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Consumer representatives
Rachel Woodlock (Co-Chair)
Rachel has been a member of the Community Advisory Committee since December 2024 bringing lived experience as a carer to the role.
Rachel began volunteering as a consumer partner at Austin Health in 2016, following her late husband's diagnosis with terminal cancer, and has since been dedicated to ensuring the perspectives of carers and families are represented in shaping health care to improve outcomes for patients, carers and the community.
Fay Bellis
Fay is recently retired quality manager and has had a multi-decades long association with Austin Heath, both as a patient and carer.
A relatively recent diagnosis furthered her desire to “give back” and she applied to become a consumer partner.
Fay joined the Community Advisory Committee in October 2022. Since then she has joined a number of working groups and committees where she has been able to utilise her wide range of work related skills together with her lived experience to help with various improvement activities. She very strongly believes in the concept of continual improvement of quality and that the only way to improve is to involve those that receive.
Assunta Chiera
After a profound life change resulting from total vision loss in her late 30s, Assunta transitioned from the ICT sector to a career in digital accessibility. She now advocates for inclusive design, bridging accessibility gaps and advancing digital solutions for assistive technology users.
Passionate about co-design, she believes it leads to products that are inclusive, respectful, and truly meet users’ needs.
Inspired by the care and support of Austin Health over many years, Assunta now contributes to various Austin working groups, including the Consumer Advisory Committee, where she enjoys collaborating, raising unique insights and feedback into what may never have been considered, what works well and what could be improved.
Margaret Jack
Margaret has extensive experience working across hospital sites as a physiotherapist and later as a physiotherapy manager of several large departments. Her final professional role was as Acting Quality Manager for Rehabilitation within a large private hospital group.
As both a carer and a patient at Austin Health, Margaret brings valuable lived experience to her consumer representative role. She volunteered to support Austin Health’s work to improve patient care and communication, drawing on her background in policy and protocol development, consumer liaison development, and staff and patient care. Margaret is strongly committed to supporting improvements in patient centred care and effective communication with carers. centred care and effective communication with carers.
Maria McCluskey
Maria is a recently retired primary school teacher and a long-time patient of Austin Health.
Motivated by the care she received from Austin Health, Maria joined the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) in 2022. Since then, she has actively contributed to hospital initiatives by sharing her lived experience as both a patient and a carer, helping to inform improvements that align with community values. She strongly believes in the importance of communication and collaboration among stakeholders in delivering high-quality, patient-centred care.
Dr George Taleporos
George Taleporos is the CEO of the Self Manager Hub, a disability rights advocate, policy expert and host of NDIS Insights with Dr George, formerly the Reasonable & Necessary podcast. He has more than 25 years’ experience advancing the rights of people with disability and our families through research, policy, advocacy and lived experience leadership.
George is also the Independent Chair of Every Australian Counts, a director at InLife Independent Living, the Disability and Health Sector Consultative Committee and the NDIS Commission Sector Consultative Forum.
George has a PhD in psychology, an honours degree in sociology and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is known for his clear, direct and informed commentary on the NDIS, with a strong focus on choice and control, self-management and self-direction, independent living and genuine co-design.
Dr Mario D’Cruz
Mario is a 60-year-old with a 25-year lived experience of C5 Complete Quadriplegia, He is a medical practitioner and clinical adviser by profession and a committed advocate of peer to peer support in health, work and leisure between people with a similar lived experience.
Intricately connected with Austin Health, Mario has worked here since 1996 and became a lifelong consumer following a motor vehicle accident in 2001.
“I am keen to provide the Austin Health management and staff, with as much consumer perspective and feedback they require from me, to calibrate their service delivery. I believe that being a part of the Consumer Advisory Committee that reports directly to the Austin Board, is the most effective way that I can represent consumers to the change leaders.”
Board members
Robyn McLeod (Chair)
Brett West
Denise Heinjus
Ross Cooke (ex officio)
For more information about our board members, see The Board.