Dr Magdalena Simonis, President/AFMW Representative
A/Professor Deborah Colville, Vice President
Dr Marissa Daniels, Treasurer/IT Officer
Dr Linny Kimly Phuong, Secretary
Dr Raie Goodwach, Immediate Past President

Dr Claire Steiner, Newsletter Editor/ Publicity Officer
Dr Skye Siskos, Newsletter Editor/ Publicity Officer
Dr Marissa Daniels, IT Officer

Dr Rosalind Terry, Senior Members' Representative
Dr Sarah Lonie, Social Secretary 
Dr Zoe Dorevitch, Social Secretary
Dr Sarah Heynemann, Social Secretary
Dr Natalie Marijanovic, VMWS Representative to AMA Victoria Council

Dr Kate Duncan, General Committee Member
Dr Desiree Yap, General Committee Member
Dr Jill Tomlinson, General Committee Member

Ms Jane Doan, Student Representative (Monash)
Ms Sarah Grigg, Student Representative (Melbourne)
Ms Eden Cooper, Student Representative (Melbourne)
Ms Miriam Yassa, Student Representative (Deakin)
Ms Caitlin Dallas, Student Representative (Notre Dame)

Dr Magdalena Simonis - President/AFMW Representative

 

As a full time General Practitioner with interests in Women’s Health, Magdalena joined the VMWS after attending the Western Pacific Medical Women’s Conference held in Melbourne in 2008.

She believes that the interaction and collaboration with medical women from around the world, to discuss and design changes that can enhance the well being and livelihood of women and children around the globe, are crucial. The ability to take those recommendations through to the UN level via VMWS and AFMW are what drew her to being involved.

Magdalena is also on the board of directors for the Australian Greek Welfare Society and in 2011, was appointed GP representative to the National Standing Committee on E-Health. She is also a GP examiner and a committee member of the Victorian Medico Legal Society.

A/Professor Deborah Colville - Vice President

 

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. 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. 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 Marissa Daniels - Treasurer/IT Officer

Marissa is an intensive care trainee who is currently working towards a PhD in the genetic basis of lung cancer. As a member of VMWS, she has discovered the opportunity to expand her academic interests in the molecular basis of disease and bioethics to explore how these may benefit minority groups and those in resource-limited settings. She is inspired by the extensive collective knowledge and vast experience of the VMWS in addressing issues of local, national and international importance to individuals and communities. Through VMWS she is gaining an understanding of issues facing the international medical community, and how she can contribute in a meaningful way. As a trainee, she has found VMWS to be a source of great support and advice, as well as inspiration. In her spare time, Marissa enjoys playing the violin, running and cooking with fresh food from her garden.

Dr Linny Kimly Phuong - Secretary

Linny is a second year resident at the Alfred embarking on the physicians’ training pathway. She loves meeting the many doctors and medical students at our events, and the great opportunities that being part of VMWS provides including attendance at the United Nations NGO Conference in Melb last year. She is also quite active outside her role at the Alfred, as the PMCV’s Junior Medical Officer Co-Chair for this year, involvement with the AMA Doctors’ In Training and Red Cross Refugee and Asylum Seeker Programs and is currently leading the project for an AMA collaboration with the Brotherhood of St Laurence for a refugee health project. Outside of the medical world, she continues to pursue lessons in classical ballet.

Dr Raie Goodwach - Immediate Past President/AFMW Representative

Raie is a medically-trained psychotherapist with a Masters in Psychoanalytic Studies. She has published in the areas of adoption and sex therapy. She was a Consultant to the Sexual & Relationship Counseling Clinic at MMC for 18 years and an Honorary Lecturer in the Dept of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. She sees individuals and couples for therapy in her private practice. Her main area of interest is psychosexual medicine. As an Advisor to Andrology Australia and as a member of the teaching faculty of Family Planning Victoria she facilitates professional workshops and is involve in the development of educational resources for general practitioners.
In 2010 she ran the “Happy Healthy Women Not Just Survivors” project on behalf of VMWS with Jan Coles representing AFMW with funding from the AWC. Its aim is to improve the longterm health and wellbeing of women with a history of sexual violence.

Dr Claire Steiner - Newsletter Editor/ Publicity Officer

Born in Melbourne, Claire grew up Orange in rural NSW, only to return to the city to study medicine at Melbourne University. After graduating in 2009 she went on to complete her internship at The Geelong Hospital and has returned again to metropolitan Melbourne and is currently a resident at St Vincent's Hospital in Fitzroy and has a very strong interest in General Surgery. She has very much enjoyed her VMWS experiences over the past 3 years and the fabulous connections found therein. In her spare time she tries to keep fit (when she's not working or sleeping) and to make sure there's always time to enjoy the good things in life - friends, food and family.

Dr Skye Siskos - Newsletter Editor/ Publicity Officer

Skye Siskos is the first VMWS student representative from Deakin University. She grew up in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne and completed a Bachelor of Arts/Science degree at Monash University before embarking on her medical training at Deakin University in Geelong. She is currently undertaking her final clinical year at Geelong Hospital and is loving every minute. She is also the social chair of the Geelong Clinical School Committee, a role she thoroughly enjoys. She is passionate about women’s health and women’s role in healthcare. Her current medical interests include obstetrics and gynaecology as well as general practice. After attending a VMWS function where she met such influential women who so impressively balanced work and life, she knew she had to be involved. She is honoured to be part of the VMWS as shadow newsletter editor and is keen to be involved any way she can. When she is away from her study she loves to spend quality time with her family (including her two puppies), partner and friends as well as run, go to the movies and play piano.

