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.

Mr ‘Alopi Latukefu serves as the Director for the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education. Prior to accepting the role with ERC, ‘Alopi was the Director for the Global Education and Scholarships team in DFAT – managing among other things Australia’s prestigious and longstanding inbound scholarship program, the Australia Awards. Mr Latukefu brings to the role knowledge and experience from nearly two decades of work on Australia’s aid, economic diplomacy and foreign policy. During this time he also worked as an adviser and chief of staff to the minister responsible for the Pacific (2008-09) as well as work on China, Japan and India. Mr Latukefu prior to joining the public service had a career working in the university sector, as well as with First Nations organisations and communities in northern Australia including with a project to improve telecommunications access to remote communities – the outback digital network – and for nearly two years as CEO of Goolarri Media Enterprises in Broome.

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.

Dr Toliman is presently the Deputy Head, Surveillance and Outbreaks Unit, PNG Institute of Medical Research. She graduated in 2020 with a Ph.D. in molecular diagnostics and epidemiology from UNSW Sydney, Australia. Her doctoral research (Thesis: Innovative approaches for cervical cancer screening in PNG: Evaluation of novel point-of-care test and treat algorithms in a high- burden setting) was pioneering and provided PNG’s first molecular data on HPV and cervical cancer. She evaluated novel screening algorithms for cervical cancer in PNG, which showed that self-collected vaginal specimens were comparable to clinician collected, paving the way for same-day screen and treat model of care that has been adopted as part of the National Strategy for the Prevention and Treatment of Cervical Cancer in PNG. Dr Toliman currently co-leads a multi-disciplinary team of researchers implementing a number of novel and innovative public health program, qualitative research studies among key and priority populations, clinical research and disease surveillance. During the pandemic, Dr Toliman played a key role in PNG’s COVID-19 response in providing advice to the National COVID Task Force and leading laboratory research into validating new diagnostic tests, monitoring circulating variants of concern and integrating COVID-19 testing with Influenza surveillance. Dr Toliman also co-developed and delivered module on Diagnostics and Testing for a COVID-19 training program for healthcare workers in PNG (COVID-19 Healthcare E-Learning Platform funded by PNG-AUS Partnership). With her laboratory expertise, she has been involved in numerous studies and technical working group to validate and support the decentralisation of diagnostics from centralised laboratories to the community setting. She was a key focal person in the Indo-Pacific Laboratory Program in PNG, where she has supported the first national laboratory needs assessment in PNG (2022) and the delivery of Quality Laboratory Management System training to laboratory personnel in the country (2023). Dr Toliman is also a member of the National Laboratory Technical Working Group in PNG and is coleading the development of a national laboratory policy and strategic plan. Dr Toliman is committed to building a culture of scholarship and research in PNG, in particular strengthening student development, learning, teaching, and mentoring, with a focus on increasing gender equity in STEM education and careers. She has been a mentor in the Women’s Mentoring Initiative (PNG Australia Awards Alumni), an Australia Award Alumna (2016-2019), a recipient of the Allison Sudradjat Prize (2016), an Alumna of the Women Leading and Influencing Program (supported by DFAT) since 2018 and received the PNG Austrlia Alumni of the Year Award in 2024. Dr Toliman delivered part of the Ruth Bishop Address for 2024, which is hosted by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia).

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.

Sarah Goulding is a non-executive director, experienced senior executive. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors for The Hunger Project Australia, a Research Associate at the University of Canberra working on gender, diversity and climate change in the Pacific. She represented Australia on the Gavi Board from 2018-2024, and was the first Australian to serve as Vice Chair of the Gavi Board. She served two terms as Vice Chair of the GAVI Board during the pandemic, 2020-2022, and 2022-2024 years. She supported the institution’s pivotal role establishing the governance of the COVAX Facility in responding to the pandemic, and re-setting global strategy and operations. In her twenty-one years with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (concluding October 2024) Sarah served in a wide range of roles. She led Australia’s first Voluntary National Review on the Sustainable Development Goals, she was responsible for multilateral health, education and climate funds. She served as Australia’s representative on the Green Climate Fund Board, the Board of ATScale, and the United Nations Partnership for the Rights of Persons with Disablity. She was posted as a diplomatic representative of Australia to Fiji. as head of the Australian aid program. From 2021-2024, she was Australia’s Principal Specialist for Gender Equality, as head of Australia’s international foreign policy and development on gender equality, disability and LGBTQIA+ human rights. She led the process to establish Australia’s new International Strategy on Gender Equality, and Australia’s new International Strategy on Disability Equity and Rights. She is a Graduate of Flinders University of South Australia, The University of South Australia and The University of Adelaide. She is also a Graduate and Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors She is a Life Member of the YWCA of Australia.