Dr Amy Waters FRACP, FAChPM | Specialist contractor, Adult Internal Medicine

Amy is a palliative care physician at St George Hospital in Sydney, NSW. She completed a Master of Medical Education in 2012 and is heavily involved in teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is a past chair of the Training Committee in Palliative Medicine and a conjoint senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales. As well as contributing to curricular renewal, she is actively involved in communication skills training across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Dr Naomi Katz FRACP, FAChPM | Specialist contractor, Paediatrics and Child Health

Naomi is a paediatric and adult palliative care physician with appointments at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Alfred Health, and Melbourne Health/Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. She has honorary academic appointments at Monash University and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and is undertaking a PhD in paediatric palliative care through the University of Melbourne. In 2019, Naomi developed a registrar education program for the Victorian Paediatric Palliative Care Program which continues to be implemented by the wider team.

Professor Brian Le FRACP, FAChPM, MPH | Chair

Brian is a Palliative Care Physician, based in Melbourne. Brian completed Palliative Medicine advanced training with the RACP in 2007 and was a member of the RACP Training Committee for Palliative Medicine from 2011 to 2017, serving as chair in the last of those 3 years.

Associate Professor Carol Douglas FRACGP, FAChPM | Deputy Chair

Carol is a Chapter Foundation Fellow. As Medical Director Queensland Palliative Medicine Training Program, she has led development of the integrated program from 2009, incorporated into the Queensland Health (QH) RMO Campaign in 2013 and now is recurrently funded supporting a Program Manager and Education Officer. From 2005-2022, she was Clinical Director Palliative and Supportive Care Service, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. During this tenure, along with Metro North (MN) Renal Services, she led the development of the MN Kidney Supportive Care Service. Prior to RBWH, she was a Staff Specialist at The Prince Charles Hospital and latterly Director 2004- 2005.

Current research involves ICU and Palliative Care engagement. She has been a member of the National End of Life Law for Clinicians (ELLC) Steering Group since 2016 and led the MNHHS Advance Care Planning ‘roll-out’ in 2016. Her background to Australian career was working in Kota Kinabalu in the late ‘90’s in the first Palliative Care Unit for Malaysia at QE11 Hospital. She continued to support the KK services from 2007-2017 through annual visits and maintains a strong interest in SE Asian Palliative Care contributing especially to Indian Palliative Care Association meetings.

Dr Astrid Adams FRACP 

Astrid is from the United Kingdom. She trained as a doctor in London qualifying from UCL in 1998. She completed her MRCP in 2002 before taking time out of work to travel. She undertook a 4 year Palliative Medicine Registrar rotation centred in Oxford, during which time she completed an MSc in Palliative Medicine and Diploma in Undergraduate Education. She worked for the next 5 years as a Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Sir Michael Sobell House in Oxford. This post involved rotating between IPU, Community and Hospital Palliative Medicine. She was Course Director for the Oxford Medical Student Palliative Medicine Course, Training Programme Director for the Oxford Registrars (jointly with another Consultant) and led the Service Development of a new model of care within the Day Services at the Hospice. Astrid has worked in New Zealand as the Medical Director for Mary Potter Hospice in Wellington. She has twin boys aged 13 and as a family are enjoying living in New Zealand.

Associate Professor Kirsten Auret  FRACP, FAChPM 

Kirsten lives and works on the south coast of Western Australia and has been in rural practice for 17 years. Her daily work includes an academic role at the Rural Clinical School of WA, work in the regional palliative care service and local community hospice, and leadership of the statewide rural palliative care service. She says "I have a passion for rural medicine and skilling future specialists for rural work. This is a bit of a circle for me as I was involved with writing the first RACP Palliative Medicine curriculum a long time ago."

Dr Sadie Dunn FRACP, FAChPM 

Sadie is a Palliative Medicine Physician at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospitals. In addition, she is the Education coordinator for the Victorian Palliative Medicine Training Program. As the current Chair of the Training Committee in Palliative Medicine for the college, she is motivated to develop an up-to-date training program that allows us to train the next generation of Palliative Medicine physicians and specialists.

Dr Bharathy Gunasekaran  FRACP, FAChPM 

Bharathy completed her Basic Physician Training and subsequently her Palliative Medicine training across various health networks in metropolitan and regional Victoria. After obtaining her Fellowship, Bharathy accepted a research fellow position at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. She currently works as a palliative medicine specialist at Grampians Health and Northern Health. In addition to direct clinical care and research, Bharathy is passionate about medical education. She has completed her Graduate Certificate in Clinical Education and is currently undertaking her Graduate Diploma in Clinical Education with the University of Melbourne. Bharathy is also an Affiliate Senior Lecturer at Deakin University and a Professional Practice Tutor at Melbourne University. Her areas of interest include interprofessional education and the delivery of safe and appropriate care to priority population groups.

Associate Professor Marianne Phillips FRACP, FAChPM 

Marianne is a dual trained paediatric and adolescent oncologist and palliative care physician originally from the UK having moved to Australia in 1998. She has worked across paediatric and palliative care for over 36 years. Her particular area of expertise is the embedding of palliative care within oncological diagnoses from the time of initial presentation throughout the disease trajectory to ensure age-appropriate holistic support for patients undergoing cancer treatment and their families.

Marianne has been instrumental in the development of paediatric palliative care services for children and adolescents with cancer and subsequently, having recognised the lack of equitable support, paediatric palliative care services for those with non-malignant diagnoses. As a humanitarian palliative care practitioner, Marianne provides teaching and leadership through culturally and resource appropriate face2face and online forums across various settings in SE Asia, Africa and areas of significant global crises, conflict and natural disasters.

Dr Shampa Sinha

Shampa is a final-year Advanced Trainee in Palliative Medicine currently based at Sacred Heart Hospice at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. She has a keen interest in teaching and curriculum development and is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to medicine she worked as a diplomat for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and as a public health and evaluation specialist at the World Bank.

Dr Patrick Steele FAChPM, FACRRM 

Patrick is a Palliative Care Consultant and Fellow of the Australian College of Remote and Rural Medicine. He works as a palliative care specialist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne and with Palliative Care South East - a community based palliative care service. He is passionate about providing supervision, education and mentorship to trainees.

Dr Nyoli Valentine FRACGP, MPH 

Nyoli is a Palliative Medicine Advanced Trainee and a PhD candidate in medical education at Flinders University. Nyoli has worked in medical education and research for over 15 years, including in programmatic assessment and entrustable professional activities. She has also co-led the development of the new RACGP training syllabus and 2022 RACGP Curriculum review. Her PhD research is examining fairness in assessment.

Dr Molly Williams FRACP, FAChPM 

Molly is a dual trained paediatric solid tumour/neuro-oncologist and palliative care physician. She has worked in complimentary roles in the RCH Children's Cancer Centre and Victorian Paediatric Palliative Care Program since 2017. Her particular areas of expertise and interest are in the intersection of palliative medicine and oncology, in particular the impact of emerging cancer therapies on the palliative care experience and the holistic supportive care of patients undergoing cancer treatment.

Dr Williams is keenly involved in statewide education through the PICS regional oncology program and the QuOCCA Consortium and is the paediatric representative on the RACP Palliative Medicine Training Committee. She is a member of the RCH Clinical Ethics Response Group, participating in education, podcasts and writing regarding ethical decision-making in oncology and palliative medicine. In her spare time, Dr Williams spoils her two rescue dogs and dabbles in home-brewing and cheesemaking.