Australia Day Honours recipients 2022
It gives me great pleasure to announce that two of our AFMW members were honoured on Australia Day January 26th 2022.
They are now Members (AM) in the general division.
Dr Catherine ‘Kate’ Duncan AM
The recipients are Dr Catherine ‘Kate’ Duncan AM, for significant service to medicine in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, and to professional associations.
Many of us know Kate, as a longstanding, dedicated member and former President of the Victorian Medical Women’s Society (VMWS) and the Chair of the AFMW Governance Committee.
Kate continues to be active in VMWS, AFMW and MWIA.
Dr Margaret Kay AM
We also acknowledge Dr Margaret Kay AM of Queensland Medical Women’s Society (QMWS) who was recognised for significant service to medicine, to medical education and to migrant health.
For more information on Dr Kay’s work
AFMW extends hearty congratulations to our honours recipients, and thanks you for the wonderful contributions you have made in your respective fields.
Overall, this year there were 47% female recipients which is an improvement on previous years, however, we are still not at 50%.
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is a Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
