Anthea has a long-standing interest in social justice and the equitable provision of health care for all people, but especially passionate about Indigenous rights and health in Australia. She has been involved in a number of roles in Australia and overseas  to pursue this passion and really make a difference. Anthea spent 5 months in Fiji in 2007 completing her honours research, which involved conducting a vision screening program amongst the secondary schools in Central Fiji looking at the prevalence of avoidable vision impairment in school-aged Fijian children.

Anthea then completed her final 3 months of medical school in the NT in 2008, spending time in Darwin at the Royal Darwin Hospital and then also in Wadeye community at the local health clinic. Anthea’s hard work was recognised in 2009 when she was awarded the  Victorian Rhodes Scholarship and with that, the opportunity to study at Oxford University in the UK. In 2010 she started specialist training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Monash Medical Centre; but has deferred training to take up the Rhodes scholarship at Oxford. Anthea will be moving home in July 2012 to continue specialist training, whilst finishing the final year of my PhD research.

“I hope that with my medical training and public health qualifications, I will be able to really contribute in a meaningful way towards the improvement of Indigenous health and health care provision in Australia, especially in the field of maternity services and women’s health.”

Anthea hopes to continue her involvement with Red Dust and help facilitate their health education programs in future years!