When the Health Consumers’ Council (HCC) adopted its new Rules to conform with the updated Incorporations Act 2015, our Board became a Management Committee. The New Act provides some differentiation between larger organisations who have Boards as opposed to smaller organisations who have Management Committees.
2022 Management Committee
Mallika Macleod – Chair
Mallika is current a Director at Disability in the Arts, Disadvantage in the Arts Australia (DADAA). She brings many years of not-for-profit Board experience at state and national levels as a ‘young’ professional. She believes in the importance of good governance to support an Executive Director to uphold the vision and mission. Mallika is passionate about the importance of upholding citizens’ rights, and the key role of peak advocacy bodies in this. She believes human rights, and contemporary practice must be part of the dialogue at all levels, and we must have a body that can call out those institutions that are stuck in the dark ages and do not respect the rights of health customers and patients.
Mallika has been HCC’s Chair for three years and is seeking re-nomination at the 2021 AGM for a further three years.
Richard Brightwell – Deputy Chair
Formerly Coordinator of Postgraduate Medicine at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Richard has a wide experience of health and health education, and this has given him insights into the effective
use of health resources. His extensive writing and committee work has given him the ability to use representative roles to further the cause of the consumer in health environments. Since his retirement from full time work in 2015 he has become interested in consumer representation and how his previous academic experience equips him to deal with the challenges offered to a representative.
Richard has been on HCC’s Management Committee for four years and was re-nominated at the 2020 AGM for a further three years.
Rebecca Carbone – Secretary
In November 2014, Rebecca underwent surgery to partially resect a tumor located in her Cerebellum/Brain Stem. This was followed by a massive brain hemorrhage, and she was left with Locked-in-Syndrome (LiS). Her prognosis was dire – she was assessed as unable to be rehabilitated. She had three further inoperable tumors in 2015 and focused on intensive rehabilitation. She has learned to walk, see, speak, read, and write again. In 2018, she passed a driving assessment through the Independent Living Centre and has returned to study. Prior to the surgery Rebecca worked her way from what was essentially a personal assistant role to a Quality and Welding Inspector trained to International ASME Standard. A traditionally masculine occupation, it took hard work and determination to achieve this. Rebecca is extremely passionate about all aspects of health and wellbeing. She believes that health should be approached with a vision towards wellness as opposed to illness. Each consumer should be empowered to research and investigate methods of scientifically proven medical intervention and/or treatment so as to make an informed decision as to what will work best for their needs. She brings a very unique perspective to HCC’s Management Committee as a consumer; a woman with a disability that lives with chronic illnesses; a younger adult with an acquired brain injury that is commonly associated with the elderly; the cultural experience of as a child of Southern European migrants; and a volunteer in the health sector.
Rebecca has been on HCC’s Management Committee for three years.
Ian Ludlow – Treasurer
Ian is a Chartered Accountant Fellow and following eight years employed in public accounting practice has over 25 years of experience working at senior levels in not-for-profit organizations serving the community in education, youth and adult accommodation, conference centre operations, large scale property management, insurance and risk management, and mental health services. He is currently the Business Manager for two schools in the Swan Christian Education Association.
He is involved in the community including volunteering with the Anglican Church for more than 30 years with experience ranging from local parish, Central Diocese, National Church, governance, large scale youth work, and including company directorships of large and very large ($100M+ turnover) church entities delivering aged care. In more recent years volunteering has included with Scouts WA as a leader supporting Cub Scout, Scout and Venturer Scout sections in his local area.
Ian has been on HCC’s Management Committee since 2021.
