Meet Dr Maria Boulton
Herstory this month features Dr Maria Boulton, General Practitioner business owner, QMWS / AFMW Committee.
Many of us have seen Maria Boulton speak on behalf of GPs through her AMA role in QLD, making numerous media appearances throughout COVID-19 pandemic. Maria has contributed to Herstory in this week’s eBulletin and describes how and why she became GP in QLD, after having migrated to Australia from El Salvador in her teens. Maria talks about the role of clinical mentors and advocacy mentors in her life and how they have helped shape her career path.
Maria’s Story
My Journey
I was born in El Salvador, and we moved to Brisbane in 1990 when I was thirteen years old. I trained at the University of Queensland and graduated in 2002, then did my hospital training and GP training in McKay. Learning about the work that rural GPs do, occurred by spending time in Proserpine as a medical student. Proserpine is a rural hospital staffed by amazing GPs and this inspired me.
I always knew that I was going to be a doctor from a very young age and was one of those people who used to get goose bumps from the excitement I felt visiting hospitals. I knew this was what I wanted to do. The death of an uncle I never met also influenced me profoundly. According to my family, he studied to become a doctor, graduated with distinctions but was tragically killed in a car accident before he could start work as a doctor. It was a terrible loss.
My Mentors
There have been both clinical and business mentors along the way.
I had a fabulous clinical mentor in Dr Margaret Campbell, a GP in MacKay. She is one of the most amazing doctors and was my GP supervisor as a GP registrar. When she retired, I took over her patients and as many of them had complex conditions, she and would come in every week to do her teaching and still provide advice and guidance to help manage the most difficult of patients. Margaret was very encouraging and remains a part of my life. We still email each other and catch up in Brisbane occasionally. Margaret gave me lots of encouragement.
She would say, ‘I love how you do things and make change happen. You somehow manage to convince everyone to do things whilst smiling at the same time.’ In other words, she was good at pointing out my strengths and helped me fine tune them.
The most amazing person or mentor in my life to this day is still my mother. Mum was a teacher and in the face of crises such as the terrible earthquake back in El Salvador, mum managed to get the school and scouts team we were in, to collect food and water parcels. She coordinated the hand delivery of these supplies to the villages that were devastated by the earthquake. Mum managed to convince the school to provide accommodation at the school for the orphaned children, which resulted in many orphans being adopted.
I am fortunate to have come from a long line of strong women. My grandmother was the same. We fundamentally believe that you just can’t sit still. You need to keep doing things.
My mentor for advocacy work was Dr Mellissa Naidoo, who has recently taken my role at QMWS as AFMW Representative. One of the first conversations I ever had with Mellissa occurred soon after I went into business with my business partner. She told us that we should join the AMA council and we replied, “We’re really busy , we just started a business’. Mellissa replied, “Busy women make the best advocates.” Mellissa then introduced us to the AMA QLD President at the time and we made further the connections with QMWS. To this day, I will call her and email her and ask for her advice.
The beauty of QMWS and AFMW is that there are so many different stories and you get to meet so many amazing medical women.
Three Things I Learnt
1. Stick to what you love and don’t lose sight of your dream.
2. You have to listen. A lot of what we do in advocacy is to listen to what people need so that we can focus our advocacy where it matters.
3. Pace yourself so you don’t burn out.
My Key Message To Others
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you are need support or want to learn more about a career path or advocacy work reach out to others who have been there before. I know I am always happy to pay it forward and give back some of the excellent support I have been privileged to receive.
Maria became involved with AFMW at Council level over one year ago. She is a staunch advocate for GPs and health equity in QLD, which is where her energy is now being directed. We thank Maria for sharing Herstory and congratulate her for her tireless advocacy efforts. We’ll be seeing more of Maria through her outspoken media appearances.
Hopefully by reading these vignettes, you learn something new about career development and aspects of mentoring. You are also invited to learn more about Maria’s amazing career by connecting directly with her through QMWS directly.
Magdalena Simonis
President, Australian Federation of Medical Women
About ‘Herstory’
The online AFMW Herstory E-Book, gives AFMW members the opportunity to contribute to the AFMW oral tapestry, by forming a compilation of ‘our mentoring stories’, in which we honour those who have changed our lives. Making this an online AFMW story book, encourages us each to consider contributing to building this over the years, into a collection of medical women’s ‘key take home messages’, as we share the wisdom we each have gained from our own lived experiences. The ‘golden nugget of wisdom’ that we would share with someone who asked us about what we have learned.
Add Your Story
If you would like to contribute your story, please download the Herstory template (Word doc), add your details and return the completed form to [email protected]. Please also submit a photo of yourself with this. It can be a ‘selfie’ taken with a good camera that you would be happy to have others see.
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate 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.
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.
