Triennium Council 2015-2017

Dr Sharon Tivey (NSW) President and NSW AFMW Representative 

Sharon Tivey is an anaesthetist, working mainly in the public hospital system. Her undergraduate training was at The University of Sydney followed by postgraduate training in Sydney and Virginia, USA. She enjoys teaching and is a Conjoint Lecturer at the UNSW. She is keen to encourage RMOs in anaesthesia as a career, though she doesn’t subscribe to the view ‘that it’s a good job for a woman’. Her “real world” interests were previously eating out, travel etc but are now racing around after a toddler and her big brother and dreaming of sleep, travel/ eating out etc. She has been involved with the Medical Women’s Society of NSW since internship and has been the AFMW Treasurer for several years.

Dr Desiree Yap (Vic) Immediate Past President 

Desiree is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with a Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine who has appointments at Monash Medical Centre and The Royal Women’s Hospital. She is also currently working part-time in her East Melbourne Private Practice and has two young children. Before motherhood, Desiree traveled widely, working both in rural and remote Australia as well as overseas including with WHO. Desiree believes the Medical Women’s Societies spring from fine traditions, and that as one who has reaped the benefits of those who went before, in addition to having strong feelings about social justice, feels a responsibility towards maintaining the organisation and fulfilling the organisations aims.

A/Prof Jan Coles Vice President and VMWS AFMW Representative

Jan is an academic General Practitioner. She is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University Department of General Practice and the Gippsland Medical School. Her special interests are the teaching and learning of clinical skills, the impact of Childhood sexual abuse on the lives of women, particularly early mothering, breastfeeding and touch, and occupational based violence. In 2006 she was awarded the Vera Scantlebury Brown Research Fellowship in Maternal and Infant Health to further her research with young mothers who are survivors of childhood sexual assault. In 2007 she was awarded her PhD for her thesis “Breastfeeding and Maternal Touch after Childhood Sexual Assault”.

Dr Marissa Daniels (Vic) Treasurer and VMWS AFMW Representative

Dr Marjorie Cross (ACT) Secretary and Rural Councillor

Assoc. Prof. Deborah Colville (Vic) National Co-ordinator

Deb is a Melbourne ophthalmologist who graduated from Monash in 1975 and is a Fellow of the College of Ophthalmologists and the College of Surgeons (1983). She has a small private practice in Ivanhoe, NSW. Deb was a Director of Ophthalmology at Austin Repatriation Medical Centre and recently retired from the College of Surgeons Council and as Chair of the RACS Women in Surgery Committee, a position she held for nine years. Since 2000, she has been Director of Curriculum Development at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. Deb’s Master of Public Health degree focused on educational program evaluation in health care and she now researches curriculum and public health themes, including ophthalmic public health, gender and curriculum, and women in leadership in vocational education and training. She is interested in ‘doing leadership differently’, developing ways of participation that ‘work for women’ in the profession. “ Arising from the MWIA meeting in Sydney 2001, Deb taught medical students in Sweden and participated in curriculum development for MWIA with its Executive, alongside gender experts from the WHO and UN, in Italy.

Dr Susie Close (ACT) ACT AFMW Representative

Prof Gabrielle Casper (NSW) NSW AFMW Representative

Professor Gabrielle Casper is a Sydney Gynaecologist with a special interest in women’s health and human rights. She is Past President of the Australian Federation of Medical Women and Past President of Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA). She has represented MWIA at the World Health Organisation and United Nations meetings. She is Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, School of Medicine, Sydney, The University of Notre Dame Australia and President of the NSW State Committee of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG). She is Past President of the Australian Women’s Coalition composed of 18 member organisations collectively representing as many as 3 million women in Australia. She received the 2004 Australian Medical Association (AMA) Women’s Health Award and the 2004 AMA Women in Medicine Award. Prof Casper enjoys working as a gynaecologist and cares for her patients with compassion and understanding while lobbying to improve women’s health in Australia and overseas.

Dr Liz Rickman (SA) SA AFMW Representative

Dr Kate Duncan (Vic) Tas AFMW Representative

Kate is an Obstetrician in private practice in the south-east suburbs. Interest in VMWS goes back to early days as an intern, RMO and Registrar at the Queen Vic (where we had such wonderful mentors and role models). Kate has been a Committee member of both the VMWS and the AFMW. As an AMA Board member Kate is working at the State level on several issues including efforts to resolve the Medical indemnity crisis and the Provider number issue.

VMWS AFMW Representative – Dr Magdalena Simonis (Vic)

Recent Graduate Councillor – Vacant