The Lowitja Institute Board of Directors oversees the implementation of national research programs focused on improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. The Board has a majority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander membership and comprises highly skilled and experienced health sector professionals. Updates on Board decisions are available on our Board Meetings page.
Ms Pat Anderson, Chairperson
Ms Pat Anderson is an Alyawarre woman known nationally and internationally as a powerful advocate for disadvantaged people, with a particular focus on the health of Australia’s First Peoples. She has extensive experience in all aspects of Aboriginal health, including community development, advocacy, policy formation and research ethics.
Ms Anderson has spoken before the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous People, and currently serves as the Chairperson of The Lowitja Institute: Australia's National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research. She has also been the CEO of Danila Dilba Health Service in Darwin, Chair of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT), and was the Chair of the CRC for Aboriginal Health from 2003 to 2009. Ms Anderson has had many essays, papers and articles published. She was a co-author with Rex Wild QC of Little Children Are Sacred, a report on the abuse of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory. In 2007 she was awarded the Public Health Association of Australia’s Sidney Sax Public Health Medal in recognition of her achievements and she was recently awarded the Human Rights Community Individual Award (Tony Fitzgerald Memorial Award) for 2012. Ms Anderson is based in Canberra.
Professor Peter Buckskin PSM, FACE Director
Professor Peter Buckskin is a Narungga man from the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. He is currently the inaugural Dean: Indigenous Scholarship, Engagement and Research at the University of South Australia. Prior to taking up this position, he was Dean and Head of School of the David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education and Research. In 2012 Professor Buckskin was appointed the Convenor of the State's Advisory Committee on the recognition of Aboriginal people in the South Australian Constitution Act 1934.
As an educator and professional bureaucrat for more than 30 years, Professor Buckskin’s passion has been the pursuit of educational excellence for Aboriginal students. He has worked as a schoolteacher, a Ministerial Adviser, Superintendent of Schools and as a senior executive at both State and Federal levels. He has been Chair of the South Australian Aboriginal Education Consultative Committee and a member of the National Aboriginal Education Committee. For more than a decade Professor Buckskin worked as an officer in the Commonwealth's Senior Executive Service, and in 2001 received the Commonwealth Public Service Medal (PSM). In 2003 Professor Buckskin was awarded the Frank G Klassen Award for Leadership and Contribution to Teacher Education from the International Council on Education for Teaching (ICET). In 2005 he received the Deadly Award for his outstanding contribution to Aboriginal Education and in 2007 was elected a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators.
Professor Buckskin is currently a member of the Australian Government's National First Peoples Education Advisory Group, and continues as Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium, and an Executive Member of the World Indigenous Network of Higher Education Consortium. Professor Buckskin is Chair of the SA Aboriginal Education and Training Consultative Body, Co-Chair of Reconciliation SA, Patron of the Principals Australia’s Dare to Lead Program, a White Ribbon Ambassador, a Council Member of the ARC’s Advisory Council and a Board Member of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. He has also served as a Commissioner of the Australian Commission to UNESCO.
Mr Ali Drummond, Director
Ali was born and raised on Thursday Island (TI) in north Queensland, and is a descendant of the Dauareb people of the Murray Islands and the Wuthathi and Yadaigana people of North-Eastern Cape York Peninsula. In 2005, Ali was one of the three inaugural nursing graduates from James Cook University, Thursday Island Campus.
Ali’s nursing experience began in 2006 in the Orthopaedic Unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Since then he has worked in most of Brisbane's hospitals in numerous specialty medical and surgical wards and emergency departments. Ali’s pathway into nursing policy began in mid-2010 when he began work with the Nursing and Midwifery Office, Queensland (NMOQ) as a Nurse Project Officer. As well as project management roles, he has also been the Indigenous Nurse Advisor to a number of Queensland’s Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers, and is currently an Assistant Director of Nursing in NMOQ.
When graduating in 2005 Ali became the inaugural recipient of the 'Sally Goold Award' (for the most outstanding Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander nursing student), and in September 2012 received the 'Early Career Outstanding Alumni Award', both from James Cook University (JCU). He is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer with JCU, and also a regular guest lecturer with the School of Nursing at Queensland University of Technology. Ali is currently completing a Master in International Public Health.
Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver AM, Director
Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver, a Koori woman, was appointed to the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2003. She is experienced in developing solutions to improve population health outcomes for disadvantaged groups and communities, holds the Inaugural Chair of Indigenous Health and is a Professor of Public Health at the UNSW. Lisa is a Wing Commander in the RAAF Specialist Reserve and is currently serving 39 Squadron Canberra. Lisa is also the co-founder of the Shalom Gamarada Scholarship Program and has been the recipient of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council and the Ministry of Science and Medical Research awards. In 2011 Lisa became a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia 'For service to medical education, particularly through the Muru Marri Indigenous Health Unit at the University of New South Wales, and as a supporter of educational opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people'.
She is a member of a number of committees and working groups, including the Scientific Resource Group on Equity and Health Analysis and Research, World Health Organisation; the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Research Advisory Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC); the Advisory Group on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics (AGATSIS), the Indigenous Technical Panel (ITP) and the Australian Health Survey Reference Group at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). She is Deputy Chairperson for the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council’s National Advisory Group on Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Information and Data (NAGATSIHID).
Mr Robin Lonergan, Director
Mr Robin Lonergan, a lawyer whose area of practice includes contract, commercial and corporate law, is a partner at TressCox Lawyers in Brisbane. He is the honorary advisor to the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses Inc., and has provided advice on the incorporation of the company limited by guarantee and on negotiations with additional service providers. Mr Lonergan is a Director of the Queensland Program of Assistance for the Survivors of Torture and Trauma, which provides assistance to refugees, and has served as a Director on the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and the South Brisbane Immigration and Community Legal Service Boards. He provides legal advice to Aboriginal community organisations including the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association and other not-for-profit organisations.
Dr Louise Morauta PSM, Director
Dr Louise Morauta comes originally from England and has an Honours degree in Sociology and a PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics. Based in Canberra, Dr Morauta has worked in the Commonwealth public service for more than 20 years, and has held senior executive positions in the departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Health and Ageing, and Finance. She has played a part in the development of social policy, Medicare benefits, pharmaceutical benefits and Commonwealth / State financing in the health sector.
In 2005 Dr Morauta was awarded the Public Service Medal for work on Australia’s health financing arrangements and the supply of blood and blood products. Following her retirement from the public service, Dr Morauta was appointed to the ACT Human Research Ethics Committee in January 2010.