Dr Rosalind Terry - Senior Members' Representative

Rosalind is the first member in the new position of Senior Members’ Representative. Nearing seventy, she works part-time as an Emergency Consultant at The Alfred Hospital and spends her other time breeding beef cattle and enjoying her four grandchildren aged 1-13.
Originally Melbourne-trained she returned twenty years ago after working in places as diverse as Tasmania, Sydney, Chicago, Norfolk Island and Papua New Guinea (ten years) and in many fields chiefly surgery, obstetrics and tropical medicine. Much of that time was spent in relative isolation from medical colleagues, especially female ones, so on discovering VMWS in the 1990s she was delighted to have companionship and shared interests with other medical women.
As the Senior Members’ Representative is a new position she is feeling her way but sees a dual role of interacting with senior members and also as a mentor to medical students and younger doctors.

Dr Sarah Heynemann - Social Secretary

Sarah is currently an intern at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. She initially joined the VMWS as a student representative for the University of Melbourne, and this year transitions to involvement in a social secretary capacity. As a student she pursued interests in rural/remote medicine and the challenges of medicine in resource-poor settings, spending time in rural Victoria and Queensland, the Northern Territory and Laos. This year she is enjoying being based back in the city and outside of medicine spends time trawling through second-hand bookshops, cooking, swimming, and catching up with family and friends.

Dr Zoë Dorevitch - Social Secretary

Zoë is in the final year of her medical degree at the University of Melbourne. As a graduate student, having previously completed an Arts degree also at the University of Melbourne, Zoë has approached her medical studies with an enthusiasm for the philosophical and social issues in medicine. She has just returned from an eye-opening medical elective in Dili, East Timor, which reaffirmed her keen interest in global medicine, with a particular focus on the health and wellbeing of women and children in resource-poor areas. With the hope of meeting like-minded people, she joined the VMWS late last year and is very happy to be a student representative for the University of Melbourne in 2012. She is very much looking to the events and discussions regarding issues facing women in medicine as well as to the many other opportunities that involvement in VMWS will bring.

Dr Natalie Marijanovic - VMWS Representative to AMA Victoria Council
http://amavic.com.au/page/About_Us/AMA_Victoria_Council/

Natalie graduated from The University of Melbourne in 2005. She has completed her Basic Physician Training and is currently an Advanced Trainee in General Medicine at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is a Hospital in the Home Registrar, is undertaking Endocrinology research and is a general medicine outpatient clinic Registrar. She has been a member of the Victorian Medical Womens' Society since her student days and has been in her current role for over six years. As the VMWS representative to the Council of AMA Victoria, she attends five Council meetings per year and represents the VMWS's views. The Council "is a forum for members to raise and discuss issues affecting the profession and patients and is a forum to influence policy and activities via recommendation to the Board" of AMA Victoria. Natalie greatly enjoys and finds fulfilling her involvement with the VMWS, including opportunities to meet other medical women at all stages in their education and careers and from all areas of medicine.

Dr Kate Duncan - General Committee Member

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.

Dr Desiree Yap - General Committee Member

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 but who is currently working part-time in her East Melbourne Private Practice whilst trying to mother her two young children. Before becoming so domestic, Desiree travelled widely, working both in rural and remote Australia as well as overseas including with WHO. Desiree believes VMWS springs from a fine tradition, 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.

Dr Jillian Tomlinson - General Committee Member

Jill is a plastic, reconstructive and hand surgeon. In 2008-09 Jill developed and managed Bridging Leadership Barriers, a multifaceted national AFMW development and leadership project funded by the Australian Government Office for Women. As part of her work on this project Jill redeveloped the AFMW website and received the national 2009 Centre For Leadership For Women Award. Jill was nominated for the Westpac Community Treasurer Awards in 2011 for her tireless work as VMWS Treasurer. Jill's current appointments include AFMW Secretary, AFMW Webmaster and Newsletter Editor, Specialty Editor (Social Media) and Assistant Editor for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery and Faculty Member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Academy of Surgical Educators. Jill is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a certified Deep Diver (SCUBA); when she is not working she enjoys running, tending to her bonsai and writing.

Ms Jane Doan - Student Representative (Monash)

Jane is a Monash University student who in 2012 will be undertaking 4th year medicine with core rotations in women's health, paediatrics, GP and psychology. This is her first year as a member of the VMWS and she is excited to commence in her role as Monash University Student Representative and looking forward to becoming involved in VMWS' projects and attending the great events planned for the year. 
During her medical training so far, she has developed interest in the fields of haematology and respiratory medicine and away from medicine; Jane enjoys spending time with friends and family, discovering new music and planning her next overseas holiday, having just finished a trip through Western Europe.

Ms Caitlin Dallas - Student Representative (Notre Dame)

Caitlin is currently in her third year at the University of Notre Dame, and cannot wait to commence her final year of medicine in 2013. Originally from Queensland, Caitlin completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at UQ before moving to Sydney, and most recently Melbourne. She is very passionate about women’s healthcare, and is looking forward to gaining experience in women’s healthcare in developing and remote locations, at her two upcoming electives in O&G in the Northern Territory and Philippines. Caitlin is very excited to start her role with VMWS and hopes to contribute much to the society while also learning a lot from the women around her.