state, national and international governing boards and policy agencies and her leadership roles in colleges and universities, she has mentored emerging and established leaders to build careers and strengthen the management and governance of institutions.

She is a recipient of several national and international awards and honours, including: the Wellcome Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1984); elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (1990); made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to cross-cultural public health research and the development of health services for socio-economically disadvantaged groups in the community (1998); awarded an Australian Centenary Medal for services to Australian society in health and university administration (2003); received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Western Sydney (2013); elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (2014); and made a Companion in the Order of Australia ‘for eminent service to the tertiary education sector through executive roles, as an advocate for equitable access to educational opportunities, particularly for Indigenous, refugee and lower socio-economic communities, and to health, medical and health care research and cultural bodies’ (2015).

Janice was the Chair of the former Pacific Friends of the Global Fund.

Sarah is the Director of the Australian Regional Leadership Initiative at Save the Children Australia, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Australian Regional Leadership Initiative provides Federal Members of Parliament with a first-hand experience of Australian Aid investment and responses to humanitarian crises in the Pacific, Middle East and South East Asia.

A councillor in Melbourne’s inner west, Sarah has served four consecutive terms since her election to council in 2008 and has been Mayor twice, most recently in 2020. Sarah is a passionate advocate for the people and community of Melbourne’s inner west and has served on more than 20 committees including as a Director of

LeadWest, Member of the Inner Melbourne Action Plan implementation committee, MAV Human Services Committee and VLGA Women’s Policy Advisory Committee, to name a few. Sarah has served as Council’s Gender Equity Ambassador since 2011, is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and was the recipient of the inaugural Victoria University’s Rising Star Alumni Award.

In 2018, Sarah was one of 5 Australians selected to participate in the Lowy Institute’s Australia/PNG Emerging Leaders Dialogue and in 2019 was appointed to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia Awards Women’s Leadership Initiative.

Negaya Chorley has 20 years experience in human rights. She is passionate about creating spaces for people at the margins to inform policy-making at the local, national and global level. Negaya has worked with communities in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands towards this aim; bringing together policymakers and representatives from often marginalised groups (women, children, refugees, people living with HIV and Aboriginal leaders) to collectively shape solutions.

Negaya has led a number of organisations spanning refugees, youth development and women’s rights in addition to leading UNICEF Australia and Caritas Australia’s policy influencing work. As a passionate believer in values-based leadership, she works hard to carve out and create environments within which staff and colleagues can thrive.

Negaya holds a BA Hons in International Development from the University of East Anglia, a Masters in International Development Policy from Duke University and Graduate Certificates in Peace and Conflict Resolution and Non-Profit Leadership from the University of North Carolina.

Lady Roslyn Morauta has a long association with the Global Fund having served as alternate Board Member for the Western Pacific Region constituency and as Chair of the Papua New Guinea Country Coordinating Mechanism. From her time also as first lady of Papua New Guinea, she has steadily championed health, HIV programs and gender issues

Murray is an experienced Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the international development area. Skilled in Public Speaking, International Relations, Policy Analysis, Audit, Evaluation, and Research. A particular focus on TB in the region and financial transition in Asian countries. Qualifications in Economics from The Australian National University and Psychology from the University of Queensland

Professor Marion Saville is a New Zealand medical graduate who trained in Anatomic Pathology at Northwestern University in Chicago. She went on to complete a fellowship in Cytopathology at East Carolina University and a research fellowship at Georgetown University, focussing on HPV. She has held the position of Executive Director of ACPCC since 2000. Marion has served on cervical screening advisory committees in Australia, New Zealand and Ontario. Most recently she chaired the working group to review Australia’s Guidelines for the management of screen-detected abnormalities in the National Cervical Screening Program.

Marion has focussed on research and implementation projects demonstrating that it is possible to deliver high quality, acceptable cervical screening in a range of resource poor settings including Malaysia, PNG and Samoa. She is also interested in how culturally safe screening can meet the needs of disadvantaged groups who have poorer cancer outcomes, in Australia and New Zealand. Marion was appointed as a member (AM) of the Order of Australia on Australia Day 2020 for her significant service to women’s health through cervical screening initiatives.