Michael Crowley
Michael is an experienced legal practitioner and law academic in both Western Australia and New South Wales. He has over ten years’ experience teaching law at Edith Cowan University whilst maintaining a right of private practice as a barrister. As an academic he taught and coordinated a range of law units including criminal law, advanced criminal law, terrorism and the law, security and the law, public international law, coronial law and mortuary practice and the law of evidence. Other roles included mooting coordinator and course coordinator roles in law and forensic investigation and membership of ECU’s Security Research Institute. Research interests focused on international humanitarian law and terrorism. During this period as an academic he had extensive involvement in key international mooting competitions as moot problem writer, finals judge, arbitrator, moot executive committee member and coach. Previously in New South Wales his experience was as defense counsel in criminal law jury trials and conducting appellate work. For some 10 years he was a lecturer in criminal law and procedure with the Law Extension Committee within the University of Sydney and a revising examiner for the Legal Practice Board of New South Wales. Before moving from New South Wales to Western Australia he was appointed visiting lecturer in law at Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China.
Michael has been on HCC’s Management Committee since 2020.
Meredith Waters
Meredith lives in Esperance and identifies as a career for a family member, and an enthusiastic consumer representative for people living in rural and regional Australia. She is a member of a District Health Advisory Council and is a Board Member on the WA Country Health Service. She also runs a local radio program. Meredith has been a board member with WACHS for the past five years as a consumer representative and has seen firsthand how much more there is to be done in the area of effective consumer representation. She is particularly interested in health in regional and rural Australia.
Meredith has been on HCC’s Management Committee since 2020.
Niall Naghten
Niall has been a Certified Practicing Marketer of the Australian Marketing Institute since 2018 and has over 15 years’ experience at senior levels in a variety of industries. Originally from Ireland, Niall emigrated to Australia in 2012 and most recently moved into a senior consultancy role after leading the marketing and communications function at Activ Foundation for over four years.
While working at Activ Foundation, Niall helped to establish the crisis response team and eventually served as its Chair during the COVID-19 pandemic. This role saw him completely redirect the organisation’s focus to ensure that the health needs of thousands of individuals with intellectual disability were met.
Niall is passionate about ensuring that every person has equitable access to information that they need to make decisions about their health.
Niall joined HCC’s Management Committee in December 2022.
Natalie Borellini
Natalie’s career highlights broad industry knowledge working in health services across remote, rural and regional areas of North Queensland and Western Australia. With an in-depth knowledge of the healthcare system, Natalie has extensive experience across clinical and organisational leadership roles within public, private, and social enterprises. Natalie currently holds the position as an Academic Lecturer with the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Edith Cowan University.
As a voluntary member of the Management Committee, Natalie serves to promote the Health Consumers’ Council’s vision of equitable, person-centred, culturally responsive quality health care for all Western Australians. Her aspiration is to collectively influence positive and meaningful change to deliver equity in health outcomes by addressing systemic barriers and empowering the unique strengths of individuals, families, and communities.
Natalie holds a Bachelor of Nursing Sciences, Post Graduate Certificate of Infection Control, and a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from James Cook University. Additionally, she holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health from Edith Cowan University.
Natalie is a professional member of the Edith Cowan University’s Centre for Research in Aged Care, the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control, the Rural Regional and Remote Women’s Network of WA, and the Australian College of Occupational Hygienists. Additionally, she is an affiliate member of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CASTINaM).
Natalie joined HCC’s Management Committee in December 2022.
Glen Knight
Glen is a healthcare management specialist with experience in public, private and not-for profit healthcare.
A registered Paramedic Glen began his clinical experience on-road with St John Ambulance before moving across to training and Operational management roles across the State. A tenure with Sonic Healthcare following this allowed Glen exposure to commercially driven healthcare models across a diverse range of regional and remote clients.
More recently, Glen has worked for the WA Primary Health Network facilitating the COVID-19 Vaccination rollout here in WA. A strong believer in professional development Glen is currently undertaking the Health specialisation in the University of Adelaide’s MBA program.
Glen currently looks after Perth for I-Med radiology, and is passionate about quality and compassionate healthcare delivery across all sectors.
An advocate for the role of fathers in children’s lives Glen is heavily involved in the Fathering Project and facilitates workshops and events that assist Dad’s to be the best that they can be for their children.
Glen joined HCC’s Management Committee in December 2022.