Dr Fahmida Ilyas MD MRCP FRACP

Fahmida Ilyas is a Consultant Physician with expertise in Cardiology and Internal Medicine. She completed fellowships in areas of Research & Advanced Heart Failure as well as Multimodality Cardiac Imaging. She is certified in Integrative Medicine and has a special interest in research, medical humanities & ethics. Besides her clinical engagements, she is a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Co-coordinator of the Year 4 medical undergraduate program.

Her research and collaborative work have been directed towards safety & quality and the accessibility to healthcare, in particular cardiac imaging resources and outreach health services. She has authored policies and procedures for local health networks while providing public consultation reviewing the evidence in national clinical guidelines. Fahmida won the RACP Fellow’s Best Prize at the 2018 Congress for research on blood pressure management post- stroke that resulted in changes to the 2017 Australian National Stroke Guidelines.

Fahmida advocates for consumer interest and engagement as she recognises the valuable insights and experiences they provide to improve healthcare. Working at the interface between healthcare systems and consumers, she strongly promotes a culture of trust and mutual respect through open communication and consensus building to achieve a patient- focussed and responsive healthcare system.

Zehnab Vayani

Zehnab is committed to working collectively with others to improve healthcare in Queensland. She advocates for healthcare services to be:

• more accessible
• holistically focused
• better integrated around the needs of health consumers and their families

Zehnab focuses on social determinants of health informed by her own family lived experience of complex health care across a number of care settings.

She is a champion for co-designed innovation in healthcare that balances ethical considerations around health consumer and carer human rights, quality, safety, and accessible information to inform advances in personalised healthcare and medicine.

Jodi Adams

Jodi is a consumer representative with the National Register of Palliative Care Consumers and Carers. She is an active member in a number of advisory groups in the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne. Jodi has a role as a volunteer Peer Support Leader for her eastern metropolitan SWAN (Syndromes Without A Name) families, facilitating social gatherings for caregivers and families. Jodi has extensive lived experience with her daughter who had a rare life limiting condition across a range of healthcare settings including Complex Care and Palliative Care. 

Jodi participated in an interview sharing her personal story for the Australian Paediatric Palliative Conference in 2022. She is an advocate for supporting the whole family when their child has ongoing medical needs and is passionate about improving accessibility to services and support for carers and their families, particularly those under palliative care and continued beyond in bereavement

Lana Earle-Bandaralage

Lana is a SA Health-registered and trained consumer representative and advocate. She began her advocacy journey at the Women’s and Children’s Health Network in 2016.

She is passionate about consumer advocacy and works to promote better health care for consumers in South Australia. Her direct experience spans women’s and children’s health, intellectual disability and the neurodivergent community, research and project work, quality and safety improvement, CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) community health, priority population health, and mental health advocacy.

Lana is also actively involved in co-design, co-creation, collaboration, and co-production activities, as well as consumer consultation, feedback sessions, virtual workshop hosting, kitchen table discussions, managing expos, staff training, and workshop facilitation.

She currently advocates and serves as a carer/family/kinship research co-lead, consumer representative, listening posts representative, lived experience mental health advocate, and community representative.

Qualifications

• Master of Public Health (completed 2024)
• Graduate Certificate in Applied Project Management (2020)
• Certificate in Quality Improvement Lead Training Program in Public Health – Australian Council on Healthcare Standards
• Bachelor of Science (Chemical Synthesis and Environmental Biology) (2006)

Patricia Councillor

Is a proud Yamaji Naaguja woman from the Midwest region of Western Australia (Geraldton), a dedicated mother of three, and grandmother to six. One of 11 siblings, Patricia has always drawn strength from family and the community, a strength that has guided her through decades of service, leadership, and advocacy.

A qualified mental health practitioner and counsellor, Patricia holds a bachelor’s degree in social science (Mental Health), earned in 2013. Her passion for mental health was deeply personal, driven by her youngest child’s complex mental health challenges. She navigated years of red tape and systemic barriers, ultimately becoming her daughter’s legal guardian and created a multi-disciplinary care team that continues to meet and collaborate regularly to support her daughter.

Patricia has worked with and for community for over 30 years, contributing through counselling, cultural consultancy, mentoring, committee leadership, and grassroots support. Her roles have included Deputy Chairperson for the WA Mental Health Commission’s Advisory Group, Director for Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), and currently, manager of a state-wide postvention service supporting families affected by traumatic death.

Beyond her professional roles, Patricia is deeply embedded in community life volunteering, mentoring young Aboriginal people, supporting her grandchildren in sports and education, and offering cultural guidance wherever needed. Her work is grounded in lived experience, cultural knowledge, and a tireless commitment to making systems more just, inclusive, and responsive.

Patricia is and always will be a strong advocate and a trusted voice for her mob, walking with community, guided by Elders, and led by her enduring love for her family and her people.